Rockaway Beach | |
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Coordinates: 40°35′10″N73°48′43″W / 40.586°N 73.812°W | |
Country | United States |
State | New York |
City | New York City |
County/Borough | Queens |
Community District | Queens 14 [1] |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 13,449 |
Ethnicity | |
• White | 59.2% |
• Black | 29.3% |
• Hispanic | 14.5% |
• Asian | 2.0% |
• Other | 5.9% |
Economics | |
• Median income | $37,248 |
Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
ZIP Code | 11693 |
Area codes | 718, 347, 929, and 917 |
Rockaway Beach is a neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is bounded by Arverne to the east and Rockaway Park to the west. It is named for the Rockaway Beach and Boardwalk, which is the largest urban beach in the United States, stretching from Beach 3rd to Beach 153rd Streets on the Atlantic Ocean. [2] The neighborhood, with 13,000 residents as of 2010 [update] , is also known as the "Irish Riviera" because of its large Irish American population.
What is now Rockaway Beach was formerly two different hamlets, Holland and Hammels. In 1857, Michael P. Holland had purchased land and named the area after himself. Soon afterward, Louis Hammel, an immigrant from Germany, bought a tract of land just east of Holland. In 1878, he decided to give portions of his land to the New York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad in order to build a railroad station for the peninsula. The area around it became collectively known as "Hammels". On June 11, 1897, Hammels merged with Holland and they incorporated as the Village of Rockaway Beach. [3] One year later, it was incorporated into the City of Greater New York and became part of the newly formed borough of Queens. However, the neighborhood, along with the eastern communities of Arverne and Far Rockaway, tried to secede from the city several times. In 1915 and 1917, a bill approving the secession passed in the legislature but was vetoed by the mayor at the time, John Purroy Mitchel. [4]
In the early 1900s, the newly built railroad station opened up the community and the rest of the peninsula to a broad range of the population. The wealthy no longer had a monopoly on the peninsula, as various amusement parks, stores, and resort hotels attracted people from all over the city to spend a day or a whole summer there. Much of the area was developed by James S. Remsen and William Wainwright. In this era, it became known as "New York's Playground".
Rockaway's famous amusement park, Rockaways' Playland, was built in 1901 and quickly became a major attraction for people around the region. With its growing popularity, concern over swimming etiquette became a problem and early in 1904, the Captain of the NYPD, Louis Kreuscher, issued rules for those using the beach, censoring the bathing suits to be worn, where photographs could be taken, and specifying that women in bathing suits were not allowed to leave the beachfront. [5]
The park was grand for its time. One of its most popular attractions, the Atom Smasher roller coaster, would be featured in the beginning of This is Cinerama , a pre-IMAX type movie, in 1952. [6] An Olympic-size swimming pool and a million-dollar midway also were built within the amusement park; they would serve the community for over eighty years. [7]
The Temple of Israel Synagogue was built in 1921, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. [8]
In the 1930s, Robert Moses came to power as New York City's Parks Commissioner and his extensive road and transportation projects were both a benefit and disaster for the neighborhood. As commissioner, Moses ordered the construction of the Marine Parkway Bridge and the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge. The bridges were completed in 1937 and 1939 respectively. The Marine Parkway Bridge was built further west on the peninsula between Jacob Riis Park and Breezy Point linking the isolated communities to Brooklyn. The Cross Bay Bridge landed in the middle of the neighborhood of Rockaway Beach. [9]
The new bridge made the community the peninsula's gateway to Queens as it provided the only direct car access to the borough. The construction of the two bridges started to transform the neighborhood and the rest of the peninsula into a more year-round residential area or commuter town, as people had a more convenient way to travel to and from work. The conversion of the Rockaway Beach LIRR branch to the Rockaway subway line also brought an increase to Rockaway's permanent residents.
Although the bridges were intended to improve the Rockaways, Moses' other projects both directly and indirectly hurt the community. One such failed project was the planned construction of the Shore Front Parkway in the 1950s and 1960s. Wanting to connect Staten Island to the Hamptons, Moses focused on making a highway through the Rockaway Peninsula. His idea was to connect the Marine Parkway Bridge with the Atlantic Beach Bridge, which connected the Rockaway Peninsula to Nassau County. The plan would also provide an extension midway through to include the Cross Bay Bridge. Many feared that such an extensive project would do more harm to the peninsula than good and pointed to the community displacement that had happened in the South Bronx because of Moses' roadway construction [10]
Although Moses never got to make his highway, he did leave his mark. A piece of the planned parkway that ran west to east in the Rockaway Park and Rockaway Beach neighborhoods was constructed and opened in 1939. Houses were literally cut in half in order to build the four-lane street. Some of these houses are still standing today. The existing, still unfinished street is locally known as the "road from nowhere to nowhere" because it does not have any relevant connections to any other area or highway. [11]
Robert Moses' construction of other recreational areas and facilities, such as the New York Aquarium and Jones Beach State Park, indirectly impacted the neighborhood as well. These more modern recreational facilities lured tourists and beachgoers away from the peninsula. With fewer customers, businesses and hotels closed, and by the 1950s, the area had fallen into economic decline. The transition from a summer vacationing area to a full-time residential neighborhood had taken its toll. [12]
In an effort to revitalize the neighborhood, the city constructed the Hammel Houses. This social housing project would be one of the many so-called urban renewal efforts that dominated the community and much of its eastern neighbors in the last half of the 20th century. The New York City Housing Authority purchased the land in 1952 on the north side of the elevated track. In 1964, the Authority decided to demolish and rebuild the entire area to what it is today. [12]
In addition to the Hammel Houses, the Dayton Beach Park Cooperative, which, unlike the Hammel Houses, are not projects, was constructed on the south side of the community. The rectangular buildings, all of them thirteen stories high, were placed in close proximity to the shoreline. The building was completed by the end of the 1960s along with the similar looking Surfside Park Apartments and Dayton Towers West in nearby Rockaway Park. The buildings still dominate Rockaway Beach's skyline today, nestled between Rockaway Beach Boulevard to the north and Shore Front Parkway to the south. [13]
The Rockaway Courthouse was built in 1931; it served as a local Municipal and Magistrate's Court and was last used as a civic building in 1962. [14] : 9 It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. [8]
With more and more people moving to the city, the Rockaways became a destination for day trippers. The area appears in New York magazine's 2007 spring travel issue as a place for "Surfing" and to "scuba dive for sunken ships". [15]
Out-of-towners start to call the beach "Williamsburg on the Rockaways" because some surfers from the Brooklyn neighborhood spend whole summers out in the Rockaways. [16]
The community was devastated by Hurricane Sandy in late 2012. Rockaway Beach reconstruction began with Phase One, a $10 million contract provided by the Army Corps of Engineers to restore 600,000 cubic yards (460,000 m3) of sand along Rockaway Beach in August 2013. The second phase put nearly 3.5 million cubic yards (2,700,000 m3) of sand in 2014 at a cost of about $37 million. Phase Two was paid by the federal government through the Hurricane Sandy relief bill. [17] [18]
Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of the combined area of Breezy Point/Belle Harbor/Rockaway Park/Broad Channel was 28,018, an increase of 1,307 (4.9%) from the 26,711 counted in 2000. Covering an area of 2,033.88 acres (823.08 ha), the four neighborhoods had a population density of 13.8 inhabitants per acre (8,800/sq mi). [19]
The racial makeup of the neighborhoods was 78.3% (21,946) White, 7.5% (2,095) African American, 0.1% (29) Native American, 2.1% (595) Asian, 0.0% (8) Pacific Islander, 0.2% (66) from other races, and 0.9% (259) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.8% (3,020) of the population. [20]
Rockaway Beach is known as the "Irish Riviera" because of the large Irish American population in the area. [21] The community itself has a total population of more than 13,000 people, making it the third most populated neighborhood on the peninsula. [22] As of the 2000 United States Census, 25.4% of residents in ZIP code 11693 identified themselves as having Irish ancestry, making the Rockaway Beach area the 2nd most Irish region in the whole country—right after Boston, Massachusetts's South Shore, which has roughly 38–40% of its citizens claiming Irish, or mostly Irish, ancestry. [23]
The neighborhood, like all of New York City, is served by the New York City Department of Education. Rockaway Beach residents are zoned to either P.S. 183, an elementary school, [24] or P.S. 225, a middle school. [25] Additionally, the community contains two private Catholic elementary schools: St. Camillus [26] and St. Rose of Lima. [27]
All New York City residents who wish to attend a public high school must apply, as there is no zoning. Although there is no high school within the community's boundaries, there are four nearby in the same building, all part of the Beach Channel Educational Campus.
The Q22 and Q35 local bus, and the Q53 SBS serves the Rockaway Beach area. The QM16 express bus goes to Manhattan. [28]
The neighborhood's stations are Beach 90th Street and Beach 98th Street, served by the A and S trains. [29] The Q35 goes to the Flatbush Avenue – Brooklyn College subway station ( 2 and 5 trains) in Midwood, Brooklyn, and the Q53 SBS connects with the 61st Street – Woodside subway station ( 7 and <7> trains) and the Woodside LIRR station in Woodside. [28] In May 2017, the NYC Ferry initiated service to Rockaway, docking at 108th Street and Beach Channel Drive. This has made the commute into Rockaway more accessible for those who work in Manhattan or want to visit the area from Brooklyn or Manhattan. [30]
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is the largest of the five New York City boroughs by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn and by Nassau County to its east, and shares maritime borders with the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, as well as with New Jersey. Queens is the most linguistically and ethnically diverse place in the world.
The Belt Parkway is the name given to a series of controlled-access parkways that form a belt-like circle around the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The Belt Parkway comprises three of the four parkways in what is known as the Belt System: the Shore Parkway, the Southern Parkway, and the Laurelton Parkway. The three parkways in the Belt Parkway are a combined 25.29 miles (40.70 km) in length. The Cross Island Parkway makes up the fourth parkway in the system, but is signed separately.
The Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge is a vertical-lift bridge in New York City, New York, that crosses Rockaway Inlet. The bridge, which opened on July 3, 1937, connects the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, with Flatbush Avenue to Floyd Bennett Field, Belt Parkway, and the Marine Park neighborhood in Brooklyn. The bridge is designated as New York State Route 901B, an unsigned reference route.
The Rockaway Peninsula, commonly referred to as The Rockaways or Rockaway, is a peninsula at the southern edge of the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, New York. Relatively isolated from Manhattan and other more urban parts of the city, Rockaway became a popular summer retreat in the 1830s. It has since become a mixture of lower, middle, and upper-class neighborhoods. In the 2010s, it became one of the city's most quickly gentrifying areas.
Howard Beach is a neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered to the north by the Belt Parkway and Conduit Avenue in Ozone Park, to the south by Jamaica Bay in Broad Channel, to the east by 102nd–104th Streets in South Ozone Park, and to the west by 75th Street in East New York, Brooklyn. The area consists mostly of low-rise single-family houses.
Broad Channel is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It occupies the southern portion of Rulers Bar Hassock, the only inhabited island in Jamaica Bay.
Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 32nd Street east to the Nassau County line. Its southern boundary is the Atlantic Ocean; it is one of the neighborhoods along Rockaway Beach.
Breezy Point is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, located on the western end of the Rockaway peninsula, between Rockaway Inlet and Jamaica Bay to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south. The community is run by the Breezy Point Cooperative, in which all residents pay the maintenance, security, and community-oriented costs involved with keeping the community private. The cooperative owns the entire 500-acre (2 km2) community; residents own their homes and hold shares in the cooperative.
Belle Harbor is a small residential neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, located on the western half of the Rockaway Peninsula, the southernmost area of the borough. Belle Harbor commonly refers to the area from Beach 126th to Beach 141st Streets.
Neponsit is a small affluent neighborhood located on the western half of the Rockaway Peninsula, the southernmost area of the New York City borough of Queens. The area starts at Beach 142nd Street and ends at Beach 149th Street. It borders the neighborhood of Belle Harbor to the east and Jacob Riis Park on the west. Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean are the northern and southern borders. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 14. As of January 1, 2007, the neighborhood's population reached just over 2,000, making it one of the smallest communities on the peninsula and in the entire borough of Queens.
The Outer Barrier, also known as the Long Island and New York City barrier islands, refers to the string of barrier islands that divide the lagoons south of Long Island, New York from the Atlantic Ocean. These islands include Long Beach Barrier Island, Barnum Island, Jones Beach Island, Fire Island and Westhampton Island. The outer barrier extends 75 miles (121 km) along the South Shore of Long Island, from the Rockaway Peninsula in New York City to the east end of Shinnecock Bay in Suffolk County.
Rockaway Park is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. The area is on the Rockaway Peninsula, nestled between Jamaica Bay to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The neighborhood of Rockaway Beach lies on its eastern border while the community of Belle Harbor is situated on its western side. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 14.
Woodhaven Boulevard and Cross Bay Boulevard are two parts of a major boulevard in the New York City borough of Queens. Woodhaven Boulevard runs roughly north–south in the central portion of Queens. South of Liberty Avenue, it is known as Cross Bay Boulevard, which is the main north–south road in Howard Beach. Cross Bay Boulevard is locally known as simply "Cross Bay", and Woodhaven Boulevard, "Woodhaven". The completion of the boulevard in 1923, together with the construction of the associated bridges over Jamaica Bay, created the first direct roadway connection to the burgeoning Atlantic Ocean beachfront communities of the Rockaway Peninsula from Brooklyn and most of Queens.
Jacob Riis Park, also called Jacob A. Riis Park and Riis Park, is a seaside park on the southwestern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It lies at the foot of the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, east of Fort Tilden, and west of Neponsit and Rockaway Beach. Originally run by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it later became part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and is managed by the National Park Service (NPS). It features an extensive sand beach along the Atlantic Ocean coastline and several historic Art Deco structures.
Hammels is an area within Rockaway Beach on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located west of Arverne and east of Seaside, and is centered on Beach 84th Street. Its main thoroughfare is Beach Channel Drive. The New York City Subway's A train travels through the neighborhood on the IND Rockaway Line. The Hammel Houses, a public housing project built in 1955, is located in the neighborhood.
Seaside is a section of the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by the Rockaway Beach neighborhood on the east, and by the neighborhood of Rockaway Park on the west. Formerly a resort community of small seasonal bungalows, Seaside is today dominated by middle-income high-rise Mitchell-Lama apartment buildings along its south shore beachfront. The zip code of Seaside is 11694.
Roxbury is a community on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens originally settled by Irish immigrants in the early 20th century. The neighborhood is just west of the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and adjoins Fort Tilden. It is an inholding within the borders of the Breezy Point Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, of the National Park System. The area was severely affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The Q35 bus route constitutes a public transit line in southeast Brooklyn as well as the Rockaway Peninsula of southern Queens in New York City. The Q35 is operated by MTA Regional Bus Operations under the MTA Bus Company brand, but was formerly privately operated by Green Bus Lines. The bus provides service between Midwood in central Brooklyn to Rockaway Park on the Rockaway Peninsula, running mainly along Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn and Newport Avenue on the Rockaway Peninsula. The route utilizes the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge to cross between Brooklyn and Queens.
The Rockaway Beach and Boardwalk is a public park in Rockaway, Queens, New York, composed of the 170-acre (69 ha) Rockaway Beach and the adjacent 5.5-mile (8.9 km) Rockaway Boardwalk. The beach runs from Beach 9th Street in Far Rockaway to Beach 149th Street in Neponsit, a distance of 7 miles (11 km). The boardwalk, a concrete deck, runs from Beach 9th Street to Beach 126th Street in Rockaway Park, at the edge of Belle Harbor. There are also numerous recreational facilities within the park, parallel to the beach and boardwalk.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)External images | |
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Rockaway Playland Picture Gallery | |
Old Photos of Rockaway Beach and Nearby Rockaway Park |