East New York
East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough line to the north; the Queens borough line to the east; Jamaica Bay to the south; the New York City Subway's BMT Canarsie Line, the Bay Ridge Branch railroad tracks, and Van Sinderen Avenue to the west. Linden Boulevard, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue are the primary thoroughfares through East New York.
East New York was founded as the Town of New Lots in the 1650s. It was annexed as the 26th Ward of the rapidly growing City of Brooklyn in 1886, and became part of New York City in 1898. During the latter part of the twentieth century, East New York came to be predominantly inhabited by African Americans and Hispanics.
East New York is part of Brooklyn Community District 5, and its primary ZIP Codes are 11207, 11208, and 11239. It is patrolled by the 75th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. New York City Housing Authority property in the area is patrolled by P.S.A. 2. Coverage by the Fire Department of New York is provided by Battalions 39 & 44. Politically it is represented by the New York City Council's 37th and 42nd Districts.
History
Early history and development
At the northern edge of what is now East New York, a chain of hills—also known as a terminal moraine—separates northwestern Long Island from Jamaica and the Hempstead Plains, the main part of Long Island's fertile outwash plain. The southern portions of the neighborhood, meanwhile, consisted of salt marshes and several creeks, which drained into Jamaica Bay. These areas were originally settled by the Jameco Native Americans, and later used by the Canarsee and Rockaway tribes as fishing grounds.In the 1650s Dutch colonists began settling in what are now the eastern sections of Brooklyn, forming the towns of Flatbush, Bushwick, and New Lots. The area along with the rest of Brooklyn and modern New York City was ceded to the British Empire in 1664. A few 18th-century roads, including the ferry road or Palmer Turnpike from Brooklyn to Jamaica, passed through the chain of hills; hence the area was called "Jamaica Pass". During the American Revolutionary War, invading British and Hessian soldiers ended an all-night forced march at this pass in August 1776 to surprise and flank General George Washington and the Continental Army, to win the Battle of Long Island.
In 1835, Connecticut merchant John Pitkin purchased the land of the Town of New Lots north of New Lots Avenue, opening a shoe factory at what is now Williams Street and Pitkin Avenue. Pitkin named the area "East New York" to signify it as the eastern end of New York City. In 1836 the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad opened through the area; it did not originally stop in East New York, but a stop there was added by 1844. The LIRR moved its terminus to Queens in 1860, and the line through Brooklyn was shortened to end at East New York.
In 1852, New Lots was officially ceded from the Town of Flatbush. In the middle 19th century, the road between Brooklyn and Jamaica became the Brooklyn and Jamaica Plank Road. The Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad was built to connect the LIRR's Atlantic Branch with Canarsie at a point later known as Broadway Junction. As often happened at 19th-century railroad junctions, a railway town arose. Sprawling development into the recently rustic northern part of the Town of New Lots followed the reach of elevated transit lines into the area: the Jamaica Avenue Line in 1885 and the Fulton Street Line in 1889. The road to Brooklyn was renamed Fulton Street, the one to Jamaica, Jamaica Avenue, and the one to Williamsburg, Broadway.
Annexation to Brooklyn and 20th century
East New York was annexed as the 26th Ward of the rapidly growing City of Brooklyn in 1886; in 1898 after a decade-long controversy with debates, campaigns and publicity, the community was merged into New York City as a whole with the consolidation of Brooklyn and the other four boroughs into a single entity as the "City of Greater New York". In the 20th century its name came to be applied to much of the former township.In 1939, the Works Progress Administration Guide to New York City wrote:
After World War II, thousands of manufacturing jobs left New York City thereby increasing the importance of the remaining jobs to those with limited education and job skills. During this same period, large numbers of Puerto Ricans from the Caribbean island and African-Americans from the South emigrated to New York City looking for employment. East New York, no longer replete with the jobs the new residents had come for, was thereby faced with a host of new socioeconomic problems, including widespread unemployment and crime.
Economic downturn
Walter Thabit, a city planner for East New York, chronicled in his 2003 book, How East New York Became a Ghetto, the change in population from mostly working class Italians and Jewish residents to residents of Puerto Rican and African American descent. Thabit argues that landlords and real estate agents played a significant role in the downturn of the area. Puerto Ricans were moving to New York City in the late 1950s, at a time when unemployment rates in Puerto Rico soared to 25 percent, and left Puerto Rico on the brink of poverty. By 1966, Blacks and Puerto Ricans were the majority of the neighborhood with around 48,000 Black residents, 30,000 Puerto Rican residents, and 22,000 remaining White residents mostly Italian and Jewish residents, though eventually pretty much almost all of the White residents would vacate out of the neighborhood due to increasing crime in the later decades. Poverty became very highly concentrated, with the neighborhood's population largely being on welfare benefits by the 1960s. The neighborhood also began to suffer from numerous arson incidents and building fires, and buildings, previously occupied by Italian and Jewish residents, were increasingly abandoned as a result of increasing crime rates and racial tensions between White and non-White residents. During the 1960s, there were reported cases of Italian youths and Black and Puerto Rican youths getting into racially motivated fights. Thabit also describes how the construction of public housing projects in East New York further contributed to its decline, noting that many of the developments were built by corrupt managers and contractors. He argues that the city government largely ignored the community when it could have helped turn it around. On the other hand, writing in the New York Press, Michael Manville accused Thabit of poor research, sweeping generalizations, and a failure to distinguish the actions of allegedly racist individuals from the effects of what he describes as "a racist capitalist system", and contends that much of the urban renewal and public housing efforts of the period were in fact well-intentioned, if ill-considered and hubristic.Since the late 1950s, East New York has had some of the highest crime rates in Brooklyn, and is considered by some to be the borough's murder capital, alongside Brownsville. Many social struggles associated with poverty—including crime and drug addiction—have been prevalent in the area for decades. Despite the decline of crime compared to their peaks during the crack and heroin epidemics, violent crime continues to be widespread in the community. East New York's 75th Police Precinct reported the highest murder rate in the city in 2011, according to crime reports compiled by DNAinfo.com. East New York has significantly higher dropout rates and incidences of violence in its schools. Students must pass through metal detectors and swipe ID cards to enter the buildings. Other problems in local schools include low test scores and high truancy rates.
Urban renewal and early signs of gentrification
In the 1980s East Brooklyn Congregations, an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation organized to address the need for quality affordable housing in East New York. This coalition advocated that vacant New York City owned land be provided at no cost for the development of new affordable owner occupied housing with subsidies for low-interest mortgages. This effort was called the Nehemiah Program. It was replicated in other parts of the city and country and led to national legislation. The Nehemiah homes were funded by a loan from $8 million loan fund from three Brooklyn Churches. Its setup was described as follows by The New York Times the city provides vacant sites, forgives real-estate taxes on the homes for 10 years, and provides what amounts to a $10,000 interest-free loan per house. Buyers pay $43,500."New developments are rising in the area, including the Gateway Center shopping mall located on what was once part of a landfill near Jamaica Bay. Gateway Center, in Spring Creek, is a suburban-style shopping complex with multiple large stores. Gateway Center consists of two structures. Gateway Center South, the first structure, opened in 2002, and Gateway Center North, the second development, opened in 2014.
Although East New York has not experienced the same level of gentrification as many other Brooklyn neighborhoods, since the 2010s it has been moving into the pre gentrification stages as real estate companies have been trying to buy up properties and raise property value prices. With the neighborhood rezoned in 2016 under Bill de Blasio's administration, luxury housing developments have been introduced into the area. Real estate agencies have sometimes persuaded homeowners to sell the properties to them, and often they would resell them to other companies for a higher price. Local residents, who are overwhelmingly Black and Latino, have accused these real estate companies of being racist and trying to gentrify them out of the neighborhood to bring wealthier, white residents.