Avenue U

Avenue U is a street located in Brooklyn, New York City. This avenue is a main thoroughfare throughout its length. Avenue U begins at Stillwell Avenue in Gravesend and ends at Bergen Avenue in Mill Basin.

Avenue U connects the neighborhoods of Gravesend and Bergen Beach while serving the neighborhoods of Homecrest, Sheepshead Bay, Marine Park and Mill Basin along its route.

Chinatown

Avenue U in Homecrest now supports southern Brooklyn's second Chinatown (唐人街, U大道), as evidenced by the growing number of Chinese-run food markets, bakeries, restaurants, beauty and nail salons, and computer and general electronics dealers between Coney Island Avenue and Ocean Avenue. The Q trains happen to be directly connected between Canal Street in Manhattan's Chinatown and Brooklyn's Avenue U Chinatown.

In a way this is a 2nd extension of Manhattan's Chinatown after Brooklyn's first established Chinatown in Sunset Park. Due to the increasing property values and congestion in Brooklyn's first established Chinatown in Sunset Park on 8th Avenue, it resulted in the new increasing Chinese population in Brooklyn to pour into the Sheepshead Bay and Homecrest sections, which later resulted in establishing a 2nd Chinatown on Avenue U in between the Homecrest and Sheepshead Bay sections in the late 1990s.

It is also in a way an extension of Brooklyn's first Chinatown. It is currently still in its early developing stage occupying less than 10 blocks and this portion of Avenue U has a similar resemblance to when Manhattan's Chinatown in the late 1800s and early 1900s was still in its beginning developing stages originally occupying mainly within the 10 block section of Mott, Doyer, and Pell Streets.

The Chinese residents calls this Avenue U in Chinese translation, U大道 and calls Sheepshead Bay as 羊头湾. Just a little bit outside of this little Chinese enclave, on Avenue U there is a Chinese supermarket named New York Mart. The East West Bank so far is the only Chinese bank on Avenue U as a result serving as the main Chinese financial resource business for this tiny Chinatown.

Transportation

There are three New York City Subway stations in Brooklyn named Avenue U:

• Avenue U (BMT Brighton Line), served by the Q trains
• Avenue U (IND Culver Line), served by the F train
• Avenue U (BMT Sea Beach Line), served by the N train

See also

• Chinatown, Brooklyn
• Chinatown, Manhattan
• Chinatown, Flushing
• Chinatowns in Canada and the United States