Sunset Park, Brooklyn

For other uses, see Sunset Park.

Sunset Park, Brooklyn
New York City neighborhood
5th Avenue and dome of St Michael's as seen from Sunset Park
Country	United States of America
State	New York
County	Kings County
City	New York City
Borough	Brooklyn
Government
• Council Member	Sara M. Gonzalez
Population  (2000)[1]
• Total	120,441
ZIP code	11220, 11232, 11215
Area code(s)	347, 646, 718, 917

Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the western section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. It bounded by 25th Street and Greenwood Heights (referred to as "Greenwood" by Brooklyn Community Board 7) on the north, 9th Avenue, and Borough Park on the east, 65th Street and Bay Ridge on the south and Upper New York Bay on the west.. Sunset Park is patrolled by the NYPD's 72nd Precinct.

There is a namesake city park within the neighborhood, located between 41st and 44th Streets and 5th and 7th Avenues, which is the second highest point in Brooklyn. The hilly terrain of the park affords visitors magnificent views of Downtown Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Bridge, Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, Staten Island and New Jersey beyond. The "main drag" of the neighborhood lies along Fifth Avenue. The area is also home to the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot.

Brief history and overview

Bush Terminal as viewed from the park

Early years

In the heyday of the New York Harbor's dominance of North American shipping during the 19th century, Sunset Park grew rapidly, largely as a result of Irish, Polish, and Norwegian immigrant families moving to the area. The neighborhood grew up around the Bush Terminal of Irving T. Bush, a model industrial park completed in 1895 between 39th and 53d Streets, and continued to grow through World War II, when the Brooklyn Army Terminal between 53d and 66th Streets employed more than 10,000 civilians to ship 80% of all American supplies and troops.

Sunset Park's fortunes began to decline after the war. The rise of truck-based freight shipping and ports in New Jersey, the growth of suburban sprawl and white flight, the closing of the Army Terminal, and the decreasing importance of heavy industry in the American northeast, all became factors. Families who had lived in the community for decades began moving out, and the homes in the neighborhood — largely modest but attractive rowhouses — lost value. The construction of the Gowanus Expressway in 1941 effectively cut the neighborhood off from the harbor, which further wounded the area, in a fashion often associated with the expressway's builder: power-broker Robert Moses.

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5th Avenue, Sunset Park

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Celebrating Chinese New Year on 8th Avenue.

Rebirth "Brooklyn's Little Latin America"

Sunset Park's second age began with a wave of immigration from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Mexico as well as other Latin American countries. By 1990, Hispanics comprised 50% of Sunset Park's population, rehabilitating property values and developing a thriving community. Along 5th Avenue there is an abundance of Hispanic restaurants and businesses.

Brooklyn's Chinatown/Emerging Fuzhou Town (福州埠)

Since the 1980s, the neighborhood has attracted many East Asian immigrants, along 8th Avenue from 42nd to 68th Street. Some claim the reason the Chinese settled on 8th Avenue is because in Chinese folklore, the number eight is lucky for financial matters, and "8th Avenue" can be loosely interpreted as "road to wealth". Another explanation is the direct subway ride to Manhattan's Chinatown on the N/R and D lines.

8th Avenue is lined with Chinese businesses, including grocery stores, restaurants, Buddhist temples, video stores, bakeries, and community organizations, and even Hong Kong Supermarket. Some Chinese businesses are also appearing on parts of 7th Avenue, and east on 9th Avenue. Recently in the community, the issues of overcrowding and more efficient sanitation have been raised.

Like the traditional Chinatown in Manhattan, Brooklyn's Chinatown was originally settled by Cantonese immigrants. In recent years, however, an influx of Fuzhou immigrants have began supplanting the Cantonese at a much higher rate and continuing to do so than in Manhattan's Chinatown. Currently the Little Fuzhou(小福州) on East Broadway and Eldridge Street portion within Manhattan's Chinatown is the largest Fuzhou community establishment in NYC, however with the rapid increasing Fuzhou population, Brooklyn's Chinatown is now very quickly becoming the New Little Fuzhou(小福州) and is now surpassing the one within Manhattan's Chinatown as biggest Fuzhou population/community establishment in NYC. Brooklyn's Chinatown emerging into the New Little Fuzhou will become more like Fuzhou Town(福州埠) rather than Little Fuzhou(小福州) because not only is it emerging within most of the Chinese community, it is also emerging beyond the current borderlines of the Chinese community on 7th and 9th Avenues and north onto 50th-42nd streets unlike the Little Fuzhou within Manhattan's Chinatown, which is hardly growing now remains surrounded by areas that consist of mostly Cantonese people and in some areas moderately Cantonese people. Although the Chinese Community is starting to become a Chinese Fuzhou community, there are still many Cantonese shops between 50th-62nd streets on 8th Avenue, however it is slowly on the decline in replacements to Fuzhou shops emerging and on the weekends many Cantonese people coming from other parts of Brooklyn and other areas come into the Chinese community to go shopping and to eat in restaurants to meet up with family members and friends for socialization. There are now hardly Cantonese people residing in the Chinese community, although there are still many of them residing outside of the Chinese community in other parts of Sunset Park and areas next to Sunset Park integrated with other ethnic neighbors and the Cantonese community identity is fading away very quickly unlike Manhattan's Chinatown still continues to carries a large Cantonese population and successfully continues to retain the large stable Cantonese community/business district where the Cantonese residents still have a place of gathering for shopping and going to work that was established in the western portion/main section of Manhattan's Chinatown decades ago. Traditionally, Fuzhou immigrant community/population would always be mixed with a large Cantonese population and other Chinese populations in Chinese communities, however, as Brooklyn's Chinatown is becoming very duplicate to the Little Fuzhou on East Broadway and with the continuing rapid decline in the Cantonese population, it is on its way to become the first Fuzhou population/community to move away from the tradition of being surrounded/neighbored and/or mixed with large Cantonese populations and/or other Chinese populations like currently in Manhattan's Chinatown and Flushing's Chinatown.

By 2009 many Mandarin-speaking people moved to Sunset Park.

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61st Street & 8th Avenue, Sunset Park

Demographics

The 2000 Census [2] for Sunset Park, Brooklyn approximates that there were 120,441 people living in the neighborhood; 50.5% male and 49.5% were female; The median age was 30.8; 17.8% of residents were children, 73.2% were adults (18 years and over), and 9% were senior citizens (65 or over).

There were 29,723 total housing units, of which 95.8% were occupied, and 75.1% were rented and 24.9% were owned; The median property value was $235,400. The median household income in 1999 US dollars was $30,152, and the median family income was $31,247; The per capita income was $13,141; 27.9% of individuals, and 26% of families were living below the poverty line. 93.9% of residents were of one race, while 6.1% were multiracial; Roughly 42.6% of residents were Hispanic or Latino, 36.2% were "white", Caucasian/Arab, 29% were Asian (mostly Chinese), 3.2% were "black" or African American, and 24.7% were "some other race".

Recent History

Sunset Park was hit by the 2007 Brooklyn tornado on August 8. Significant damage was reported to homes on 58th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues and 67th-66th street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

A typical block in Sunset Park

Transportation

Sunset Park is extensively served by road, rail, and ferry service. The neighborhood has access to three limited-access highways; the Gowanus/Interstate 278 and Prospect/NY-27 expressways as well as the Belt Parkway.

Six NYCTA bus lines serve Sunset Park: B9, B11, B35, B37, B63, B70.

Three subway lines run through Sunset Park. The BMT Fourth Avenue Line (D, ​N, ​R, and ​W) has stations at Prospect Avenue, 25th Street, 36th Street, 45th Street, 53rd Street and 59th Street. The BMT West End Line (D) has a station at Ninth Avenue. The BMT Sea Beach Line (N and ​W) has a station at Eighth Avenue.

Freight trains run along the embedded tracks along 1st and 2nd Avenues and on the old Long Island Rail Road Bay Ridge Branch rails which are adjacent to the BMT Sea Beach Line.

Ferry service is available at 58th Street and 1st Avenue at the Brooklyn Army Terminal to the Wall Street Ferry Pier at the Financial District in Manhattan or the US Coast Guard's Riis Landing in Roxbury, Queens during the rush hour and on summer weekends. Ferry service was created in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks when the Gowanus Expressway and New York City Subway were at capacity. It was free from October 2001 until April 2003, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that it could not subsidize the service anymore. Today it is operated by the Red Hook, Brooklyn-based New York Water Taxi company on its Rockaway Beach and Commuter route. The Water Taxi service from the Brooklyn Army Terminal was part of the crucial contingency plan during the 2005 New York City transit strike.

Much of the traffic between Brooklyn Chinatown and Manhattan Chinatown is handled by privately held vans known in English colloquially as "Chinese vans". They cruise down 8th Avenue from 43rd Street to the 61st Street onramp to Gowanus Expressway/I-278. These vans can be seen during commute hours picking up and unloading passengers on 8th Avenue. As early as 2004, additional vans took passengers to Flushing, Queens. Despite prices of $5 per passenger, these vans were the real contingency plan for people living in Brooklyn Chinatown during the 2005 New York City transit strike.

See also

• Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
• List of Brooklyn, New York neighborhoods
• Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow (OBT)
• Little Fuzhou(小福州) on East Broadway

External links

• Sunset-Park.com Information about Sunset Park attractions, upcoming events, news, neighbhorhood history, etc.
• Sunset Park Business Improvement District
• - Pictures of Sunset Park, Brooklyn
• Sunset Park A New Perspective from CUNY Baruch College
• Metropolitan Transportation Authority
• New York Water Taxi website
• The Movie Sunset Park at IMDB
• Pictures of the neighborhood
• Center for Family Life
• Best View in Brooklyn