Bensonhurst is a neighborhood located in the south-western part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
Sometimes erroneously thought to include all or parts of such neighborhoods as Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, and Borough Park, or to be defined by the streets where the concentration of Italian residents is most dense, Bensonhurst actually has a clearly defined border, with Gravesend to the southeast, Midwood to the east, Borough Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the west, and Bath Beach to the southwest.[citation needed]
Starting at the neighborhood's southern tip at the corner of Stillwell
Avenue and 86th Street, the border runs north along Stillwell Avenue to
Avenue P, east to McDonald Avenue, north to 60th Street, northwest to
Fort Hamilton Parkway, southwest to Bay Ridge Avenue, southeast to 14th
avenue, south to 86th Street, and southeast back to Stillwell Avenue.
Bensonhurst is served by two branches of the
New York City Subway system: the D elevated subway line, also called the
BMT West End Line, at 62nd Street,
71st Street, 79th Street, 18th Avenue, 20th Avenue, Bay Parkway, and
25th Avenue Stations; and the N open-cut line, (also called the BMT Sea
Beach Line), at Fort Hamilton Parkway, New Utrecht Avenue, 18th Avenue, 20th Avenue, and Bay Parkway
Stations.The D elevated and the N open-cut lines also have a free
transfer in the neighborhood at the 62nd Street D Station and the New
Utrecht Avenue N Station. Bensonhurst is patrolled by the NYPD's 62nd
Precinct.
Bensonhurst derives its name from Arthur W. Benson,
the former president of Brooklyn Gas, who in 1835 began buying farmland
that formerly belonged to the Polhemus family. Between 1835 and 1850
Benson divided the farmland into generous lots that were sold in the
following decades as part of the newly created suburb of Bensonhurst by the Sea (current day Bath Beach section), which was annexed into the 30th Ward of Brooklyn in the 1890s.
The U.S. Post Office-Parkville Station located at 6618 20th Ave., was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
In the early 1900s, many Italians and Jews moved into the neighborhood, and prior to World War II
the neighborhood was about equally Jewish and Italian. In the 1950s,
there was an influx of immigrants from southern Italy and most of the
Jewish population left the neighborhood, leaving the area predominantly
Italian. Bensonhurst is heavily Italian-American,
and it is usually considered the main "Little Italy" of Brooklyn. The
Italian-speaking community remains over 20,000 strong, according to the census of 2000.
However, the Italian-speaking community is becoming "increasingly
elderly and isolated, with the small, tight-knit enclaves they built
around the city slowly disappearing as they give way to demographic
changes."
Its main thoroughfare, 18th Avenue (also known as Cristoforo Colombo
Boulevard) between roughly 60th Street and Shore Parkway, is lined with
predominantly small, Italian family-owned businesses—many of which have
remained in the same family for several generations. 86th Street is
another popular local thoroughfare, lined by the arches of the elevated
BMT West End Subway Line. The 18th Avenue Station was popularized in
opening credits of Welcome Back, Kotter.
In 2000, an influx of Chinese
and Former Soviet Union immigrants began to arrive. Chinese-American
residents and Chinese immigrants have opened many restaurants and shops
along 18th Avenue, Bay Parkway and 86th Street. The Former Soviet Union
(Jews-refugee) population has dissipated in recent years.
Chinatown Emerging
Below the D-line elevated subway, along on 86th Street between 18th
Avenue and Stillwell Avenue, is now home to an emerging southern
Brooklyn's third Chinatown, along with the Sunset Park Chinatown and the Avenue U Chinatown. The emerging Bensonhurst Chinatown and Avenue U Chinatown are now increasingly carrying the majority of the Cantonese population in Brooklyn as the Cantonese dissipate from the main Brooklyn Chinatown
in Sunset Park. It is slowly becoming fully developed as a Chinatown as
the population and businesses are growing continuously. With the
migration of the Cantonese in Brooklyn now to Bensonhurst, and along
with new Chinese immigration, large clusters of Chinese people and
businesses in different parts of Bensonhurst have grown pushing out all
other ethnic groups at a rate never seen before. It is possible that
more small Chinatowns might form as the Chinese population and number of
Chinese businesses continue to grow in various sections of Bensonhurst
as it can be witnessed.
According to the Daily News,
Brooklyn's Asian population, mainly of Chinese have grown tremendously
not only in the Sunset Park area, but also in Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, and Borough Park.
Just only in Bensonhurst, from 2000-2010 the Asian population increased
by 57%. The study also shows that Asians very often live in houses that
are divided into studio apartments, which means there is a possibility
that the increased Asian population could be more than what the census
represents and causing stressors on the growing Asian population in
Brooklyn.
Currently
the neighborhood is undergoing a transformation; many of the original
houses dating back over 90 years ago are being torn down and replaced by
three-story brick apartment buildings and multi-family condominiums,
sometimes referred to as "Fedders Houses" for their distinctive air conditioner sleeves.
Visitors from throughout the New York City metropolitan area flock to
the neighborhood each year in late August or early September to take
part in the colorful Festa di Santa Rosalia (commonly known simply as The Feast
to locals), held on 18th Avenue from Bay Ridge Parkway (75th Street) to
66th Street. "The Feast" is presented by Bensonhurst resident and
skilled self promoter Franco Corrado, as well as the Santa Rosalia
Society on 18th Avenue. Born in Rome, Italy, in 1955, Corrado has been
an active social member of the Italian-American community for the past
20 years. St. Rosalia is the patron saint of the city of Palermo and is sometimes venerated as the patron for the entire island of Sicily (a sizable portion of Bensonhurst's Italian American residents are of Sicilian heritage).[citation needed] The annual end-of-summer celebration attracts thousands.
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