Named after the Dutch town ofBreukelen in the Netherlands, Brooklyn shares a land border with the borough and county ofQueens. It has several bridge and tunnel connections to the borough of Manhattan, across theEast River (most famously, the architecturally significantBrooklyn Bridge), and is connected toStaten Island by way of theVerrazzano-Narrows Bridge. With a land area of 69.38 square miles (179.7 km2) and a water area of 27.48 square miles (71.2 km2), Kings County is the state of New York's fourth-smallest county by land area and third smallest by total area.[9]
Brooklyn was founded bythe Dutch in the 17thcentury and grew into a busy port city onNew York Harbor by the 19thcentury. On January1, 1898, after a long political campaign and public-relations battle during the 1890s and despite opposition from Brooklyn residents,Brooklyn was consolidated in and annexed (along with other areas) to form the current five-borough structure of New York City in accordance to the new municipal charter of "Greater New York".[10] The borough continues to maintain somedistinct culture. ManyBrooklyn neighborhoods areethnic enclaves. WithJews forming around a quarter of its population, the borough has been described as "the most Jewish spot on Earth".[11] Brooklyn's official motto, displayed on the borough seal andflag, isEendraght Maeckt Maght, which translates from early modernDutch as 'Unity makes strength'.[12]
The name Brooklyn is derived from the originalDutch town ofBreukelen. The oldest mention of the settlement in the Netherlands is in a charter of 953 byHoly Roman Emperor Otto I asBroecklede.[19] This form is made up of the wordsbroeck, meaning bog ormarshland, andlede, meaning small (dug) water stream, specifically in peat areas.[20] Breuckelen on the American continent was established in 1646, and the name first appeared in print in 1663.[21][22][23]
Over the past two millennia, the name of the ancient town in Holland has beenBracola,Broccke,Brocckede,Broiclede,Brocklandia,Broekclen,Broikelen,Breuckelen, and finallyBreukelen.[24] The New Amsterdam settlement ofBreuckelen also went through many spelling variations, includingBreucklyn,Breuckland,Brucklyn,Broucklyn,Brookland,Brockland,Brocklin, andBrookline/Brook-line. There have been so many variations of the name that its origin has been debated; some have claimedbreuckelen means "broken land".[25] The current name, however, is the one that best reflects its meaning.[26][27]
The county's name,Kings County, was named afterKing Charles II of England.
The history ofEuropean settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years. The settlement began in the 17th century as the smallDutch-founded town of "Breuckelen" on theEast River shore ofLong Island, grew to be a sizeable city in the 19th century and was consolidated in 1898 with New York City (then confined toManhattan andthe Bronx), the remaining rural areas of Kings County, and the largely rural areas ofQueens andStaten Island, to form the modern City of New York.
TheDutch were the first Europeans to settle Long Island's western edge, which was then largely inhabited by theLenape, an Algonquian-speakingAmerican Indian tribe often referred to in European documents by a variation of the place name "Canarsie". Bands were associated with place names, but the colonists thought their names represented different tribes. TheBreuckelen settlement was named afterBreukelen in theNetherlands; it was part ofNew Netherland. TheDutch West India Company lost little time in chartering the six original parishes (listed here by their later English town names):[28]
Brooklyn Heights: chartered asBreuckelen in 1646, after the town now spelledBreukelen, Netherlands. Breuckelen was along Fulton Street (now Fulton Mall) between Hoyt Street and Smith Street (according to H. Stiles and P. Ross). Brooklyn Heights, or Clover Hill, is where the village of Brooklyn was founded in 1816;
The colony's capital ofNew Amsterdam, across the East River, obtained its charter in 1653. The neighborhood ofMarine Park was home to North America's firsttide mill. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today. But the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are inGabriel Furman's 1824 compilation.[29]
On November 1, 1683,Kings County was partitioned from the West Riding of York Shire, containing the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island,[30] as one of the"original twelve counties". This tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of a Brooklyn identity.
Washington, viewing particularly fierce fighting at theGowanus Creek andOld Stone House from atop a hill near the west end of present-dayAtlantic Avenue, was reported to have emotionally exclaimed: "What brave men I must this day lose!".[32]
Thefortified American positions atBrooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, leaving the British in control ofNew York Harbor. While Washington's defeat on the battlefield cast early doubts on his ability as the commander, thetactical withdrawal of all his troops and supplies across theEast River in a single night is now seen by historians as one of his most brilliant triumphs.[32]
The British controlled the surrounding region for the duration of the war, as New York City was soon occupied and became their military and political base of operations inNorth America for the remainder of the conflict. ThePatriot residents largely fled or were cleared from the area, and afterward the British generally enjoyed a dominantLoyalist sentiment from the residents in Kings County who did not evacuate, though the region was also the center of the fledgling—and largely successful—Patriot intelligence network, headed by Washington himself.
The first half of the 19th century saw the beginning of the development of urban areas on the economically strategic East River shore of Kings County, facing the adolescent City of New York confined to Manhattan Island. TheNew York Navy Yard operated inWallabout Bay (border between Fort Greene and Williamsburg) during the 19th century and two-thirds of the 20th century.
In a parallel development, the Town of Bushwick, farther up the river, saw the incorporation of the Village ofWilliamsburgh in 1827, which separated as the Town of Williamsburgh in 1840 and formed the short-lived City of Williamsburgh in 1851.Industrial deconcentration in the mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the northern part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems.
However, the East River shore was growing too fast for the three-year-old infant City of Williamsburg; it, along with its Town ofBushwick hinterland, was subsumed within a greater City of Brooklyn in 1855, subsequently dropping the 'h' from its name.[33]
By 1841, with the appearance ofThe Brooklyn Eagle, and Kings County Democrat published by Alfred G. Stevens, the growing city across the East River from Manhattan was producing its own prominent newspaper.[34] It later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America. The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19, 1842,[35] and the paper was renamedThe Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Kings County Democrat on June 1, 1846.[36] On May 14, 1849, the name was shortened toThe Brooklyn Daily Eagle;[37] on September 5, 1938, it was further shortened toBrooklyn Eagle.[38] The establishment of the paper in the 1840s helped develop a separate identity for Brooklynites over the next century. The borough's soon-to-be-famousNational League baseball team, theBrooklyn Dodgers, also assisted with this. Both major institutions were lost in the 1950s: the paper closed in 1955 after unsuccessful attempts at a sale following a reporters' strike, and the baseball team decamped for Los Angeles in a realignment ofMajor League Baseball in 1957.
Agitation againstSouthernslavery was stronger in Brooklyn than in New York,[39] and under Republican leadership, the city was fervent in the Union cause in theCivil War. After the war theHenry Ward Beecher Monument was built downtown to honor a famous localabolitionist. A great victory arch was built at what was then the south end of town to celebrate the armed forces; this place is now calledGrand Army Plaza.
The number of people living in Brooklyn grew rapidly early in the 19th century. There were 4,402 by 1810, 7,175 in 1820 and 15,396 by 1830.[40] The city's population was 25,000 in 1834, but the police department comprised only 12 men on the day shift and another 12 on the night shift. Every time a rash of burglaries broke out, officials blamed burglars from New York City. Finally, in 1855, a modern police force was created, employing 150 men. Voters complained of inadequate protection and excessive costs. In 1857, the state legislature merged the Brooklyn force with that of New York City.[41]
Fervent in the Union cause, the city of Brooklyn played a major role in supplying troops andmateriel for theAmerican Civil War. The best-known regiment to be sent off to war from the city was the14th Brooklyn"Red Legged Devils". They fought from 1861 to 1864, wore red the entire war, and were the only regiment named after a city. PresidentAbraham Lincoln called them into service, making them part of a handful of three-year enlisted soldiers in April 1861. Unlike other regiments during the American Civil War, the 14th wore a uniform inspired by the FrenchChasseurs, a light infantry used for quick assaults.
As a seaport and a manufacturing center, Brooklyn was well prepared to contribute to the Union's strengths in shipping and manufacturing. The two combined in shipbuilding; the ironcladMonitor was built in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn is referred to as the twin city of New York in the 1883 poem, "The New Colossus" byEmma Lazarus, which appears on a plaque inside theStatue of Liberty. The poem calls New York Harbor "the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame". As a twin city to New York, it played a role in national affairs that was later overshadowed by decades of subordination by its old partner and rival.
The rapidly growing population needed more water, so the City built centralized waterworks, including theRidgewood Reservoir. The municipal Police Department, however, was abolished in 1854 in favor of a Metropolitan force covering also New York and Westchester Counties. In 1865 theBrooklyn Fire Department (BFD) also gave way to the new Metropolitan Fire District.
Throughout this period the peripheral towns of Kings County, far from Manhattan and even from urban Brooklyn, maintained their rustic independence. The only municipal change seen was the secession of the eastern section of the Town of Flatbush as the Town of New Lots in 1852. The building ofrail links such as theBrighton Beach Line in 1878 heralded the end of this isolation.
Sports in Brooklyn became a business. The Brooklyn Bridegrooms played professional baseball at Washington Park in the convenient suburb ofPark Slope and elsewhere. Early in the next century, under their new name of Brooklyn Dodgers, they brought baseball toEbbets Field, beyond Prospect Park. Racetracks,amusement parks, andbeach resorts opened inBrighton Beach,Coney Island, and elsewhere in the southern part of the county.
Toward the end of the 19th century, the City of Brooklyn experienced its final, explosive growth spurt. Park Slope was rapidly urbanized, with its eastern summit soon emerging as the city's third "Gold Coast" district alongside Brooklyn Heights and The Hill; notable residents of the era includedAmerican Chicle Company co-founder Thomas Adams Jr. andNew York Central Railroad executive Clinton L. Rossiter. East of The Hill,Bedford-Stuyvesant coalesced as an upper middle class enclave for lawyers, shopkeepers, and merchants of German and Irish descent (notably exemplified by John C. Kelley, a water meter magnate and close friend of PresidentGrover Cleveland), with nearbyCrown Heights gradually fulfilling an analogous role for the city's Jewish population as development continued through the early 20th century. Northeast of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick (by now a working class, predominantly German district) established a considerablebrewery industry; the so-called "Brewer's Row" encompassed 14 breweries operating in a 14-block area in 1890. On the southwestern waterfront of Kings County, railroads and industrialization spread toSunset Park (then coterminous with the city's sprawling, sparsely populated Eighth Ward) and adjacentBay Ridge (hitherto a resort-like subsection of the Town ofNew Utrecht). Within a decade, the city had annexed the Town ofNew Lots in 1886; the Towns ofFlatbush,Gravesend and New Utrecht in 1894; and the Town ofFlatlands in 1896. Brooklyn had reached its natural municipal boundaries at the ends of Kings County.
Low's time in office from 1882 to 1885 was marked by a number of reforms:[42]
Secured a degree of "home rule" of the city. Previously, the State Government dictated city policies, hiring, salaries, and other affairs. Low managed to secure an unofficial veto over all Brooklyn bills in the State Assembly.
Instituted a number of educational reforms. He was the first to integrate Brooklyn schools. He introduced free textbooks for all students, not just those who had taken a pauper's oath. He instituted a competitive examination for hiring teachers, instead of giving teaching jobs to pay political debts. He set aside $430,000 (equivalent to $14,010,586 in 2024) for the construction of new schools to accommodate 10,000 new students.
Introduced Civil Service Code to all city employees, eliminating patronage jobs.
German Americans wanted to enjoy their local beer gardens on the Sabbath, in violation of state "dry" laws and the demands of local puritanical clergy. Low's compromise solution was that saloons could stay open as long as they were orderly. At the first sign of rowdiness, they would be closed.
Served as a member of the board of the New York Bridge Company, the company that built theBrooklyn Bridge, and led an unsuccessful effort to removeWashington Roebling as the chief engineer on that project.[43]
Raised the tax rate from 2.33% of $100 assessed valuation in 1881 to 2.59% in 1883.[42] He also went after property owners who had not paid back taxes. This increase in city revenue enabled him to reduce the city's debt and increase services. However, raising taxes proved extremely unpopular.
Brooklyn elected a mayor from 1834 until 1898, after which it was consolidated into theCity of Greater New York, whose own second mayor (1902–1903), Seth Low, had been Mayor of Brooklyn from 1882 to 1885. Since 1898, Brooklyn has, in place of a separate mayor, elected aBorough President.
In 1883, theBrooklyn Bridge was completed, transportation to Manhattan was no longer by water only, and the City of Brooklyn's ties to the City of New York were strengthened.
The question became whether Brooklyn was prepared to engage in the still-grander process of consolidation then developing throughout the region, whether to join with the county ofRichmond and the western portion ofQueens County, and the county ofNew York, which by then already includedthe Bronx, to form the five boroughs of a united City of New York.Andrew Haswell Green and other progressives said yes, and eventually, they prevailed against theDaily Eagle and other conservative forces. In 1894, residents of Brooklyn and the other counties voted by a slight majority to merge, effective in 1898.[45]
Kings County retained its status as one of New York State's counties, but the loss of Brooklyn's separate identity as a city was met with consternation by some residents at the time. Many newspapers of the day called the merger the "Great Mistake of 1898".[46]
Location of Brooklyn (red) within New York City (remainder yellow)USGS map of Brooklyn (2019)
Brooklyn is 97 square miles (250 km2) in area, of which 71 square miles (180 km2) is land (73%), and 26 square miles (67 km2) is water (27%); the borough is the second-largest by land area among the New York City's boroughs. However, Kings County, coterminous with Brooklyn, is New York State's fourth-smallestcounty by land area and third-smallest by total area.[6] Brooklyn lies at the southwestern end of Long Island, and the borough's western border constitutes the island's western tip.
Under theKöppen climate classification, Brooklyn experiences ahumid subtropical climate (Cfa),[47] with partial shielding from theAppalachian Mountains and moderating influences from theAtlantic Ocean. Brooklyn receives plentiful precipitation all year round, with nearly 50 in (1,300 mm) yearly. The area averages 234 days with at least some sunshine annually, and averages 57% of possible sunshine annually, accumulating 2,535 hours of sunshine per annum.[48] Brooklyn lies in theUSDAplant hardiness zone 7b.[49]
Climate data forJFK Airport, New York (normals 1981–2010,[50] extremes 1948–present)
Brooklyn's neighborhoods are dynamic in ethnic composition. For example, the early to mid-20th century,Brownsville had a majority ofJewish residents; since the 1970s it has been majority African American.Midwood during the early 20th century was filled with ethnicIrish, then filled with Jewish residents for nearly 50 years, and is slowly becoming aPakistani enclave. Brooklyn's most populous racial group, white, declined from 97.2% in 1930 to 46.9% by 1990.[55]
Given New York City's role as a crossroads for immigration from around the world, Brooklyn has evolved a globallycosmopolitan ambiance of its own, demonstrating a robust and growing demographic and cultural diversity with respect to metrics including nationality, religion, race, anddomiciliary partnership. In 2010, 51.6% of the population was counted as members of religious congregations.[63] In 2014, there were 914 religious organizations in Brooklyn, the 10th most of all counties in the nation.[64] Brooklyn contains dozens of distinct neighborhoods representing many of the major culturally identified groups found within New York City. Among the most prominent are listed below:
Over 600,000Jews, particularlyOrthodox andHasidic Jews, have become concentrated in such historically Jewish areas asBorough Park,Williamsburg, andMidwood, where there are manyyeshivas,synagogues, andkosher restaurants, as well as a variety of Jewish businesses. Adjacent to Borough Park, theKensington area housed a significant population ofConservative Jews (under the aegis of such nationally prominent midcentury rabbis asJacob Bosniak and Abraham Heller)[65] when it was still considered to be a subsection of Flatbush; many of their defunct facilities have been repurposed to serve extensions of the Borough Park Hasidic community. Other notable religious Jewish neighborhoods with a longstanding cultural lineage includeCanarsie,Sea Gate, andCrown Heights, home to theChabad world headquarters. Neighborhoods with largely defunct yet historically notable Jewish populations include central Flatbush, East Flatbush, Brownsville, East New York, Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay (particularly its Madison subsection). Many hospitals in Brooklyn were started by Jewish charities, includingMaimonides Medical Center in Borough Park and Brookdale Hospital in East Flatbush.[66][67]
According to the American Jewish Population Project in 2020, Brooklyn was home to over 480,000 Jews.[68] In 2023, theUJA-Federation of New York estimated that Brooklyn is home to 462,000 Jews, a large decrease compared to the 561,000 estimated in 2011.[69]
The predominantly Jewish, Crown Heights (and later East Flatbush)-based Madison Democratic Club served as the borough's primary "clubhouse" political venue for decades until the ascendancy ofMeade Esposito's rival, Canarsie-based Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in the 1960s and 1970s, playing an integral role in the rise of such figures asSpeaker of the New York State AssemblyIrwin Steingut; his son, fellow SpeakerStanley Steingut;New York City MayorAbraham Beame; real estate developerFred Trump; Democratic district leader Beadie Markowitz; and political fixer Abraham "Bunny" Lindenbaum.
Many non-Orthodox Jews (ranging from observant members of various denominations toatheists of Jewish cultural heritage) are concentrated inDitmas Park andPark Slope, with smaller observant and culturally Jewish populations in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Brighton Beach, and Coney Island.
Over 200,000Chinese Americans live throughout the southern parts of Brooklyn, primarily concentrated inSunset Park,Bensonhurst,Gravesend, andHomecrest. Brooklyn is the borough that is home to the highest number ofChinatowns in New York City. The largest concentration is in Sunset Park along 8th Avenue, which has become known for itsChinese culture since the opening of the now-defunct Winley Supermarket in 1986 spurred widespread settlement in the area. It is called"Brooklyn's Chinatown" and originally it was a small Chinese enclave withCantonese speakers being the mainChinese population during the late 1980s and 1990s, but since the 2000s, the Chinese population in the area dramatically shifted to majorityFuzhounese Americans, which contributed immensely to expanding this Chinatown, and bestowing the nicknames "Fuzhou Town (福州埠), Brooklyn" or the "Little Fuzhou (小福州)" of Brooklyn. ManyChinese restaurants can be found throughout Sunset Park, and the area hosts a popularChinese New Year celebration. Since the 2000s going forward, the growing concentration of theCantonese speaking population in Brooklyn have dramatically shifted to Bensonhurst/Gravesend and Homecrest creating newer Chinatowns of Brooklyn and these newer Brooklyn Chinatowns are known as "Brooklyn's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong" due to their Chinese populations being overwhelmingly Cantonese populated.[70][71]
Brooklyn'sAfrican American andCaribbean communities are spread throughout much of Brooklyn. Brooklyn'sWest Indian community is concentrated in the Crown Heights, Flatbush,East Flatbush, Kensington, and Canarsie neighborhoods in central Brooklyn. Brooklyn is home to the largest community of West Indians outside of the Caribbean. Although the largest West Indian groups in Brooklyn areJamaicans,Guyanese andHaitians, there areWest Indian immigrants from nearly every part of the Caribbean. Crown Heights and Flatbush are home to many of Brooklyn's West Indian restaurants and bakeries. Brooklyn has an annual, celebrated Carnival in the tradition of pre-Lenten celebrations in the islands.[72] Started by natives ofTrinidad and Tobago, theWest Indian Labor Day Parade takes place every Labor Day onEastern Parkway. TheBrooklyn Academy of Music also holds theDanceAfrica festival in late May, featuring street vendors and dance performances showcasing food and culture from all parts of Africa.[73][74] Since the opening of theIND Fulton Street Line in 1936,Bedford-Stuyvesant has been home to one of the most famous African American communities in the United States. Working-class communities remain prevalent inBrownsville,East New York andConey Island, while remnants of similar communities inProspect Heights,Fort Greene andClinton Hill have endured amid widespread gentrification.
In the aftermath ofWorld War II and subsequenturban renewal initiatives that decimated longtime Manhattan enclaves (most notably on theUpper West Side), Puerto Rican migrants began to settle in such waterfront industrial neighborhoods asSunset Park,Red Hook andGowanus, near the shipyards and factories where they worked. The borough's Hispanic population diversified after the 1965Hart-Cellar Act loosened restrictions on immigration from elsewhere in Latin America.
Bushwick has since emerged as the largest hub of Brooklyn'sHispanic American community. Like other Hispanic neighborhoods in New York City, Bushwick has an establishedPuerto Rican presence, along with an influx of manyDominicans,South Americans,Central Americans andMexicans. As nearly 80% of Bushwick's population is Hispanic, its residents have created many businesses to support their various national and distinct traditions in food and other items. Sunset Park's population is 42% Hispanic, made up of these various ethnic groups. Brooklyn's main Hispanic groups are Puerto Ricans,Mexicans, Dominicans andEcuadorians; they are spread out throughout the borough. Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are predominant in Bushwick,Williamsburg's South Side and East New York. Mexicans (especially from the state ofPuebla) now predominate alongside Chinese immigrants in Sunset Park, although remnants of the neighborhood's once-substantial postwar Puerto Rican and Dominican communities continue to reside below 39th Street. Save forRed Hook (which remained roughly one-fifth Hispanic American as of the 2010 Census), the South Side and Sunset Park, similar postwar communities in other waterfront neighborhoods—including western Park Slope, the north end of Greenpoint,[75] andBoerum Hill, long considered the northern subsection of Gowanus—largely disappeared by the turn of the century due to various factors, including deindustrialization, ensuing gentrification and suburbanization among more affluent Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. A Panamanian enclave exists inCrown Heights.
Brooklyn is also home to manyRussians andUkrainians, who are mainly concentrated in the areas ofBrighton Beach andSheepshead Bay. Brighton Beach features many Russian and Ukrainian businesses and has been nicknamedLittle Russia andLittleOdessa, respectively. In the 1970s,Soviet Jews won the right to immigrate, and many ended up in Brighton Beach. In recent years, the non-Jewish Russian and Ukrainian communities of Brighton Beach have grown, and the area is now home to a diverse collection of immigrants from across theformer USSR. Smaller concentrations of Russian and Ukrainian Americans are scattered elsewhere in south Brooklyn, including Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Homecrest, Coney Island, andMill Basin. A growing community ofUzbek Americans have settled alongside them in recent years due to their ability to speakRussian.[76][77]
Brooklyn'sPolish inhabitants are historically concentrated inGreenpoint, home toLittle Poland. Other longstanding settlements inBorough Park andSunset Park have endured, while more recent immigrants are scattered throughout the southern parts of Brooklyn alongside the Russian and Ukrainian American communities.
Despite widespread migration toStaten Island and more suburban areas in metropolitan New York throughout the postwar era, notable concentrations ofItalian Americans continue to reside in the neighborhoods ofBensonhurst,Dyker Heights,Bay Ridge,Bath Beach andGravesend. Less perceptible remnants of older communities have persisted inCobble Hill andCarroll Gardens, where the homes of the remaining Italian Americans can often be contrasted with more recentupper middle class residents through the display of smallMadonna statues, the retention of plastic-metal stoop awnings and the use ofFormstone in house cladding. All of the aforementioned neighborhoods have retained Italian restaurants, bakeries, delicatessens, pizzerias, cafes and social clubs.
In the early 20th century, manyLebanese andSyrian Christians settled aroundAtlantic Avenue west ofFlatbush Avenue inBoerum Hill; more recently, this area has evolved into a Yemeni commercial district.More recent, predominantlyMuslimArab immigrants, especiallyEgyptians andLebanese, have moved into the southwest portion of Brooklyn, particularly toBay Ridge, where many Middle Eastern restaurants, hookah lounges, halal grocers, Islamic shops and mosques line the commercial thoroughfares of Fifth and Third Avenues below 86th Street. Brighton Beach is home to a growingPakistani American community, while Midwood is home toLittlePakistan alongConey Island Avenue (recently co-namedMuhammad Ali Jinnah Way). Pakistani Independence Day is celebrated every year with parades and parties on Coney Island Avenue. Just to the north, Kensington is one of New York's several emergingBangladeshi enclaves.
Third-, fourth- and fifth-generationIrish Americans can be found throughout Brooklyn, with moderate concentrations[clarification needed] enduring in the neighborhoods ofWindsor Terrace,Park Slope,Bay Ridge,Marine Park andGerritsen Beach. Historical communities also existed inVinegar Hill and other waterfront industrial neighborhoods, such as Greenpoint and Sunset Park. Paralleling the Italian American community, many moved to Staten Island and suburban areas in the postwar era. Those that stayed engendered close-knit, stable working-to-middle class communities through employment in the civil service (especially in law enforcement, transportation, and theNew York City Fire Department) and the building and construction trades, while others were subsumed by theprofessional-managerial class and largely shed the Irish American community's distinct cultural traditions (including continued worship in theCatholic Church and other social activities, such asIrish stepdance and frequenting Irish American bars).[citation needed]
While not as extensive as theIndian American population inQueens, younger professionals ofAsian Indian origin are finding Brooklyn to be a convenient alternative to Manhattan to find housing. Nearly 30,000 Indian Americans call Brooklyn home.[citation needed]
Brooklyn'sGreek Americans live throughout the borough. A historical concentration has endured in Bay Ridge and adjacent areas, where there is a noticeable cluster of Hellenic-focused schools, businesses and cultural institutions. Other businesses are situated in Downtown Brooklyn near Atlantic Avenue. As in much of theNew York metropolitan area, Greek-owned diners are found throughout the borough.
Brooklyn is home to a large and growing number of same-sex couples.Same-sex marriages in New York were legalized on June 24, 2011, and were authorized to take place beginning 30 days thereafter.[78] ThePark Slope neighborhood spearheaded the popularity of Brooklyn among lesbians, andProspect Heights has an LGBT residential presence.[79] Numerous neighborhoods have since become home to LGBT communities. Brooklyn Liberation March, the largesttransgender-rights demonstration in LGBTQ history, took place on June 14, 2020, stretching fromGrand Army Plaza toFort Greene, focused on supporting Black transgender lives, drawing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants.[80][81]
Brooklyn became a preferred site for artists andhipsters to set up live/work spaces after being priced out of the same types of living arrangements in Manhattan. Various neighborhoods in Brooklyn, including Williamsburg,DUMBO,Red Hook, and Park Slope evolved as popular neighborhoods forartists-in-residence. However, rents and costs of living have since increased dramatically in these same neighborhoods, forcing artists to move to somewhat less expensive neighborhoods in Brooklyn or across Upper New York Bay to locales in New Jersey, such asJersey City orHoboken.[82]
At the 2020 census, 2,736,074 people lived in Brooklyn. TheUnited States Census Bureau had estimated Brooklyn's population increased by 2.2% to 2,559,903 between 2010 and 2019. Brooklyn's estimated population represented 30.7% of New York City's estimated population of 8,336,817; 33.5% of Long Island's population of 7,701,172; and 13.2% of New York State's population of 19,542,209.[96] In 2020, the government of New York City projected Brooklyn's population at 2,648,403.[97] The 2019 census estimates determined there were 958,567 households with an average of 2.66 persons per household.[98] There were 1,065,399 housing units in 2019 and a median gross rent of $1,426. Citing growth, Brooklyn gained 9,696 building permits at the 2019 census estimates program.
The 2020American Community Survey estimated the racial and ethnic makeup of Brooklyn was 35.4%non-Hispanic white, 26.7%Black or African American, 0.9%American Indian or Alaska Native, 13.6%Asian, 0.1%Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 4.1%two or more races, and 18.9%Hispanic or Latin American of any race.[102] According to the2010 United States census, Brooklyn's population was 42.8% White, including 35.7% non-Hispanic White; 34.3% Black, including 31.9% non-Hispanic black; 10.5% Asian; 0.5% Native American; 0.0% (rounded) Pacific Islander; 3.0% Multiracial American; and 8.8% from other races. Hispanics and Latinos made up 19.8% of Brooklyn's population.[103] In 2010, Brooklyn had some neighborhoods segregated based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Overall, the southwest half of Brooklyn is racially mixed although it contains few black residents; the northeast section is mostly black and Hispanic/Latino.[104]
Brooklyn has played a major role in various aspects of American culture, including literature, cinema, and theater.Brooklyn's accent has often been portrayed as the "typical New Yorker accent" in American media, although this accent and its stereotypes are supposedly diminishing in currency.[106] Brooklyn's official colors are blue and gold.[107]
TheBrooklyn Museum, opened in 1897, is New York City's second-largest public art museum. It has in its permanent collection more than 1.5 million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art. TheBrooklyn Children's Museum, the world's first museum dedicated to children, opened in December 1899. The only such New York State institution accredited by theAmerican Alliance of Museums, it is one of the few globally to have a permanent collection – over 30,000 cultural objects and natural history specimens.
The borough is home to the arts and politics monthlyBrooklyn Rail, as well as the arts and cultural quarterlyCabinet.Hello Mr. is also published in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Magazine is one of the few glossy magazines about Brooklyn. Several others are now defunct, includingBKLYN Magazine (a bimonthly lifestyle book owned by Joseph McCarthy, that saw itself as a vehicle for high-end advertisers in Manhattan and was mailed to 80,000 high-income households),Brooklyn Bridge Magazine,The Brooklynite (a free, glossy quarterly edited by Daniel Treiman), andNRG (edited by Gail Johnson and originally marketed as a local periodical for Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, but expanded in scope to become the self-proclaimed "Pulse of Brooklyn" and then the "Pulse of New York").[111]
Brooklyn has a thriving ethnic press.El Diario La Prensa, the largest and oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States, maintains its corporate headquarters at 1 MetroTech Center indowntown Brooklyn.[112] Major ethnic publications include the Brooklyn–Queens Catholic paperThe Tablet,Hamodia, an Orthodox Jewish daily, andThe Jewish Press, an Orthodox Jewish weekly. Many nationally distributed ethnic newspapers are based in Brooklyn. Over 60 ethnic groups, writing in 42 languages, publish some 300 non-English language magazines and newspapers in New York City. Among them is the quarterlyL'Idea, a bilingual magazine printed in Italian and English since 1974. In addition, many newspapers published abroad, such asThe Daily Gleaner andThe Star of Jamaica, are available in Brooklyn.[citation needed]Our Time Press, published weekly by DBG Media, covers the Village of Brooklyn with a motto of "The Local Paper with the Global View".
Brooklyn's job market is driven by three main factors: the performance of the national and city economy, population flows and the borough's position as a convenient back office for New York's businesses.[117]
Forty-four percent of Brooklyn's employed population, or 410,000 people, work in the borough; more than half of the borough's residents work outside its boundaries. As a result, economic conditions in Manhattan are important to the borough's jobseekers. Strong international immigration to Brooklyn generates jobs in services, retailing and construction.[117]
Since the late 20th century, Brooklyn has benefited from a steady influx of financialback office operations from Manhattan, the rapid growth of ahigh-tech and entertainment economy inDUMBO, and strong growth in support services such as accounting, personal supply agencies, and computer services firms.[117]
Jobs in the borough have traditionally been concentrated in manufacturing, but since 1975, Brooklyn has shifted from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy. In 2004, 215,000 Brooklyn residents worked in the services sector, while 27,500 worked in manufacturing. Although manufacturing has declined, a substantial base has remained in apparel and niche manufacturing concerns such as furniture, fabricated metals, and food products.[118] The pharmaceutical companyPfizer was founded in Brooklyn in 1869 and had a manufacturing plant in the borough for many years that employed thousands of workers, but the plant shut down in 2008. However, new light-manufacturing concerns in packaging organic and high-end food have sprung up in the old plant.[119]
First established as ashipbuilding facility in 1801, theBrooklyn Navy Yard employed 70,000 people at its peak during World War II and was then the largest employer in the borough. TheMissouri, the ship on which the Japanese formally surrendered, was built there, as was theMaine, whose sinking off Havana led to the start of the Spanish–American War. The iron-sided Civil War vessel theMonitor was built in Greenpoint. From 1968 to 1979Seatrain Shipbuilding was the major employer.[120] Later tenants include industrial design firms, food processing businesses, artisans, and the film and television production industry. About 230 private-sector firms providing 4,000 jobs are at the Yard.
Construction and services are the fastest-growing sectors.[121] Most employers in Brooklyn are small businesses. In 2000, 91% of the approximately 38,704 business establishments in Brooklyn had fewer than 20 employees.[122] As of August 2008[update], the borough's unemployment rate was 5.9%.[123]
Brooklyn Botanic Garden: adjacent to Prospect Park is the 52-acre (21 ha) botanical garden, which includes a cherry tree esplanade, a one-acre (0.4 ha) rose garden, a Japanese hill, and pond garden, a fragrance garden, a water lily pond esplanade, several conservatories, a rock garden, a native flora garden, abonsai tree collection, and children's gardens and discovery exhibits.
Coney Island developed as a playground for the rich in the early 1900s, but it grew as one of America's first amusement grounds and attracted crowds from all over New York. TheCyclone rollercoaster, built-in 1927, is on theNational Register of Historic Places. The 1920 Wonder Wheel and other rides are still operational. Coney Island went into decline in the 1970s but has undergone a renaissance.[127]
Floyd Bennett Field: the first municipal airport in New York City and long-closed for operations, is now part of theNational Park System. Many of the historic hangars and runways are still extant. Nature trails and diverse habitats are found within the park, includingsalt marsh and a restored area ofshortgrass prairie that was once widespread on theHempstead Plains.
Green-Wood Cemetery, founded by the social reformer Henry Evelyn Pierrepont in 1838, is an earlyRural cemetery. It is the burial ground of many notable New Yorkers.
Prospect Park is a public park in central Brooklyn encompassing 585 acres (2.37 km2).[128] The park was designed byFrederick Law Olmsted andCalvert Vaux, who created Manhattan'sCentral Park. Attractions include the Long Meadow, a 90-acre (36 ha) meadow, the Picnic House, which houses offices and a hall that can accommodate parties with up to 175 guests;Litchfield Villa,Prospect Park Zoo, theBoathouse, housing a visitors center and the first urbanAudubon Center;[129] Brooklyn's only lake, covering 60 acres (24 ha); the Prospect Park Bandshell that hosts free outdoor concerts in the summertime; and various sports and fitness activities including seven baseball fields. Prospect Park hosts a popular annual Halloween Parade.
Barclays Center was also the home arena for theNHL'sNew York Islanders full-time from 2015 to 2018, then part-time from 2018 to 2020 (alternating withNassau Coliseum in Uniondale). The Islanders had originally played at Nassau Coliseum full-time since their inception until 2015 when their lease at the venue expired and the team moved to Barclays Center. In 2020, the team returned to Nassau Coliseum full-time for one season before moving to theUBS Arena in Elmont, New York in 2021.
In the earliest days of organized baseball, Brooklyn teams dominated the new game. The second recorded game of baseball was played near what is nowFort Greene Park on October 24, 1845. Brooklyn'sExcelsiors,Atlantics andEckfords were the leading teams from the mid-1850s through theCivil War, and there were dozens of local teams with neighborhood league play, such as atMapleton Oval.[131] During this "Brooklyn era", baseball evolved into the modern game: the firstfastball, firstchangeup, firstbatting average, firsttriple play,first pro baseball player, firstenclosed ballpark, firstscorecard, first known African-American team, first black championship game, first road trip, first gambling scandal, and first eight pennant winners were all in or from Brooklyn.[132]
Brooklyn's most famous historical team, theBrooklyn Dodgers, named for "trolley dodgers" played atEbbets Field.[133] In 1947Jackie Robinson was hired by the Dodgers as the first African-American player in Major League Baseball in the modern era. In 1955, the Dodgers, perennial National League pennant winners, won the onlyWorld Series for Brooklyn against their rivalNew York Yankees. The event was marked by mass euphoria and celebrations. Just two years later, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.Walter O'Malley, the team's owner at the time, is still vilified, even by Brooklynites too young to remember the Dodgers as Brooklyn's ball club.
Brooklyn has one of the most active recreational fishing fleets in the United States. In addition to a large private fleet along Jamaica Bay, there is a substantial public fleet within Sheepshead Bay. Species caught include Black Fish, Porgy, Striped Bass, Black Sea Bass, Fluke, and Flounder.[138][139][140]
Each of New York City's five counties (coterminous with eachborough) has its own criminal court system andDistrict Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. Brooklyn has 16 City Council members, the largest number of any of the five boroughs. The Brooklyn Borough Government includes a borough government president as well as a court, library, borough government board, head of borough government, deputy head of borough government and deputy borough government president.
Brooklyn has 18 of the city's 59 community districts, each served by an unpaidcommunity board with advisory powers under the city'sUniform Land Use Review Procedure. Each board has a paid district manager who acts as an interlocutor with city agencies. TheKings County Democratic County Committee (aka the Brooklyn Democratic Party) is the county committee of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn.
As is the case with sister boroughs Manhattan and the Bronx, Brooklyn has not voted for aRepublican in a nationalpresidential election sinceCalvin Coolidge in1924. In the2008 presidential election, DemocratBarack Obama received 79.4% of the vote in Brooklyn while RepublicanJohn McCain received 20.0%. In2012, Barack Obama increased his Democratic margin of victory in the borough, dominating Brooklyn with 82.0% of the vote to RepublicanMitt Romney's 16.9%.
As of 2023, four Democrats and one Republican represented Brooklyn in theUnited States House of Representatives. One congressional district lies entirely within the borough.[145]
Brooklyn offers a wide array of private housing, as well as public housing, which is administered by theNew York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Affordable rental and co-operative housing units throughout the borough were created under theMitchell–Lama Housing Program.[146] There were 1,101,441 housing units in 2022[88] at an average density of 15,876 units per square mile (6,130/km2). Public housing administered by NYCHA accounts for more than 100,000 residents in nearly 50,000 units in 2023.[147]
Brooklyn Tech as seen from Ashland Place in Fort GreeneThe Brooklyn College library, part of the original campus laid out by Randolph Evans, now known as "East Quad"Brooklyn Law School's 1994new classical "Fell Hall" tower, by architectRobert A. M. SternNYU Tandon Wunsch Building
Education in Brooklyn is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Non-charter public schools in the borough are managed by theNew York City Department of Education,[148] the largest public school system in the United States.
Brooklyn Technical High School (commonly called Brooklyn Tech), a New York City public high school, is the largest specialized high school for science, mathematics, and technology in the United States.[149] Brooklyn Tech opened in 1922. Brooklyn Tech is across the street fromFort Greene Park. This high school was built from 1930 to 1933 at a cost of about $6 million and is 12 stories high. It covers about half of a city block.[150] Brooklyn Tech is noted for its famous alumni[151] (including two Nobel Laureates), its academics, and a large number of graduates attending prestigious universities.
Brooklyn College is a senior college of theCity University of New York, and was the first public coeducationalliberal arts college in New York City. The college ranked in the top 10 nationally for the second consecutive year inPrinceton Review's 2006 guidebook,America's Best Value Colleges. Many of its students are first and second-generation Americans. Founded in 1970,Medgar Evers College is a senior college of theCity University of New York. The college offers programs at the baccalaureate and associate degree levels, as well as adult and continuing education classes for central Brooklyn residents, corporations, government agencies, and community organizations. Medgar Evers College is a few blocks east ofProspect Park inCrown Heights.
CUNY'sNew York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York (CUNY) (Downtown Brooklyn/Brooklyn Heights) is the largest public college of technology in New York State and a national model for technological education. Established in 1946, City Tech can trace its roots to 1881 when the Technical Schools of the Metropolitan Museum of Art were renamed the New York Trade School. That institution—which became the Voorhees Technical Institute many decades later—was soon a model for the development of technical and vocational schools worldwide. In 1971, Voorhees was incorporated into City Tech.
SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, founded as the Long Island College Hospital in 1860, is the oldest hospital-based medical school in the United States. The Medical Center comprises the College of Medicine, College of Health Related Professions, College of Nursing, School of Public Health, School of Graduate Studies, and University Hospital of Brooklyn. The Nobel Prize winnerRobert F. Furchgott was a member of its faculty. Half of the Medical Center's students are minorities or immigrants. The College of Medicine has the highest percentage of minority students of any medical school in New York State.
Adelphi University, based inGarden City, moved its Manhattan Campus in 2023 to a new location on Livingston Street inDowntown Brooklyn. The move marks a return to Brooklyn for the university, which originated on Adelphi Street with the Adelphi Academy. The facility is shared withSt. Francis College, which has created a new campus at 179 Livingston Street.[152]
Brooklyn Law School was founded in 1901 and is notable for its diverse student body. Women and African Americans were enrolled in 1909. According to the Leiter Report, a compendium of law school rankings published byBrian Leiter, Brooklyn Law School places 31st nationally for the quality of students.[153]
Long Island University is a private university headquartered inBrookville onLong Island, with a campus inDowntown Brooklyn with 6,417 undergraduate students. The Brooklyn campus has strong science and medical technology programs, at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Pratt Institute, inClinton Hill, is a private college founded in 1887 with programs in engineering, architecture, and the arts. Some buildings in the school's Brooklyn campus areofficial landmarks. Pratt has over 4700 students, with most at its Brooklyn campus. Graduate programs include a library and information science, architecture, and urban planning. Undergraduate programs include architecture, construction management, writing, critical and visual studies, industrial design and fine arts, totaling over 25 programs in all.
St. Francis College is a Catholic college inDowntown Brooklyn founded in 1859 by Franciscan friars. Over 2,400 students attend the small liberal arts college. St. Francis is considered byThe New York Times as one of the more diverse colleges, and was ranked one of the best baccalaureate colleges byForbes magazine andU.S. News & World Report.[158][159][160]
As an independent system, separate from the New York and Queens public library systems, theBrooklyn Public Library[161] offers thousands of public programs, millions of books, and use of more than 850 free Internet-accessible computers. It also has books and periodicals in all the major languages spoken in Brooklyn, including English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew, andHaitian Creole, as well as French, Yiddish, Hindi, Bengali, Polish, Italian, and Arabic. The Central Library is a landmarked building facingGrand Army Plaza.
There are 58 library branches, placing one within a half-mile of each Brooklyn resident. In addition to its specialized Business Library in Brooklyn Heights, the Library is preparing to construct its new Visual & Performing Arts Library (VPA) in the BAM Cultural District, which will focus on the link between new and emerging arts and technology and house traditional and digital collections. It will provide access and training to arts applications and technologies not widely available to the public. The collections will include the subjects of art, theater, dance, music, film, photography, and architecture. A special archive will house the records and history of Brooklyn's arts communities.
Proposed New York City Subway lines never built include a line along Nostrand or Utica Avenues to Marine Park,[164] as well as a subway line toSpring Creek.[165][166]
In February 2015, MayorBill de Blasio announced that the city government would begin a citywide ferry service calledNYC Ferry to extend ferry transportation to communities in the city that have been traditionally underserved by public transit.[168][169] The ferry opened in May 2017,[170][171] with the Bay Ridge ferry serving southwestern Brooklyn and theEast River Ferry serving northwestern Brooklyn. A third route, the Rockaway ferry, makes one stop in the borough atBrooklyn Army Terminal.[172]
Much of Brooklyn has only named streets, butPark Slope,Bay Ridge,Sunset Park,Bensonhurst, andBorough Park and the other western sections havenumbered streets running approximately northwest to southeast, and numbered avenues going approximately northeast to southwest. East of Dahill Road, lettered avenues (like Avenue M) run east and west, and numbered streets have the prefix "East". South of Avenue O, related numbered streets west of Dahill Road use the "West" designation. This set of numbered streets ranges from West 37th Street to East 108 Street, and the avenues range from A–Z with names substituted for some of them in some neighborhoods (notably Albemarle, Beverley, Cortelyou, Dorchester, Ditmas, Foster, Farragut, Glenwood, Quentin). Numbered streets prefixed by "North" and "South" in Williamsburg, and "Bay", "Beach", "Brighton", "Plumb", "Paerdegat" or "Flatlands" along the southern and southwestern waterfront are loosely based on the old grids of the original towns of Kings County that eventually consolidated to form Brooklyn. These names often reflect the bodies of water or beaches around them, such asPlumb Beach orPaerdegat Basin.
Brooklyn was long a major shipping port, especially at theBrooklyn Army Terminal andBush Terminal inSunset Park. Most container ship cargo operations have shifted to the New Jersey side of New York Harbor, while theBrooklyn Cruise Terminal inRed Hook is a focal point for New York's growing cruise industry. TheQueen Mary 2, one of theworld's largest ocean liners, was designed specifically to fit under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the United States. She makes regular ports of call at the Red Hook terminal on her transatlantic crossings fromSouthampton, England.[172] The Brooklyn waterfront formerly employed tens of thousands of borough residents and acted as an incubator for industries across the entire city, and the decline of the port exacerbated Brooklyn's decline in the second half of the 20th century.
In February 2015, MayorBill de Blasio announced that the city government would beginNYC Ferry to extend ferry transportation to traditionally underserved communities in the city.[168][169] The ferry opened in May 2017,[170][171] offering commuter services from the western shore of Brooklyn to Manhattan via three routes. TheEast River Ferry serves points inLower Manhattan,Midtown,Long Island City, and northwestern Brooklyn via its East River route. The South Brooklyn and Rockaway routes serve southwestern Brooklyn before terminating in lower Manhattan. Ferries to Coney Island are also planned.[172]NY Waterway offers tours and charters.SeaStreak also offers a weekday ferry service between theBrooklyn Army Terminal and the Manhattan ferry slips atPier 11/Wall Street downtown andEast 34th Street Ferry Landing in midtown. ACross-Harbor Rail Tunnel, originally proposed in the 1920s as a core project for the then-newPort Authority of New York is again being studied and discussed as a way to ease freight movements across a large swath of the metropolitan area.
^Moynihan, Colin."F.Y.I.",The New York Times, September 19, 1999. Accessed December 17, 2019. "There are well-known names for inhabitants of four boroughs: Manhattanites, Brooklynites, Bronxites, and Staten Islanders. But what are residents of Queens called?"
^Consolidation of the Five-Borough City: 1898,New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Accessed January 18, 2024. "On January 1, 1898, the separate jurisdictions of New York (Manhattan), Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island joined together to form a single metropolis: the City of Greater New York..... Resistance was strongest among residents of Brooklyn, who did not want to see their city’s independent identity smothered by New York and their Republican government swamped by the huge numbers of Democrats in Manhattan. The question was put to a public referendum and in the end, the Greater New York movement won by a razor thin margin – 64,744 votes for consolidation, 64,467 against."
^Sherman, John."Why Is Brooklyn's Flag So Lame?",Brooklyn Magazine, August 6, 2014. Accessed January 18, 2024. "If you aren’t familiar, Brooklyn has a flag. And it’s a bummer. It’s plain white, first of all, with a sort of wonky blue oval shape at the center. Inside the oval is a bored-looking woman in a yellow robe, carrying a fasces, a symbol of unity. The oval is ringed with a motto, in Dutch, Een Draght Maekt Maght ('Unity Makes Strength'), and the words Borough of Brooklyn."
^Henry Alford (May 1, 2013)."How I Became a Hipster".The New York Times.Archived from the original on May 2, 2013. RetrievedMarch 30, 2016.
^Manten, A. A. (June 19, 2020)."Hoe oud is Breukelen?".Tijdschrift Historische Kring Breukelen. 1983, volume 2: 72.hdl:1874/215105 – via Utrecht University.
^"USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map". Agricultural Research Center, PRISM Climate Group Oregon State University. Archived fromthe original on February 27, 2014. RetrievedMarch 29, 2016.
^Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.
^Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation. Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Report, 2002.www.bedc.org.Archived February 1, 2015, at theWayback Machine
^U.S. Census Bureau (2018). People Reporting Ancestry American Community Survey 1-year estimates. Retrieved fromhttps://censusreporter.org
^U.S. Census Bureau (2014-2018). Asian Alone by Selected Groups American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Retrieved fromhttps://censusreporter.org
^U.S. Census Bureau (2018). Hispanic or Latino Origin by Specific Origin American Community Survey 1-year estimates. Retrieved fromhttps://censusreporter.org
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