Ozone Park | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Location within New York City | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  New York |
| City | New York City |
| County/Borough | Queens |
| Community District | Queens 9,Queens 10[1][2] |
| Population | |
• Total | 21,376 (main section only) |
| Ethnicity (Census 2010) | |
| • Hispanic | 37.9% |
| • White | 30.5% |
| • Asian | 19.4% |
| • Black | 5.6% |
| • Other | 6.6% |
| Economics | |
| • Median income | $41,291 |
| Time zone | UTC−05:00 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−04:00 (EDT) |
| ZIP Codes | 11416, 11417 |
| Area codes | 718, 347, 929, and917 |
Ozone Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern section of theNew York Cityborough ofQueens,New York, United States. It is next to theAqueduct Racetrack inSouth Ozone Park, a popular spot forThoroughbred racing and home to theResorts World Casino & Hotel. Home to a largeItalian-American population, Ozone Park has also grown in recent decades to have many residents of Caribbean, Hispanic, and Asian backgrounds.[5]
While New York City neighborhoods do not have formal boundaries, Ozone Park is considered to have a northern border atAtlantic Avenue; the southern border is NorthConduit Avenue, the western border is theBrooklyn/Queens border line;[a] and the eastern border is up to 108th Street and Aqueduct Racetrack.[7]
Ozone Park is in twocommunity districts, divided by Liberty and 103rd Avenues.[b] The southern half of the neighborhood is inQueens Community District 10,[2] which is covered byNew York City Police Department's 106th Precinct,[8] while the northern half is inQueens Community District 9[1] and covered by the NYPD's 102nd Precinct.[9] Its ZIP Codes are 11416 and 11417.[1][2][10]
The name "Ozone Park" was chosen for the development to "lure buyers with the idea of refreshing breezes blowing in from theAtlantic Ocean to a park-like community".[11] At the time,ozone, now known to be a harmful pollutant at ground level, was popularly thought to be a healthful component of fresh air such as mountain or sea breezes.[12][13]
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An area now part of Ozone Park that pre-dated that community was called "Centreville". It was founded in the 1840s and was centered around Centreville Street and the Centreville Community Church. Part of Ozone Park is still called "Centreville".[14]
In the 1870s, two immigrants from France named Charles Lalance and Florian Grosjean established a factory inWoodhaven where they manufactured cooking materials andporcelain enamelware. It burned down in 1876.[15] Lalance and Grosjean built a second factory, as well as a hundred houses for workers, at Atlantic Avenue and 92nd Street in modern-day Ozone Park.[16]
During the 1870s, aneconomic depression caused residents of New York City to look for better housing opportunities in the suburbs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, where housing would be cheaper. In 1880, theNew York, Woodhaven & Rockaway Railroad began service on theMontauk Branch andRockaway Beach Branch fromLong Island City toHoward Beach, Queens.[17] Two years later, two wealthy partners named Benjamin W. Hitchcock and Charles C. Denton bought plots of land around what would later become theWoodhaven Junction station.[18] The Rockaway Beach Branch'sOzone Park station opened in 1883.[19]
Advertisements for Ozone Park proclaimed that the development had "pure air" and "no malaria".[20] Ozone Park was called "theHarlem of Brooklyn" because at the time, as Harlem was a thriving Jewish and Italian neighborhood.[21] Hitchcock and Denton chose the "Ozone Park" name because in the 1880s, ozone was associated with breezes from the sea, and the Atlantic Ocean was located nearby.[18]
TheBrooklyn Rapid Transit Company'sFulton Street elevated railroad line aboveLiberty Avenue opened in 1915, with a station atLefferts Avenue (now Lefferts Boulevard). The elevated train system only charged a 5-cent fare.[22] The nickel fare was another major factor in the development of Ozone Park, as residents could travel across the entire elevated and subway system for 5 cents. After the opening of the elevated line, real estate developers began buying up all the lots on either side of Liberty Avenue in hopes the new station would attract more people to want to live in Ozone Park.
Extensive housing construction occurred in the 1920s.[23] The houses featured enclosed front porches, open back porches and stained-glass windows in the living rooms. Most of the houses were single familydetached orsemi-detached (sharing a common wall, often called a twin or a semi) built to roughly the same plan, with the living room, dining room and kitchen all in line and three bedrooms and a bath upstairs. The stairs were usually in the dining room.
During the 1920s,Woodhaven Avenue was the main north–south artery in the area, though its southern terminus was at Liberty Avenue. In conjunction with the extension of Woodhaven Avenue to theRockaway Peninsula, the avenue was widened to 150 feet (46 m) and renamed Woodhaven Boulevard.[23] The extension itself, named Cross Bay Boulevard, opened to traffic in 1925.[24]
Because Ozone Park was now more accessible by car, the land became much more valuable, leading to a construction boom . Between 1921 and 1930, Ozone Park saw a population increase of over 180% from 40,000 to 112,950 people.
With this increase in population came the need for schools and sources of entertainment. In response to this demand came the construction ofJohn Adams High School in 1930. This school was built just as the construction boom slowed down and right before theGreat Depression.[25] The 1,800-seat Cross-Bay Movie Theatre opened in December 1924, and a 2,000-seat theater at 102nd Street and Liberty Avenue was also built during this time.[23]
One area of Ozone Park is known as"The Hole", and includes the area bounded by 75th (Ruby) Street, South Conduit Avenue, 78th Street and Linden Boulevard. It is named as such because the houses in this area were built below grade, with a ground level that is 30 feet (9.1 m) lower than the surrounding area.[26][27] The area is run-down, and suffers from frequent flooding.[28] In the 1930s, the city of New York decided to install sewers and sewer lines in Ozone Park to stop the flooding that had become a major problem. In order to install the sewers, the houses had to be raised almost an entire floor. Owners were given a stipend to raise their homes but some chose not to do so. The first floor in some of the non-raised homes subsequently became basements. In 2004, theNew York City Department of Environmental Protection made plans to connect the neighborhood to the city's sewer system to combat the flooding by raising the land.[26]
The Centreville Community Church merged with the United Methodist Church of Ozone Park in 1957 and a new church, the Community Methodist Church of Ozone Park, was built at the Southeast corner of Sutter Avenue andCross Bay Boulevard. It was completed for Christmas 1958. The old church and the property that surrounded it were sold to Aqueduct Racetrack and the old, historic church was torn down in mid-1959.
The Lalance and Grosjean factory closed in the 1960s and was left to deteriorate over two decades. In 1981, the factory complex was designated as aNew York City Landmark.[29][30] What remains is now"adaptively reused" as a medical clinic. Only the factory's old clock tower remains.
In 1996, a scandal broke surrounding two Ozone Park Jewish cemeteries, Mokom Sholom Cemetery and Bayside Cemetery, which share a coterminous tract bounded by 80th and 84th Streets and Liberty and Pitkin Avenues (the adjoining Acacia Cemetery was not involved). Allegations of the re-using of graves of long-dead mostly infants and small children from the mid-to-late 19th century, for re-sale to recent Russian Jewish immigrants, were made against the owners of Mokom Sholom. In addition, Mokom Sholom and Bayside had also been damaged by a combination of vandals, grave-robbers, and self-styled necromancers, though the former was affected to a greater extent.[31]WABC-TV reported on damage to Mokom Sholom, while damage to Bayside was repaired through philanthropic efforts, headed by the late city councilmanAl C. Stabile.
Based on data from the2010 United States census, the population of Ozone Park was 21,376, an increase of 324 (1.5%) from the 21,052 counted in2000. Covering an area of 576.32 acres (233.23 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 37.1 inhabitants per acre (23,700/sq mi; 9,200/km2).[3]
Theracial makeup of the neighborhood was 30.5% (6,511) White, 5.6% (1,188) African American, 0.4% (82) Native American, 19.4% (4,143) Asian, 0.0% (2) Pacific Islander, 2.6% (559) from other races, and 3.6% (779) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 37.9% (8,112) of the population.[4]
The entirety of Community Board 10, which comprises Howard Beach, southern Ozone Park (south of 103rd Avenue), and South Ozone Park, had 125,603 inhabitants as ofNYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 81.7 years.[32]: 2, 20 This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods.[33]: 53 (PDF p. 84) [34] Most inhabitants are youth and middle-aged adults: 22% are between the ages of between 0–17, 28% between 25 and 44, and 28% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 9% and 13% respectively.[32]: 2
As of 2017, the medianhousehold income in Community Board 10 was $73,891.[35] In 2018, an estimated 19% of Ozone Park and Howard Beach residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City. One in ten residents (10%) were unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 56% in Howard Beach and South Ozone Park, higher than the boroughwide and citywide rates of 53% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018[update], Ozone Park and Howard Beach are considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and notgentrifying.[32]: 7
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Since its beginnings, Ozone Park has been largely populated by various groups ofimmigrants. The first wave were French immigrants associated with a pot factory on Atlantic Avenue.Germans and theIrish made up a large part of Ozone Park in the late 19th century and early 20th century. EventuallyItalians started to migrate into Ozone Park fromEast New York, Brooklyn. Most of the current Italians in the neighborhood are originally from Brooklyn. A significantPolish population also developed based around Saint Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Roman Catholic Church and its associated elementary school.
At the turn of the 21st century immigrants from Latin America, South Asia (Bangladesh), the West Indies, and South America (Indo-Guyanese & Indo-Surinamese) moved in, adding a diverse atmosphere to the neighborhood, which is especially apparent along 101st Avenue and Liberty Avenue near the neighborhood's border with Richmond Hill.[11] The neighborhood was largely Italian-American; however, these new arrivals have made Ozone Park become one of the fastest-growing and most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in New York City. There is a largeHispanic population in Ozone Park, mainly concentrated in the northern portion of the neighborhood near theWoodhaven border, and anAfrican-American minority, spread throughout the neighborhood.
Residents vary fromworking class tomiddle class families, who own or rent private homes on the neighborhood's tree-lined residential streets.
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Census data from the late 18th century shows how Ozone Park was a sparsely populated neighborhood because of the lack of transportation. By 1915, theFulton Street Line opened, connecting Ozone Park with the rest of New York City, thus starting the enormous influx by the Italians. Ozone Park then formed many smaller sub-neighborhoods with specific identities.
Centreville, which still uses this name, is bordered by Aqueduct on the east, Cross Bay Boulevard on the west, North Conduit Avenue on the south, andRockaway Boulevard on the north. Liberty Heights is a triangular area bordered by Liberty Avenue on the south, diagonal-running 101st Avenue (Jerome Avenue) from the southwest to the northeast, and Woodhaven Boulevard to the east. Balsam Village was named after Balsam Farms, which sold off parcels of land for development, and is bordered by Liberty Avenue and North Conduit Avenue on the north, 84th Street on the west, and Cross Bay Boulevard on the east.
Tudor Village, in southwestern Ozone Park, is extremely small, consisting of approximately two hundred and fifty homes; it spans only five residential streets and two avenues. Its population consists mostly of Italian Americans. Its residents consist of approximately six hundred people. The village was incorporated in the late 1800s and has since flourished. Tudor Village hostssuburban tree-lined streets with what is referred to as the "Tudor Malls" in its center, boasting floral arrangements throughout.
The village is also home to Tudor Park, a 20-acre (81,000 m2) recreational park which features abaseball field,racquetball courts, picnic area, and a fountain as well as a playground. Located on the southeast end of the village are another baseball field and benches and shaded areas for resting. Tudor Village is on the border of Howard Beach.
Also inside of Ozone Park are areas named Magnolia Court (95th Street and 150th Road), Park Village (Tahoe Street and North Conduit Avenue), Kaybern Court (97-52 75th Street), Ozone Plaza (84-23 103rd Avenue), Dumont Village (Dumont Avenue and 85th Street), Greentree Condos (Albert Road and 95 Street), Albert Gardens (94-20 Albert Road), Newlyn Estates (85-22 Dumont Avenue), and Sterling Manor (105-25 88th Street).
Howard Beach, southern Ozone Park (south of 103rd Avenue), and South Ozone Park are patrolled by the 106th Precinct of theNYPD, located at 103-53 101 Street.[8] The 106th Precinct ranked 26th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. The rate of car thefts is high because of the area's proximity to the Belt Parkway, a major travel corridor.[36] As of 2018[update], with a non-fatal assault rate of 32 per 100,000 people, Howard Beach and South Ozone Park's rate ofviolent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 381 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole.[32]: 8
The 106th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 81.3% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 6 murders, 16 rapes, 183 robberies, 246 felony assaults, 133 burglaries, 502 grand larcenies, and 97 grand larcenies auto in 2018.[37]
In the 1980s, the 106th Precinct became the source and scene of severalpolice brutality incidents, including thestun gunning of high schooler Mark Davidson on April 17, 1985, who was arrested onmarijuana possession charges.[38] One of the officers, Michael Aranda, accused of stun-gunning Davidson was later acquittedin 1991.[39]
New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire station, Engine Co. 285/Ladder Co. 142, is located at 103-17 98th Street.[40][41]
As of 2018[update],preterm births are more common in Ozone Park and Howard Beach than in other places citywide, though births to teenage mothers are less common. In Howard Beach and South Ozone Park, there were 97 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 14.2 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide).[32]: 11 Ozone Park and Howard Beach have a low population of residents who areuninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 8%, lower than the citywide rate of 12%.[32]: 14
The concentration offine particulate matter, the deadliest type ofair pollutant, in Ozone Park and Howard Beach is 0.0068 milligrams per cubic metre (6.8×10−9 oz/cu ft), less than the city average.[32]: 9 Twelve percent of Ozone Park and Howard Beach residents aresmokers, which is lower than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers.[32]: 13 In Howard Beach and South Ozone Park, 27% of residents areobese, 19% arediabetic, and 34% havehigh blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 22%, 8%, and 23% respectively.[32]: 16 In addition, 21% of children are obese, compared to the citywide average of 20%.[32]: 12
Eighty-three percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is less than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 77% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", about equal to the city's average of 78%.[32]: 13 For every supermarket in Howard Beach and South Ozone Park, there are 8bodegas.[32]: 10
The nearest major hospitals areBrookdale University Hospital and Medical Center inBrooklyn[42] andJamaica Hospital inJamaica.[43]
Ozone Park is covered by theZIP Code 11416 north of 103rd Avenue and 11417 south of 103rd Avenue.[44] TheUnited States Post Office operates both zip codes out of the Ozone Park Station at 91-11 Liberty Avenue.[45]
NumerousNew York City Bus routes stop in the area, such as theQ7,Q8,Q11,Q24,Q41,Q51,Q52 SBS,Q53 SBS,Q112,QM15 andBM5. TheB15,QM16 andQM17 run through the neighborhood without stopping.[46] TheNew York City Subway'sIND Fulton Street Line (A train) andIND Rockaway Line (A train) also run through the neighborhood.[47]
In the 2016 Presidential election, most precincts in Ozone Park voted for theDemocratic Party candidate,Hillary Clinton, over herRepublican Party opponentDonald Trump by a margin of over 50%.[48]
Ozone Park is split between5th, and7th.[49] These districts are represented byGregory Meeks andNydia Velazquez, respectively, as of 2018[update].[50]
Ozone Park is part of the 10th, and 15thState Senate districts, represented byJames Sanders Jr., andJoseph Addabbo Jr. respectively,[51] and the 23rd, 31st, and 38thState Assembly districts, represented byStacey Pheffer Amato,Khaleel Anderson, andJenifer Rajkumar respectively.[52] It is part of Districts 28, 29 and 32 in theNew York City Council, respectively represented byAdrienne AdamsLynn Schulman andJoann Ariola.[53]
Ozone Park and Howard Beach generally have a lower rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city as of 2018[update]. While 28% of residents age 25 and older have a college education or higher, 23% have less than a high school education and 49% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 39% of Queens residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher.[32]: 6 The percentage of Ozone Park and Howard Beach students excelling in math rose from 33% in 2000 to 61% in 2011, and reading achievement rose from 37% to 48% during the same time period.[54]
Ozone Park and Howard Beach's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is less than the rest of New York City. In Howard Beach and South Ozone Park, 18% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days perschool year, lower than the citywide average of 20%.[33]: 24 (PDF p. 55) [32]: 6 Additionally, 82% of high school students in Ozone Park and Howard Beach graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.[32]: 6
TheQueens Public Library operates the Ozone Park branch at 92-24 Rockaway Boulevard.[66]
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Ozone Park has served as the setting and subject of numerous media works.
Notable current and former residents of Ozone Park include:
The New-York, Woodhaven and Rockaway Railroad, which began operations on Thursday last, has already grown into popular savor by reason of the comparative shortness of the route and the superior accommodation
...at which members of long-forgotten groups like the Elegants (from Staten Island) and the Capris (Ozone Park, Queens) examined the Italian-American influence on doo-wop.
Carol Heiss of Ozone Park, Queens, Miss Personality of the ice, skated off with her third world figure skating championship tonight with a perfectly-executed freestyle exhibition.
She found simpatico musicians to help her repossess the songs that reverberated through her childhood block in Ozone Park, Queens. And she felt ready to celebrate a lifetime of spirited dancing.
After relating such immediate events, the book, which will be in stores Aug. 6, recounts Von Essen's life story. It's that of a boy from Ozone Park, Queens, who was adrift until he joined the Fire Department in 1970 at age 24.[permanent dead link]
Media related toOzone Park, Queens at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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