Everything about Far Rockaway Queens totally explained
Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the
Rockaway Peninsula in the
New York City borough of
Queens in the
United States. It describes the easternmost section of the Rockaways, usually the area east of Beach 77th Street, comprising the neighborhoods of
Bayswater,
Edgemere,
Arverne, as well as Far Rockaway proper and Downtown Far Rockaway. The neighborhood is part of
Queens Community Board 14.
Far Rockaway's character is that of an inner-city, oceanfront district, in some ways having more in common with
Asbury Park,
New Jersey than with New York City. Far Rockaway is one of the most distant New York neighborhoods from
Manhattan, the cultural and financial center of New York City. Formerly populated by Eastern European
Jewish and
Irish immigrants, it now has a large
African American population, though the westernmost portion still remains mostly Irish. Downtown Far Rockaway has a moderately large
Central American population. There is also a large
Orthodox Jewish population in the easternmost part of Far Rockaway, which borders
Inwood and
Lawrence, and other areas in the densely-Jewish
Five Towns area across the
Nassau County border. The area is home to a large and growing number of
Haredi Jews with a large network of
yeshivas and Jewish communal needs.
Recently, the area is being renewed with new beach houses and waterfront development. There has been a steady attempt at cleaning up the area, and along with its rough appearance, the crime rate is relatively high.
Far Rockaway is one of two New York City neighborhoods whose subway terminus is within realistic walking distance of the city limits (the
Wakefield section of
the Bronx is the other). This fact led to an interesting scenario in 1985, when New York City banned the sale of spray-paint cans to persons under the age of 18, in an effort to stem the tide of
graffiti in the city; teenagers would travel across the city line into either Nassau County (after getting off the subway at the last stop in Far Rockaway) or
Westchester County (from the last stop in Wakefield) to purchase spray paint there (Nassau County has since followed suit and prohibited spray-paint sales to minors, but Westchester County has not).
Rockaway Beach is sometimes known as the "
Irish Riviera."
Transportation
Access to
Manhattan is available via the
IND Rockaway Line subway service, which has a terminal at
Mott Avenue. This subway stretch is completely elevated throughout the Rockaway Peninsula. However, the Rockaway section of the New York City subway system has proved to be unreliable and prone to power outages and inconvenience to its passengers since it's so far from the center of New York City. A July 2006 incident left passengers stuck for hours in the middle of a heat wave, aggravated by the inaccessibility of the tracks at the location of the breakdown. The
Long Island Power Authority maintains the electrical system for the Rockaways, not
Consolidated Edison.
The
Far Rockaway station is the terminus for the
Long Island Rail Road's
Far Rockaway Branch, providing full service in both directions to
Penn Station in
Midtown Manhattan and
Flatbush Avenue / Atlantic Terminal in
Brooklyn. The line is unique in that trains leave New York City and make local stops in Nassau County before crossing back into Queens and terminating at Far Rockaway. Passengers can "change at
Jamaica" between the various destinations and other LIRR lines. During rush hour, express service bypasses Jamaica station.
Residents of Far Rockaway thus have two options for access to Manhattan, an uncommon situation that provides a backup for commuters in the event of service disruptions on any one system.
The LIRR Far Rockaway Branch had originally been part of a loop that travelled along the existing route, continuing through the Rockaway Peninsula and heading on a trestle across
Jamaica Bay through Queens where it reconnected with other branches. Frequent fires and maintenance problems led the LIRR to abandon the Queens portion of the route, which was acquired by the city to become the IND Rockaway Line, with service provided by the A train.
Education
The neighborhood, like all of New York City, is served by the
New York City Department of Education. Far Rockaway residents are zoned to several different elementary schools:
Far Rockaway residents are zoned to
I.S. 53 Brian Piccolo
.
All New York City residents who wish to attend a public high school must apply to high schools.
Far Rockaway High School is in Far Rockaway and
Beach Channel High School is near Far Rockaway.
Stella Maris High School, an all-girls Catholic high school, is located adjacent to the beach.
Famous residents
Richard Bey - talk show host
Baruch Samuel Blumberg - 1942 graduate of Far Rockaway High School; won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1976.
Father MC - Successful rap hip-hop artist back in the 1990s. Signed with the very popular Uptown Records that had artists like Mary J. Blige, Guy, Jodeci, and Heavy D.
Joyce Brothers - a leading family psychologist and advice columnist (1928-)
Richard Feynman - physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (1918–1988).
Phil Ochs - (1940-1976) folk-protest singer (resided in the town for a period during childhood)
Robyn Ochs - (1958-) Bisexual and marriage equality activist
Rammellzee - (1960-) Influential early graffiti artist, rap/hip-hop artist, and sculptor. Contemporary of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Burton Richter - 1948 graduate of Far Rockaway High School; won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976.
Michael Scanlan - Catholic priest, author, and Chancellor of the Franciscan University of Steubenville (1931-).
MC Serch (as Michael Berrin, 1967-), former member of the hip hop group 3rd Bass.
Raymond Smullyan - (1919-) mathematician.
Steve Stevens - Grammy Award winning guitarist for UK rocker Billy Idol.
Herbert Sturhahn, football player elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Danny Sullivan - race car driver
Stack Bundles-rapper 1983-2007Further Information
Get more info on 'Far Rockaway Queens'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://far_rockaway__queens.totallyexplained.com">Far Rockaway, Queens Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
