Clifton, Staten Island
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is an older waterfront neighborhood, facing Upper New York Bay
Upper New York Bay
Upper New York Bay, or Upper Bay, is the traditional heart of the Port of New York and New Jersey, and often called New York Harbor. It is enclosed by the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island and the Hudson County, New Jersey municipalities of Jersey City and Bayonne.It...
on the east. It is bordered on the north by Stapleton
Stapleton, Staten Island
Stapleton is a neighborhood in northeastern Staten Island in New York City in the United States. It is located along the waterfront of Upper New York Bay, bounded on the north by Tompkinsville at Grant Street, on the south by Clifton at Vanderbilt Avenue, and on the west by St. Paul's Avenue and...
, on the south by Rosebank
Rosebank, Staten Island
Rosebank is a neighborhood in the northeastern part of Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City.Originally called Peterstown, the name "Rosebank" appears to have been first used to denote the neighborhood around 1880...
, on the southwest by Concord, and on the west by Van Duzer Street.
History
The name "Clifton" for the area dates to 1817, when a town by the name, larger in area than the present neighborhood, was laid out along the waterfront. In its early history, much of the surrounding land was owned by the Vanderbilt family. As a young man, Cornelius Vanderbilt established ferry service from the waterfront to Manhattan at the foot of present Vanderbilt Avenue. Bayley Seton Hospital, north of Vanderbilt Avenue, was formerly the United States Public Health Service Hospital and housed the original headquarters of the National Institutes of Health (now located in Bethesda, Maryland). In the 1840s the Townsend family built a huge home that had turrets so it was called the Townsend Castle. It was located at what is now Townsend Avenue and Tomkins Avenue. In the 1870s many roads were built near the water and many large homes were built in the area near the water. The area has many Victorian houses left from the late 1800 in the area from Vanderbilt to Norwood avenues. In 1900 the Fox Hills Golf Club golf course encompassed the entire area of where the park hill apartments are now. There was a big clubhouse on Vanderbilt avenue. Many tournaments were held there until the 1920s when it closed. The land was taken over by the government and uses for military barracks during world war II. By the 1950s, it evolved into a middle-class, multi-ethnic community of civil employees including firemen, teachers, and doctors.The Park Hill Apartments, a privately-owned but federally-subsidized low-income housing complex on Vanderbilt Avenue, and also on Park Hill Avenue, became the site of steadily increasing crime and drug abuse beginning in the mid-1960s; by the late 1980s it had gained the nickname of "Crack Hill" due to the many arrests for possession and/or sale of crack cocaine that were taking place in and around the development and the adjacent Fox Hills Apartments to the south. However, crime in this area has dramatically decreased since the late 1990s. Community activists are addressing the ongoing conflict between Liberian and African American youth, primarily between the ages of 10-14. The community organizations run after-school programs to help keep the youth occupied in a productive way. This helps curb gang and street violence. The community tension that occurs in Park Hill is based on poverty and unemployment.
In the 1990s, the neighborhood became the center for an immigrant community from Liberia and West Africa around Targee Street. The residences in the neighborhood are mostly one-family houses, but the last decade has seen the development of many attached homes and duplexes. The neighborhood Staten Island Railway station is three stops from the ferry at St. George. Many members and affiliates of the Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
The Wu-Tang Clan is a hip-hop group from Staten Island that consists of RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. They are frequently joined by fellow childhood friend Cappadonna, a quasi member of the group...
hail from here, including Method Man, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, King Just and U-God.
Public Health
Due to the lack of health care, the death rate in the Park Hill area is 25% higher than in the remainder of New York City. Although the area does promote health care, 80% of the population is uninsured and there are no resident doctors. As a result, the populus of the area is more susceptible to disease. By law, children can not enter into school without the proper immunizationImmunization
Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an agent ....
s; however, it is difficult for uninsured youth to receive them. As there is no public hospital in the area, options for sick or mildly-injured residents are lacking. Facilities are located far from Park Hill and out of the way of public transportation routes.
Park Hill struggles with environmental issues involving pollution and litter. The community's public school system plays a large role in environmental protection including park clean up, lake maintenance, and litter removal. Eibs Pond, part of a 17 acres (68,796.6 m²) wetland adjacent to the Park Hill community, was recently restored by the current students of PS 57.
Liberian community
Park Hill/Clifton (along with nearby StapletonStapleton, Staten Island
Stapleton is a neighborhood in northeastern Staten Island in New York City in the United States. It is located along the waterfront of Upper New York Bay, bounded on the north by Tompkinsville at Grant Street, on the south by Clifton at Vanderbilt Avenue, and on the west by St. Paul's Avenue and...
) has the largest Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
n population of any city outside Africa, with an estimated 6,000 - 8,000 strong community of direct immigrants in 2007.
The Liberian Civil War led to a flight of Liberian immigrants, fleeing ethnic struggles between the between Kru
Kru
The Kru are an ethnic group who live in interior of Liberia. Their history is one marked by a strong sense of ethnicity and resistance to occupation. In 1856 when part of Liberia was still known as the independent Republic of Maryland, the Kru along with the Grebo resisted Maryland settlers'...
, Gola
Gola
Gola may refer to:Groups and tribes:*Gola , in Balochistan, Pakistan*Gola people, a tribal people and language in Liberia*Gola , native to south-east Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Western Uttar Pradesh regions of IndiaPlace names:...
and Grebo communities, corrupt government, and political strife. Beginning in the late 1970s, a small number of Liberians, whose nation was founded by freed American slaves in the 1840s, settled in Staten Island. In the late eighties and early 1990s, Liberian immigrants in huge number fled the country, mostly trapped in the limbo of refugee camps on the borders of Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
and Cote d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
. The United States government, always highly involved in Liberian affairs, began to offer refugee status
Asylum in the United States
The United States honors the right of asylum of individuals as specified by international and federal law. A specified number of legally defined refugees, who apply for asylum either overseas or after arriving in the U.S., are admitted annually. Refugees compose about one-tenth of the total...
(Temporary Protected Status
Temporary protected status
Temporary protected status is a temporary immigration status to the United States, granted to eligible nationals of designated countries.In 1990, as part of the Immigration Act of 1990 , P.L...
-TPS) to displaced Liberians, especially those who had family in the United States.
The Liberian community in Clifton has been involved in a string of government lobbying campaigns since the 1990s to extend the "deferred enforced departure" (DED) status, which since the Presidency of Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
has had to be deferred on a yearly basis by presidential order for immigrants who fled the Liberian war without immigration visas. Clifton based community groups like the Staten Island Liberian Community Association (SILCA) have become politically active in defending the estimated 3,600 Liberians across the country who are on DED status.
This new wave of immigration settled near the first small handful of Staten Island Liberians in the Park Hill Projects (now private apartments). As the civil war intensified, more immigrants followed, creating a vibrant community with African restaurants and businesses, and others working and building businesses across the area, notably in the Nostrand Avenue area of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. The wife of soccer star (and former Liberian presidential candidate) George Weah
George Weah
George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah is a Liberian humanitarian and politician, and an ex-footballer. He ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2005 election, losing to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the second round of voting...
owns a business in Brooklyn and lives in Staten Island. In recent years, Liberian families have been settling in nearby New Jersey, with a large community in the Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
area. The area has become a regular stop for Liberian politicians and leaders visiting the United States. Local Liberian civic groups organize Liberian-Americans involvement in their homeland, and promote a variety of charitable missions in West Africa.
Troubles from home
But the troubles of the Civil War period have been carried into the diaspora as well. There are thought to be dozens of former child soldiers living in the Park Hill area. These former child soldiers are often unwilling to talk about past experiences and fear judgment (or prosecution) for wartime deeds. Because of the large population of Liberians in the neighborhood, the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation CommissionTruth and Reconciliation Commission (Liberia)
The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a Parliament-enacted organization created in May 2005 under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.Its mandate is to "promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation" by investigating more than 20 years of civil conflict in the country and to report on...
established after the civil war sent a representative to Clifton to collect testimony from Liberian nationals who experienced the Liberian Civil War and who currently reside in the neighborhood.
Troubles here
While there are successful business leaders in the community, the vast majority of Staten Island's Liberian immigrants are employed in low wage service or medical fields. Many of the current residents of Park Hill are struggling with illiteracy, difficulty in finding employment, and poverty. Liberian immigrants in Park Hill also suffer from the legacy of poverty and violence in the wider community in which they live. While crime in the area has improved over the last 20 years, the reputation of the Park Hill for gang and drug violence has afflicted some Liberian youth, already victimized by the Civil War. Liberian youths caught up in criminal activity, if arrested as refugee status visa holders, face deportation back to their homeland. Friction between the Liberians and some in the local African-American community, over jobs, housing, and culture, has also been a source of tension for an already troubled community.Housing
The bulk of the Park Hill neighborhood was built in the 1960s in keeping with New York City's plan for urban renewalUrban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
projects. It consists of 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) of 6-story brick apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
buildings. The individual apartments contained within are quite large, with many having 2 or three bedrooms. As ownership has passed into private hands, upkeep on the apartments has dwindled, leaving many of them currently in a shabby state of disrepair.
The average price of a private house in Park Hill has increased from 2002 to 2007. In 2002, the average price of house was $159,254 and in 2007 the average price of a house increased to $321,426. The Clifton neighborhood consists mostly of one family houses, however, in the past decade many duplexes and attached houses have been developed on property previously zoned for commercial use.
Traffic
In the early 21st century Staten Island is New York’s fastest growing borough which has led to increased traffic congestionTraffic congestion
Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction...
. Many city agencies believe that the streets of Staten Island lack the proper infrastructure to support the growing use of automobiles. The Staten Island Transportation Task Force and Co-Chairs New York City Department of Transportation
New York City Department of Transportation
The New York City Department of Transportation is responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure...
(DOT) Commissioner Iris Weinshall
Iris Weinshall
Iris Weinshall is a vice chancellor at the City University of New York and a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation...
and Department of City Planning (DCP ) Director Amanda Burden
Amanda Burden
Amanda Jay Mortimer Burden is the director of the New York City Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission....
have acted to relieve the congestion in the Staten Island Park Hill area. Staten Island has a low rate of mass-transit ridership in the area as compared to the other boroughs, according to the MTA
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S...
. The DOT has outlined several short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals which include safety enhancements, bus stop additions, street widening, and traffic light reconfiguration. The placement of more "Stop" and "Yield" signs in the neighborhood is another pertinent goal.
Income
Over the years 2000–2003, average wages in the area declined by 8.7 percent. This was the only zip codeZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
in Staten Island which had a declining wage level. Unemployment is increasing. It increased by 3.2 percent by 2003. The closing of Bayley Seton Hospital
Bayley Seton Hospital
Bayley Seton Hospital is a hospital in Staten Island, New York City. it is primarily a psychiatric and social services outpatient hospital, operated jointly by Richmond University Medical Center and Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center.-Location:...
is disastrous to many residents. Most of the jobs that people in the Park Hill have are in the health care and social assistance. The closing of a major hospital will cause unemployment to increase. From the year 2000–2003, the number of people in this are, working in the health and social assistance field, has already decreased by 5%.
In the perception of the residents of Park Hill, a good way to improve income levels is to make sure the children get a good education in local primary and secondary schools.