East Flatbush, Brooklyn
Encyclopedia
East Flatbush is a neighborhood in the New York City
borough
of Brooklyn
. The area is part of Brooklyn Community Board 17
Though the borders of East Flatbush are highly subjective, its northern border is roughly at Empire Boulevard and East New York Avenue east of East 91st Street, its southern border is in the vicinity of the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch, its eastern border is roughly at East 98th Street and its western border is roughly at New York Avenue.
The area was populated post World War II predominantly by immigrant Jews and Italians, then in the 1960s by African Americans, but most recently has seen many West Indian immigrants such as Haiti
ans, Jamaica
ns, Trinidad
ians, St.Lucians, Grenadians
, Panamanians, Bajans
, Dominican
, and Guyanese
groups coming to the area. Within its confines is the Holy Cross Cemetery, which is located at 3620 Tilden Avenue. While there are some affluent residents present, East Flatbush is mostly populated by working-class Brooklynites. Similar to other eastern Brooklyn neighborhoods, blacks predominate East Flatbush. The area has a population of 84,498 and is 91.4% Black or African-American. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=ChangeGeoContext&geo_id=86000US11203&_geoContext=01000US%7C04000US36%7C05000US36047&_street=&_county=&_cityTown=&_state=04000US36&_zip=11203&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=DEC_2000_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null®=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=
East Flatbush is the home of the former General George W. Wingate High School
and Gov. Samuel J. Tilden High School
. It is also home to three major hospitals, Kings County Hospital
, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
, and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center.
In Summer 2006, the City of New York renamed a portion of Church Avenue from Remsen Avenue to East 98th Street in East Flatbush as Bob Marley Boulevard. The former Congregation Beth Israel
, now known as Mt. Zion Church of God 7th Day, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 2009. East Flatbush is patrolled by the NYPD's 67th Precinct.
there 84,498 people living in East Flatbush, with 29,242 housing units. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the demographics were 91.4% Black
or African American
, 4.9% Hispanic
or Latino
, 3.1% White, 1.0% Asian
, 0.2% Native American
, 1.6% were some other race and 2.6% were two or more races. 72.8% of the residents are High School
graduates or higher, 16.3% have a Bachelor's degree
or higher. 22.4% of the population speak a language
other than English
at home. The median household income
in 1999 was $37,341, the median family income in 1999 was $43,776 and the per capita income
in 1999 was $16,026. 16.0% of the families are below poverty level.
; so much so that some consider the two neighborhoods to be the same community. Both are predominantly Black, West Indian and working class. The one slight difference is that Flatbush has a higher percentage of White and Asian residents than East Flatbush.
While the demographics are similar, East Flatbush does not enjoy the same level of access to the subway as Flatbush. The BMT Brighton Line
and the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line
both have a number of stops located in Flatbush. In contrast, the subway at best only skirts the borders of East Flatbush. Many East Flatbush residents take a train and a bus to commute to and from work.
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...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
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 area is part of Brooklyn Community Board 17
Brooklyn Community Board 17
Brooklyn Community Board 17 is a local governmental body in the New York City borough of Brooklyn with jurisdiction over Community District 17, comprising the neighborhoods of East Flatbush, Remsen Village, Farragut, Rugby, Erasmus and Ditmas Village...
Though the borders of East Flatbush are highly subjective, its northern border is roughly at Empire Boulevard and East New York Avenue east of East 91st Street, its southern border is in the vicinity of the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch, its eastern border is roughly at East 98th Street and its western border is roughly at New York Avenue.
The area was populated post World War II predominantly by immigrant Jews and Italians, then in the 1960s by African Americans, but most recently has seen many West Indian immigrants such as Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
ans, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
ns, Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
ians, St.Lucians, Grenadians
Grenada
Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
, Panamanians, Bajans
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, Dominican
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, and Guyanese
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
groups coming to the area. Within its confines is the Holy Cross Cemetery, which is located at 3620 Tilden Avenue. While there are some affluent residents present, East Flatbush is mostly populated by working-class Brooklynites. Similar to other eastern Brooklyn neighborhoods, blacks predominate East Flatbush. The area has a population of 84,498 and is 91.4% Black or African-American. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=ChangeGeoContext&geo_id=86000US11203&_geoContext=01000US%7C04000US36%7C05000US36047&_street=&_county=&_cityTown=&_state=04000US36&_zip=11203&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=DEC_2000_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null®=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=
East Flatbush is the home of the former General George W. Wingate High School
George W. Wingate High School
George W. Wingate High School is a defunct comprehensive high school in the Prospect-Lefferts Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. It was closed down in June 2000 due to poor academic performance. The school was then divided into four small schools. The school was named for George Wood...
and Gov. Samuel J. Tilden High School
Samuel J. Tilden High School
Samuel J. Tilden High School is a New York City public high school in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn. It is named for Samuel J. Tilden, the former governor of New York State and presidential candidate who, although carrying the popular vote, lost to Rutherford B...
. It is also home to three major hospitals, Kings County Hospital
Kings county hospital
Kings County Hospital Center is a hospital located at 451 Clarkson Avenue in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York City. It is under the umbrella of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation , the municipal agency which runs New York City's public hospitals.According to the HHC, "Kings County...
, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
The State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, better known as SUNY Downstate Medical Center, is a public university and medical center located in central Brooklyn, New York and the only academic center for health education, research, and patient care serving Brooklyn’s 2.5...
, and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center.
In Summer 2006, the City of New York renamed a portion of Church Avenue from Remsen Avenue to East 98th Street in East Flatbush as Bob Marley Boulevard. The former Congregation Beth Israel
Congregation Beth Israel
Congregation Beth Israel is a synagogue located in West Hartford, Connecticut. The is one of the two the oldest Jewish congregations in Connecticut, it is one of the largest Reform Jewish congregations in New England, with about 900 member families and about 2,000 individual members.As Temple Beth...
, now known as Mt. Zion Church of God 7th Day, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 2009. East Flatbush is patrolled by the NYPD's 67th Precinct.
Demographics
As of 2000 U.S. CensusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
there 84,498 people living in East Flatbush, with 29,242 housing units. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the demographics were 91.4% Black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
or African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, 4.9% Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
or Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
, 3.1% White, 1.0% Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
, 0.2% Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, 1.6% were some other race and 2.6% were two or more races. 72.8% of the residents are High School
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
graduates or higher, 16.3% have a Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
or higher. 22.4% of the population speak a language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
other than English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
at home. The median household income
Household income
Household income is a measure of the combined incomes of all people sharing a particular household or place of residence. It includes every form of income, e.g., salaries and wages, retirement income, near cash government transfers like food stamps, and investment gains.Average household income can...
in 1999 was $37,341, the median family income in 1999 was $43,776 and the per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
in 1999 was $16,026. 16.0% of the families are below poverty level.
East Flatbush and Flatbush
East Flatbush generally is very similar in nature to neighboring FlatbushFlatbush, Brooklyn
Flatbush is a community of the Borough of Brooklyn, a part of New York City, consisting of several neighborhoods.The name Flatbush is an Anglicization of the Dutch language Vlacke bos ....
; so much so that some consider the two neighborhoods to be the same community. Both are predominantly Black, West Indian and working class. The one slight difference is that Flatbush has a higher percentage of White and Asian residents than East Flatbush.
While the demographics are similar, East Flatbush does not enjoy the same level of access to the subway as Flatbush. The BMT Brighton Line
BMT Brighton Line
The BMT Brighton Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Brooklyn, New York City, United States. Local service is provided at all times by the Q train. The Q is joined by the B express train on weekdays...
and the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line
IRT Nostrand Avenue Line
The IRT Nostrand Avenue Line is a rapid transit line of the IRT division of the New York City Subway, and is served by the at all times, joined by the trains on weekdays, running under Nostrand Avenue in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn....
both have a number of stops located in Flatbush. In contrast, the subway at best only skirts the borders of East Flatbush. Many East Flatbush residents take a train and a bus to commute to and from work.
Schools
Schools located in East Flatbush include:- Catherine McAuley High School (Brooklyn)Catherine McAuley High School (Brooklyn)Catherine McAuley High School is an all-girls, private, Roman Catholic high school in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1942, it is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.-Background:...
, an all girls Catholic high school at East 37 Street and Foster Avenue. - Samuel J. Tilden High SchoolSamuel J. Tilden High SchoolSamuel J. Tilden High School is a New York City public high school in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn. It is named for Samuel J. Tilden, the former governor of New York State and presidential candidate who, although carrying the popular vote, lost to Rutherford B...
- St. Francis of Assisi School
Notable residents
Notable current and former residents of East Flatbush include:- Busta RhymesBusta RhymesTrevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes ,Smith is an American rapper, producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the alias Busta Rhymes after NFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes...
, Rapper - Spliff StarSpliff StarWilliam A. Lewis Raised in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, he is of Trinidadian descent, better known as Spliff Star, first appeared alongside Busta Rhymes as the Flipmode Squad in 1996 on his album The Coming....
, Rapper - ShyneShyneMoshe Levi Ben-David , better known by his stage name Shyne, is a Belizean rapper.-Background:...
, Rapper - Roosevelt ChapmanRoosevelt ChapmanRoosevelt Chapman was an American college basketball player for the University of Dayton from 1980-1984...
, Basketball Player - Bruce PasternackBruce PasternackBruce Pasternack was the President and CEO of the Special Olympics International from 2005-2007. He currently serves on the board of directors of Codexis , a biotechnology company based out of Redwood City California and Accelrys, Inc...
, Businessman - Michael JordanMichael JordanMichael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
, Professional Basketball Player - Ramona Moore, murdered college student.
- Rudy GiulianiRudy GiulianiRudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....
, former mayor of New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...