Coney Island is the westernmost barrier island of Long Island, stretching for approximately four miles. It is an artificial peninsula, connected to Brooklyn by a landfill. The neighborhood of Coney Island started off as a Dutch settlement known for its abundance of rabbits from which the name “coney” is derived from.  In the 1800’s, it was a popular natural park until several structures began to be built at the turn of the century. These structures were ultimately demolished in order to make room for a boardwalk and easy beach access. In the 1940’s, Robert Moses opposed plans for making the area one of entertainment and proposed building residential housing; a proposal that ultimately resulted in a fusion of both ideas – 18 to 24 story housing project were constructed while the amusement park the area is known for was continuously expanded. The construction of Ocean Parkway and the completion of the Stillwell Avenue subway station ushered in a diverse settlement of commuting workers. Today, the neighborhood is home to several beaches including Sea Gate, which is one of two of New York’s only gated communities – the other one being Breezy Point located in the Rockaway neighborhood of Queens. They are very similar socially; the average family and household size for both the Rockaways and Coney Island is about three people. About forty percent of people in the households are the owners and about fifteen to twenty percent are spouses of the household owners. With regards to demographics, the Rockaways have a nearly 1:1 ratio of white to black people, while Coney Island has a ratio of 4:1. Although the Rockaways have a majority Irish population and Coney Island has a majority Russian population, both share a strong population of Italian people, close to six or seven percent. Most people living in either “beach community” are within the ages of 25 and 54, and over seventy percent of the entire population is over the age of 18.

The Rockaway area of Queens is located in the Rockaway Peninsula, which connects to the South Shore of Long Island.  It began in the 1800’s as two separate villages know as Holland an Hammels, which were incorporated into the borough of Queens at the turn of the century. In the early 1900’s, much like Coney Island, Rockaway was home to an amusement park. A subway line was extended into the neighborhood and, coupled with the building of the Marine Parkway Bridge and the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, executed by Robert Moses in the 1930’s, attracted a permanent commuter resident population to the area. In the 1950’s, the 13 story Hammel Houses were constructed, ushering in a diverse population of commuting workers similar to those settling in Coney Island at the time. Today, the commuting population remains in the two neighborhoods and many of those workers have similar jobs. Approximately thirty percent of the populations of these two communities work in the education service, health care, and social assistance fields. Since that time Rockaway and Coney Island have seen similar statistical trends in the economic, housing and demographic categories and are two parallel beach communities today. Most of the income falls within the range of $35,000-$99,000. The majority of family income lies between $35,000-$75,000 (two “census” brackets of income data). The Rockaways do have a higher percentage of people attaining income within the higher bracket of the overall range ($50,000-$75,000), while Coney Island has a higher percentage in the lower bracket ($35,000-$49,999). Much of both populations live in homes that are worth from either $300,000-$499,999, or $500,000-$999,999; the majority of these homes were built between 1960-1969. Both neighborhoods are pleasant beach communities and are a unique taste of New York City.

The Tenement Museum was a great “eye opener” for me. I came into the tour expecting a display of various different aspects of tenement life in a museum building, filled with photos and various artifacts giving a very impersonal insight of the time. Once we stepped into 97 Orchard Street, my superficial “museum expectations” were left at the door.

The first thing I noticed were the tiles, which were very reminiscent of large apartment buildings I’ve seen visiting relatives and family friends as a child. Never have I associated this type of flooring with tenement housing or the era in which they existed. The original staircase railing was also present, and seemed to be the sturdiest structure in the building when holding it as we walked up the stairs, creaking eerily.

The hallway was small and cramped, but the rooms were fairly sized, just like the old apartments my family used to visit. However, it was soon revealed that many people, even whole families resided in these tiny rooms. The first was an empty room, with one window. Outside it’s doorway was another, smaller room, and a kitchen, and then the hallway back to the stairs. Inside these two rooms, several people eat, slept, and lived.

The second room was a replication/restoration of how the room was set up during the time a family actually lived in this tenement housing. The cramped space was divided into three smaller rooms, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a workspace. The workspace had various aspects of a small clothing factory. In this room, the man of the family would have workers doing various jobs in manufacturing clothing. Many people would be in this room working quickly and trying to produce as much as possible in their 12+ hour days, being that they were paid by piece produced.

In the kitchen, there was a stove, an ironing board, and a crib, all within close proximity. Coming from a household where small children were not allowed near a stove, even when the gas was off, this was greatly alarming. We were told that the mother would be here pressing the clothes while tending to the baby, clean up after the workers left while tending to the baby, and then cooking dinner for the family while tending to the baby. Almost makes today’s definition of “Super-Mom” an understatement (Just kidding Mom!). But all these events took place in this small room where so many people lived and worked.

The next, and last, room we saw to was from a family who lived in the building a bit later in time. This room appeared a big larger, but was actually smaller in area than the previous space. But without all the work materials present, it felt more like a home. There was a kitchen area, and a dining space, and a common area. They had little showpieces on the mantle. There was also a sofa, but wasn’t only used for sitting; three to four boys would sleep on this sofa, with their heads on the seats and their legs on chairs, every night. The only remotely similar experience I ever had would be sleeping beside two of my cousins when they spent the night, and that was on a bed. Electricity existed in this home and less labor was done within the household, but the family didn’t have, at least by our definition, a perfect life. They still would have to go out to work, and share a small living space between many people in the family.

After the end of the bloody Second World War, the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) maintained strict communist rule, under which all countries within the Communist Bloc (Russia, Eastern Europe and parts of Asia) suffered in terms of political corruption and economic downfall. Any Russians who managed to escape immigrated to western countries such as the U.S. However, since the U.S.S.R. had such strict restrictions as to who could leave the country, the number of Russian immigrants coming to the U.S. dramatically decreased compared to the past half century. For example, in 1970, there were 50,000 Russian-born immigrants living in Brooklyn compared to the 220,000 living there in 1930. Similar declines occurred throughout other significant Russian populations throughout the United States.

After 1985, during the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev and his attempts in modern reform, the formerly thriving economy of the Soviet Union began to decline due to inflation and shortages in goods and budget. In 1991, the U.S.S.R., along with its economy, collapsed; Russia, along with all of the former satellite countries, became a free country. But conditions grew worse.

By 1993, forty to fifty percent of all Russian citizens were living in poverty. Crime and corruption grew and status of living sullied. By 1998, the country witnessed a financial crash that was completely opposite of what was happening in the United States. Naturally, with Russia now being a free country, a wave of migration towards the U.S. emerged.

This new wave of people was of a different caliber; they were young professionals with training in fields such as software, electronics, medicine and even the arts. They are “more worldly, more westernized, with higher standards of living than their predecessors.” As a result of this wave, about 20,000 Russian scientists were employed in the United States in 2003, and the credit for 30% of Microsoft products could be given to the Russian engineers in the U.S.This new refugee population was large. In the year of 1999, the Department of Homeland Security Yearbook reported 16,882 people of the Soviet Union filing refugee status applications to the U.S., 11,700 were accepted, but 16,962 entered the country.  This was the second largest population of entering refugees that year, and made up almost 20% of the refugee population. The total population increased all over the map, with an increase of about 70,000 people in Brooklyn, and one of about 40,000 people in Los Angeles between 1990 and 2000.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the population of foreign-born settlers from Russia has been continually growing, especially in major cities where opportunities exist. A significant population exists, and significant increase is occurring. Although these matters can always be subject to change, the immigration numbers have slowly begun to imitate those seen a century before.