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.