by Matthew Liu

Bensonhurst, a neighborhood in the south of Brooklyn, has mostly been known for its largely immigrant community. It has been described as a largely middle class community and is generally a neighborhood considered to be desirable to immigrants. Connected conveniently to Manhattan via the N and D subway lines and to Staten Island and, consequently, New Jersey via the Verrazano Bridge, Bensonhurst is a community of commuters and immigrants in a rather inexpensive neighborhood.

History

The area now known as Bensonhurst was settled by the Dutch in 1652, when the Dutch West India Company traded various items with Native Americans for the land. The land was divided into several plots and given to settlers; some of the plots formed part of the town of New Utrecht. In 1835, Arthur W. Benson, the founder of Brooklyn Gas Light Company, purchased some of the land close to the town of New Utrecht and divided the land into lots, which would be sold over the next few years to developer James Lynch. This created a community known as ”Bensonhurst by the Sea.” However, when the town of New Utrecht and the rest of the area sold to Lynch became part of the City of Brooklyn, the name of the community was shortened to “Bensonhurst.”

In the late 1880s, the lots of Bensonhurst were sold to new immigrants in New York. In the years following, wealthy landowners bought up a significant portion of the land and built vacation houses in Bensonhurst because of the neighborhood’s close proximity to Coney Island. The neighborhood remained as such until the 1920s, when many Jewish and Italian immigrants started to settle in the neighborhood because of the completion of the Fourth Avenue subway line. The neighborhood, with the new subway line, turned out to be very convenient to immigrants who wanted to stay connected to Manhattan at a cheaper price. The neighborhood remained largely Jewish and Italian until the 1980s, when a large influx of Asian, Russian, and Middle Eastern immigrants moved to the neighborhood. Currently, Bensonhurst is a neighborhood that is home to several races, yet retains a bit of its Italian and Jewish feel that originates from the early 1900s.

Though the residents of Bensonhurst nowadays largely accept a lot of the newer immigrants, Bensonhurst is still marred by an event that indicates that there was a time when the community was quite racist. In 1989, Yusuf Hawkins was shot to death when going into the neighborhood to look for a used car. This sparked outrage among African Americans and led to increased racial tensions throughout the city. When African American protestors marched into Bensonhurst after Hawkins’ murder, they were met with even more racism from the community. Over time, racial tensions have seriously decreased and the neighborhood accepts the immigrants that make the move to Bensonhurst.

Location and Boundaries

Geographically, Bensonhurst is bounded in the northeast by 61^st street, northwest by 14^th avenue, southwest by Benson Avenue, south by Avenue U and Avenue V, and east by McDonald Avenue. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community District 11 and the zip codes that represent the area are: 11204 and 11214. The neighborhood is also considered to extend out to the Lower New York Bay from its southwestern corner. It borders several neighborhoods in Brooklyn: Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, Borough Park, Ocean Parkway South, Homecrest, and Gravesend.

Facts

Population: 167,537

Male: 48.6%, Female: 51.4%

Age Groups:

Under 20: 21.9%

20-45: 35,3%

45-65: 25.3%

Over 65: 17.6%

Mean Household income: $54,862

Median Household income: $39,012

The Changing Demographics of Bensonhurst

The demographics of Bensonhurst have been rapidly changing in the past few years. In total, there was an increase in population in the neighborhood of about 6%. However, in terms of the change in demographics, according to the census, there was a percent decrease of white non-Hispanics of about 19% from 2000 to 2010. In contrast, the population of mostly every other group has increased by a significant amount: the population of people of Hispanic origin increased by about 58%, the population of Asian non-Hispanics increased by about 57%, and the population of Black/African American non-Hispanics increased by about 122% (note the total population of this group is just over 1,000).

The reasons noted for this remarkable change in demographics are linked to the idea that Bensonhurst is a great community to raise a family: there are a large variety of businesses and restaurants, access to several public schools, a low crime rate, and easy access to other parts of the city via public transportation. Immigrants, in general, flock towards areas where public transportation is provided, and those who have moved to Bensonhurst continue this trend. This move of minorities to Bensonhurst started, as stated before, in the 1980s. As more minorities moved to Bensonhurst over the past few decades, white flight caused a great deal of the population that used to dominate the neighborhood to move out. Bensonhurst used to be predominately Italian and Jewish, but white flight as a reaction to new immigrants has changed this.

Economic Characteristics

Of the total population of Bensonhurst, 137,376 are over 16 years of age, the legal age to work. Of this population, about 55.9% are in the labor force. 8.4% of this labor force is unemployed. Of those employed, 83.2% are private wage and salary workers, 11.6% are government workers, 5.1% are self-employed, and 0.1% are unpaid family workers.  In an occupational breakdown, 26.9% are in a management, business, science, or arts occupation, 21.4% are in service occupations, 26.6% are in a sales or office occupation, 11.2% are in a construction, natural resources, or maintenance occupation, and 14.0% are in a production, transportation, or material moving occupation.

Though one would say that numbers aren’t everything in evaluating a subject of interest, I don’t disagree with what the household incomes indicate about Bensonhurst. Based on what I’ve seen personally, though there is a fair amount of people that struggle to get by in the neighborhood, the area also has a considerably large amount of people who are middle-class or upper-class. Bensonhurst is a community that feels like a suburb in a city: there are quite a number of people that do very well in terms of money, but, just a few blocks away, there’ll be a family that barely gets by. There’ll be large houses that resemble mansions on one block, yet rather humble homes within walking distance. Most of the residents of Bensonhurst do just well enough, even with this difference between the rich and the poor in the neighborhood. Because of this, from my point of view and from the results of the 2008-2010 American Community Survey, the average class status of the neighborhood is middle class.

Business Activities in the Neighborhood

The business activities of Bensonhurst are fairly normal for a community- mostly businesses that do their best to serve whatever need the community has. Just to name a few of the types of businesses in Bensonhurst, there are banks, grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies, fitness centers/gyms, and delis. A lot of these businesses tend to operate on major avenues, such as 18^th avenue and Bay Parkway. A big part of the business activities in Bensonhurst is at the shopping center Caesar’s Bay. Caesar’s Bay has several stores that serve the community and consumers: there are Kohl’s, Toys”R”us, Modell’s, and BestBuy, just to name a few.

As for the business activities outside of Caesar’s Bay, in general, many stores in Bensonhurst are owned and run by a resident of the neighborhood. However, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average commute time of workers in the neighborhood is 43.9 minutes. This indicates that people who run and own a store in Bensonhurst are definitely in the minority as the majority of people work outside of the neighborhood. Of the minority that own and run a store in the neighborhood, they tend to be quite diverse. To be more specific in terms of what I mean by diversity, they’re often based on what the ethnicity of the owner is or based on what ethnicity the store serves. For example, there has always been plenty of Italian pizzerias in Bensonhurst, but over the past few years, a lot of Chinese restaurants have also sprung up in the neighborhood.

Bensonhurst Housing

When walking around Bensonhurst, one would see a good mix of many different types of housing. As it stands, of the 65,896 housing units in Bensonhurst, 15.0% are single-family houses, 24.8% are two-family houses, 25.3% are 3-4-family houses, 8.2% are 5-9-unit houses, 3.4% are 10-19-unit houses, and 23.1% are 20-or-more-unit houses (apartment buildings). Though there are over 65,000 housing units, only 61,147 are actually occupied. Of the total number of housing units, 38,497 are renter occupied, and 22,650 are owner-occupied. Rent is mostly around $750 to $1500 a month, with a median of $1,005 a month.

In general, from my experience, there are more attached houses than apartment buildings in Bensonhurst. From what I’ve seen, a large amount of people that own their house tend to rent out a floor or two to people; sometimes, this is to family members or others of the same race, but there are people of all races renting from others in Bensonhurst.

Schools of Bensonhurst

Bensonhurst has quite a number of schools for a neighborhood: 16 public schools and 13 private/parochial schools. Of the 16 public schools, 10 are elementary schools, 4 are junior high schools, 1 is a high school, and 1 is a combination of both a junior high school and a high school. Of the 13 private/parochial schools, there are 4 private/parochial schools, 3 junior/senior high schools, 4 senior high schools, 1 K-12 school, and 1 special/other school. These private/parochial schools are mainly Catholic and Jewish schools. There are also two colleges that are in the neighborhood: Bramson ORT College and Touro College.

The public high school that serves the majority of the neighborhood is New Utrecht High School. New Utrecht High School was founded in 1915 and was originally an all-boys school. It initially only had 350 students in the whole school and 16 students in its first graduating class. Since then, the school has become a co-ed school and now has a student body of over 3,200.

Bensonhurst used to have another high school to serve its community: Lafayette High School. However, it and four other schools were targeted by Bloomberg in 2006 in a strategy to replace failing schools with newer, smaller schools. Lafayette High School was considered a failing school because of its fairly low graduation rate, safety problems, and an incident regarding harassment of Asian students.

Religious Institutions

The majority of the religious institutions in Bensonhurst are Catholic or Jewish. There are quite a number of both types of religious institutions, but the religious institution that stands out in Bensonhurst is the New Utrecht Dutch Reformed Church. It was established by Dutch settlers in 1677 as one of the first churches of the Reformed Church in America. It served the residents of the town of New Utrecht and was actually used as a hospital and riding school in the Revolutionary War by the British. Since then, the church has been rebuilt in 1828 using its stones in its current location on 84^th street and 16^th avenue, and the church is now a big part of the community of Bensonhurst.

Cultural Institutions and the Arts

In Bensonhurst, there aren’t too many cultural institutions or things dedicated to the arts. Aside from various churches, the only considerable cultural institutions in the neighborhood are Chinese senior centers, a Jewish community center, and a small community of Muslims at the Brooklyn Islamic Center on 64^th street and 20^th avenue.  A notable Chinese senior center in the neighborhood is the Bensonhurst Senior Center, which aims to provide Chinese seniors with a place to socialize and interact with others. The Jewish community center, the Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, conducts many programs and services in order to enhance the Jewish community of the neighborhood. The Brooklyn Islamic center provides a place for the Muslim community of Bensonhurst to convene and to perform Muslim practices. Though there seems to be a lack of cultural institutions in Bensonhurst, the cultural institutions that are present seem to serve the community well.

Bensonhurst Politics

Bensonhurst is in New York’s Congressional District 10 and District 11; respectively, the district representatives are Jerrold Nadler and Michael Grimm. Interestingly, these two representatives are quite different. Nadler is a far-left Democrat with a lot of experience in politics. He favors fairly liberal views in terms of civil rights and civil liberties. Grimm, on the other hand, has only a few years of experience and is a rank-and-file Republican. He favors issues pertaining to his district and works on making a safer New York. How well he serves his entire district, however, remains to be seen. The Brooklyn Daily reports that Grimm appears to be out of touch with the part of Bensonhurst in his district. Some residents of the neighborhood argue that he can’t really represent Brooklyn and Bensonhurst values because, while most people in Bensonhurst are Democrats, he’s a Republican and because he’s from Staten Island. In addition, Grimm is under investigation regarding business ties with people who may be connected to organized crime and questionable campaign donations during an election in 2010.

Conclusion

Bensonhurst seems to have evolved from a predominantly Jewish and Italian neighborhood to a neighborhood full of immigrants from other countries. They fill up the attached houses, attend a few of the many schools available, and settle into white-collar jobs. A large amount of people in the neighborhood work really hard to attain the status that some of the well-off people in the neighborhood have. In general, Bensonhurst has become a hardworking community of mostly whites, Asians, and Hispanics. However, this new Bensonhurst does not seem to retain the sort of identity that the predominantly Italian and Jewish Bensonhurst used to have. The neighborhood has really changed in the past few decades, and what sort of identity the neighborhood carves for itself in the next few years remains to be seen.

(References on page 2)

Pages: 1 2