Community Life on Staten Island

From The Peopling of New York City

Many people have heard about Staten Island but can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to live there. This segment attempts to give viewers a better sense of the community life on Staten Island.

In the section: Staten Island Advance: A Shore Thing, Nicole Boffa describes the history and impact of the Staten Island Advance on the borough. The Advance has four separate editions daily reaching the North, South, East, and West Shores of Staten Island. The Advance is unique for its commitment to reporting local happenings and has provided its steady audience with the news it wants daily for nearly 125 years. In the section: The Jewish Community of Willowbrook, Rena Berkovits explores the well established Jewish community in Staten Island and particularly the Orthodox community of Willowbrook. There are roughly 20 synagogues, 2 private elementary schools (one coed and one separate), one private high school, and 8 stores (Judaica, groceries, restaurants, etc.) serving the Staten Island Jewish community today. Willowbrook also has direct access to Manhattan and New Jersey. These are all part of the reasons Jews came, come, and stay in Staten Island today. In the section: Public Opinion of Crime on Staten Island, Nuwan Panditaratne assesses the prevalence of crime in Staten Island through data and personal interviews. He also presents residents' opinions toward the crime situation on Staten Island and theorizes how to work towards a safer borough. Finally, in Staten Island: Then and Now, Andrea Cella offers a comparative view of Staten Island in the 1950s and today by discussing how the borough has changed over the years. Her information is collected from personal interviews and surveys of students and residents.

This segment--Community Life--is sort of like a brochure for prospective residents, mildly interested families, or just anyone curious to learn about another (legitimate) part of NYC. Enjoy!