Rockaway Park is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. The area is on the Rockaway Peninsula, nestled between Jamaica Bay to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The neighborhood of Rockaway Beach lies on its eastern border while the community of Belle Harbor is situated on its western side. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 14.[2]

Rockaway Park
Local fire station
Local fire station
Map
Location within New York City
Coordinates: 40°34′44″N 73°50′28″W / 40.579°N 73.841°W / 40.579; -73.841
Country United States
State New York
CityNew York City
County/BoroughQueens
Community DistrictQueens 14[1]
Time zoneUTC−5 (EST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Code
11694
Area codes718, 347, 929, and 917

Character

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The heavily Irish Rockaway Park has been called the "Irish Riviera".[3] The 2000 United States census showed that 36.0% of the population were of Irish ancestry in the ZCTA for ZIP Code 11694.[4] The Saint Patrick's Day parade in Rockaway is the second-largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City, second only to New York City's Saint Patrick's Day Parade up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.[5]

The neighborhood is centered around Beach 116th Street, a two-block street that runs from Beach Channel Drive southward to Ocean Promenade.[6] At the street's northern end is Tribute Park, which has a memorial to the 343 firefighters killed in the September 11 attacks,[7] and at its southern tip is a memorial to the 265 victims of American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed nearby in Belle Harbor on November 12, 2001.[8]

Transportation

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The New York City Subway's A and ​S trains serve the Rockaway Park – Beach 116th Street station, the terminus of the IND Rockaway Line and its associated services.[9]

The area is served by bus routes operated by MTA Bus Company. The Q22 bus runs the length of the Rockaway Peninsula.[10] The Q52 SBS runs from Beach 54th Street in Arverne, over the Cross Bay Bridge via Cross Bay Boulevard to Woodhaven.[10] The Q53 SBS runs from Beach 116th Street, over the Cross Bay Bridge via Cross Bay Boulevard to Woodside, and Woodside LIRR station and 61st Street subway station.[10] The Q35 runs from Beach 116th Street to the Flatbush Avenue – Brooklyn College subway station, and the Brooklyn College, in Brooklyn via the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and Flatbush Avenue. It goes through Belle Harbor, Neponsit, and Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula.[10]

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, which caused massive infrastructure damage to the A train south of the station at Howard Beach – JFK Airport, ferry operator SeaStreak began running a city-subsidized ferry service between a makeshift ferry slip at Beach 108th Street and Beach Channel Drive in Rockaway Park and Pier 11/Wall Street in Manhattan's Financial District, then continuing on to the East 34th Street Ferry Landing. In August 2013, a stop was added at Brooklyn Army Terminal.[11] The service was extended multiple times,[12] finally ending on October 31, 2014.[13] On May 1, 2017, NYC Ferry's Rockaway route started operations between Pier 11/Wall Street in Manhattan's Financial District and Beach 108th Street in Rockaway Park, with a stop at Brooklyn Army Terminal.[14][15]

References

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  1. ^ "NYC Planning | Community Profiles". communityprofiles.planning.nyc.gov. New York City Department of City Planning. Archived from the original on June 22, 2019. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
  2. ^ Queens Boards Archived January 26, 2024, at the Wayback Machine, New York City. Accessed January 26, 2024.
  3. ^ Grace, Melissa. "Boro goes for brogue" Archived May 29, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, New York Daily News, March 9, 2007. Accessed July 13, 2017. "On Saturday, leprechauns scampered by bagpipe bands as New York State’s second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade struck out through the thickly Irish communities of Belle Harbor and Rockaway Park.... Also in the Rockaways — which was known in the 1950s as 'the Irish Riviera' — Belle Harbor’s house parties, which for years have drawn the city’s top politicians, swung into the evening Saturday."
  4. ^ DP-2: Profile of Selected Social Characteristics: 2000 from the Census 2000 Summary File 3 (SF 3) - Sample Data for ZCTA5 11694 Archived December 27, 1996, at the Wayback Machine, United States Census Bureau. Accessed July 13, 2017.
  5. ^ Queens County St. Patrick's Day Parade & Cultural Committee Archived June 20, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed September 27, 2011.
  6. ^ "BEACH 116TH STREET, Rockaway Park". Forgotten New York. June 5, 1998. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
  7. ^ Tribute Park Archived September 22, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed September 17, 2019. "It includes a mosaic centerpiece, a cupola, and a granite rock engraved with the names of all 343 firefighters who died on September 11."
  8. ^ Chan, Sewell. "Crash Memorial Evokes Peace and Home" Archived October 1, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, November 13, 2006. Accessed September 17, 2019. "Nearly 1,000 mourners gathered under a foggy sky in Queens yesterday morning to mark the fifth anniversary of the crash and to watch as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dedicated a long-awaited memorial to the 265 victims.... The city spent about $9.2 million on the memorial, on Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, next to the wooden boardwalk that runs along the Atlantic Ocean.... In the end, the city opted for a 7,115-square-foot site at Beach 116th Street, which is in a commercial district and close to a subway station."
  9. ^ "Subway Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. September 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d "Queens Bus Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. August 2022. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
  11. ^ "Seastreak Ferry New Jersey, New York and New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard". Seastreakusa.com. Archived from the original on June 25, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  12. ^ "Rockaway Ferry Floats On Through May, But Trip Will Cost Nearly Double - Rockaway Beach - DNAinfo.com New York". Dnainfo.com. January 20, 2014. Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  13. ^ "Commuters Bemoan Closing of Rockaway Ferry - NY1". www.ny1.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2014. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
  14. ^ "NYC launches ferry service with Queens, East River routes". NY Daily News. Associated Press. May 1, 2017. Archived from the original on May 1, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  15. ^ Levine, Alexandra S.; Wolfe, Jonathan (May 1, 2017). "New York Today: Our City's New Ferry". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 1, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2017.