Brighton Beach in New York City

Monday, 8 January 2018 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, New York City
Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Daniel Schwen/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Daniel Schwen/cc-by-sa-4.0

Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, along the Coney Island peninsula, connected via Coney Island Avenue. The Brighton Beach and Coney Island area, combined, has more than 150,000 residents. Brighton Beach is bounded by Coney Island proper at Ocean Parkway to the west, Manhattan Beach at Corbin Place to the east, Sheepshead Bay at the Belt Parkway to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south along the beach and boardwalk. It is known for its high population of Russian-speaking immigrants, and as a summer destination for New York City residents due to its beaches along the Atlantic Ocean and its proximity to the amusement parks in Coney Island. The proximity of Brighton Beach to the city’s beaches—Brighton Beach Avenue runs parallel to the Coney Island beach and boardwalk—and the fact that the neighborhood is directly served by a subway station makes it a popular summer weekend destination for New York City residents.

As apartment buildings started to be built in large numbers in the 1930s, many of those who moved into the neighborhood were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, often by way of the Lower East Side. They came from many countries, but also set the stage for a later wave of immigration from the Soviet Union that started in the 1970s, when Brighton Beach became known as “Little Odessa” (after the Ukrainian city on the Black Sea) and “Little Russia”. An annual festival, the Brighton Jubilee, celebrates the area’s Russian-speaking heritage. The area has also been called “the land of pelmeni, matryoshkas, tracksuits, and…vodka” due to its large population of Soviet immigrants. In 2006, Alec Brook-Krasny was elected for the 46th District of the New York State Assembly, which includes Brighton Beach, becoming the country’s first elected Soviet-born politician. The Brighton Ballet Theater, established in 1987, is one of the most famous Russian ballet schools in the United States. More than 3,000 children have trained in ballet, modern and character dances, and folk dances here. A Russian-speaking theater near the waterfront, Master Theater, features performances by actors from the U.S., Russia, and other countries.

Russian stores © Multiplicitous/cc-by-sa-3.0 Riegelmann Boardwalk © Multiplicitous/cc-by-sa-3.0 © Daniel Schwen/cc-by-sa-4.0 Boardwalk © Multiplicitous/cc-by-sa-3.0 © Multiplicitous/cc-by-sa-3.0 © Multiplicitous/cc-by-sa-3.0 Brighton Beach Avenue © Billy Hathorn/cc-by-sa-3.0
<
>
Riegelmann Boardwalk © Multiplicitous/cc-by-sa-3.0
The years just before and following the Great Depression brought with them a neighborhood consisting mostly of first- and second-generation Jewish Americans and, later, Holocaust concentration camp survivors. Of the estimated 55,000 Holocaust survivors living in New York City as of 2011, most live in Brighton Beach. To meet the bursting cultural demands, the New Brighton Theater converted itself to the States’ first Yiddish theater in 1919. After World War II, the quality of life in Brighton Beach decreased significantly as the poverty rate and the ratio of older residents to younger residents increased. Due to the 1970s fiscal crisis, government workers and the middle class had moved to suburban areas, while people subdivided houses into single room occupancy residences for the poor, the elderly, and the mentally ill. Brighton Beach suffered from arson as much as it did from constant drug trades. During the summer, however, people from all around the city went to Brighton Beach’s beach next to the Atlantic Ocean.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent significant changes in the social and economic circumstances of post-Soviet states led thousands of former Soviet citizens to immigrate to the United States. Many of the Soviet immigrants (many of which were Ukrainian) of the late 1980s and the 1990s, who primarily spoke Russian, chose Brighton Beach as a place to settle. So many ex-Soviets immigrated to Brighton Beach that the area became known as “Little Odessa.” A large number of Russian-speaking, immigrant-oriented firms, shops, restaurants, clubs, offices, banks, schools, and children’s play centers opened in the area. The value of real estate in Brighton Beach started to rise again, even though drugs remained a social issue in the area through the early 1990s. In the early 2000s, a high-income ocean-front condominium complex, the Oceana, was constructed. This address has become the destination of wealthy businessmen, entertainers, and senior officials from the former Soviet Union, and with their purchase of units at the Oceana, area housing prices have risen. Since the early 2010s, a significant number of Central Asian immigrants have also chosen Brighton Beach as a place to settle.

Read more on Brighton Beach, UntappedCities.com – Brighton Beach, NYCgo.com – Brighton Beach, Wikivoyage Brighton Beach and Wikipedia Brighton Beach (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.






Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Mamaia in Romania

Mamaia in Romania

[caption id="attachment_231786" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Razvan Socol/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Mamaia is a resort on the Romanian Black Sea shore and a district of Constanța. Considered to be Romania'...

[ read more ]

Mount Hermon

Mount Hermon

[caption id="attachment_221055" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Lake Ram and Mount Hermon © Idobi/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Mount Hermon is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain r...

[ read more ]

Larnaca on Cyprus

Larnaca on Cyprus

[caption id="attachment_153492" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Palm Trees Promenade © Valantis Antoniades/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Larnaca is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus, the third largest after Nicosia and...

[ read more ]

Braunau on the Inn

Braunau on the Inn

[caption id="attachment_151486" align="aligncenter" width="590"] City center © Stadtamt Braunau am Inn/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Braunau am Inn (English: Braunau on the Inn) is a town in the Austrian state of Upper Austr...

[ read more ]

Braunschweig, the Lion City

Braunschweig, the Lion City

[caption id="attachment_149022" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Brunswick Lion © Brunswyk[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]With round 245.000 inhabitants, Braunschweig is the biggest city in the area between Hanover and Berlin. It is the c...

[ read more ]

Concertgebouw in Amsterdam

Concertgebouw in Amsterdam

[caption id="attachment_243298" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Manuelarosi/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Royal Concertgebouw (Dutch: het Koninklijk Concertgebouw) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutc...

[ read more ]

Rood screen

Rood screen

[caption id="attachment_245782" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire, UK © Diliff/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature...

[ read more ]

Baltiysk on the Baltic Sea

Baltiysk on the Baltic Sea

[caption id="attachment_229943" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Sailor's Club © Saler4uk/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Baltiysk (German: Pillau) is a seaport town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District in Kalin...

[ read more ]

Bad Honnef, the Nice on the Rhine

Bad Honnef, the Nice on the Rhine

[caption id="attachment_160431" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Bad Honnef seen from Rolandseck © Leit[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Bad Honnef is a spa town in Germany near Bonn in the Rhein-Sieg district, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is...

[ read more ]

Paulus-Haus in East Jerusalem

Paulus-Haus in East Jerusalem

[caption id="attachment_231772" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © DVHL-PR1/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Paulus-Haus is a pilgrim hospice in Jerusalem under the care of the German Association of the Holy Land. It is sit...

[ read more ]

Geopolitics and geostrategy: the heartland theory

Geopolitics and geostrategy: the heartland theory

[caption id="attachment_229068" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Map of the "Heartland Theory", as published by Halford Mackinder in 1904[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]"The Geographical Pivot of History" is an article submitted by Halford...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Bhutan - Thimphu

Theme Week Bhutan - Thimphu

[caption id="attachment_221391" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Tashichho Dzong © Bernard Gagnon/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Thimphu is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top