Marine Park (neighborhood), Brooklyn


Marine Park is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood lies between Flatlands and Mill Basin to the east, and Gerritsen Beach, Midwood, and Sheepshead Bay to the south and west. It is mostly squared off in area by Gerritsen Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, Avenue U and Kings Highway. The neighborhood's eponymous park is the largest public park in Brooklyn. Charles Downing Lay won a silver medal in town planning at the 1936 Olympics for the planning of Marine Park.
Marine Park is largely inhabited by ethnic groups such as Italians, Irish, Greeks, and Jews. The area is part of Brooklyn Community Board 18.

History

The neighborhood is situated around Gerritsen Creek, the westernmost inlet of Jamaica Bay; the creek's path within the neighborhood was covered in 1920. During the last 5,000 years, strips of sand were deposited by ocean currents. These beach strips form a surf-barrier and allow salt marshes to thrive:
The area was a hunting and fishing ground for Native Americans from the nearby village of Keshawchqueren. Pits for cooking and preparing food dating from 800 to 1400 AD were uncovered in Marine Park, along with deer and turtle bones, oyster shells, and sturgeon scales. In the 17th century, the Dutch began to settle in the area, which had similarities to the marshland and coastal plains of the Netherlands. The land proved to be fairly good farmland and there was an abundance of clams, oysters, and game from the region as well.
One of the oldest houses in the neighborhood is the Hendrick I. Lott House, built in 1720. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a New York City designated landmark.
In the 18th century, George Washington made a stop for several days on the land nearby. There was a gristmill on the water at the time.
As early as 1910, developers began dredging ports within Jamaica Bay in an effort to develop a seaport district there. Although the city allowed several piers to be constructed in 1918, only one was built on the former Barren Island. The pier, which was built in order to receive landfill for the other proposed piers, stretched northeast and was wide. In 1931, the city took possession of on the western side of Barren Island. That plot was combined with a tract owned by Kings County to create the park named Marine Park. Urban planner Robert Moses expanded Marine Park in 1935, and the city acquired of land. This comprised the entire island west of Flatbush Avenue. Barren Island's residents were mostly evicted by 1939, and part of the island became part of Marine Park, but much of the rest of the island became Floyd Bennett Field.
In 1935, the mill burned down to the water level due to vandals, leaving only wood pilings across the water, which can be clearly seen to this day during low tide. In the mid-20th century the area was abused by trash and abandoned cars. At one point it became a landfill and trash piled up to in certain areas. After a massive cleanup effort in the 1990s the area was restored to its former glory, with exception of a few rusty car parts riddling the area, and teens littering and causing arson to the dry tall phragmite from time to time.

Demographics

Marine Park is located in zip code 11234, which also includes Mill Basin, Bergen Beach/Georgetown, and the southern portion of Flatlands. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the combined population of Georgetown, Marine Park, Bergen Beach, and Mill Basin was 45,231, an increase of 2,291 from the 42,940 counted in 2000. Covering an area of, the neighborhood had a population density of.
By the end of the 20th century, the vast majority of Marine Park residents were white, as were most residents of adjacent neighborhoods such as Mill Basin and Bergen Beach. By 2011, the number of black residents in Southeast Brooklyn had risen 241%, the steepest such increase of any area in the city. As of that year, the African American population in these neighborhoods represented 10.9% of the total population. As of the 2010 Census, the racial makeup of Southeast Brooklyn was 73.8% White, 10.9% African American, 0.1% Native American, 5.6% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.3% from other races, and 1.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.9% of the population.

Police and crime

Marine Park is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 63rd Precinct. The precinct also covers Bergen Beach, Mill Basin, and part of Flatlands. The 63rd Precinct ranked 31st safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010.
The 63rd Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 85.9% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct reported 5 murders, 14 rapes, 88 robberies, 131 felony assaults, 92 burglaries, 495 grand larcenies, and 62 grand larcenies auto in 2018.

Park

The neighborhood also contains a public park of the same name. The park's of grassland and salt marsh surround the westernmost inlet of Jamaica Bay. Most of the park's land was donated to New York City in the 1910s and 1920s, and consists of the area between the current day Fillmore Avenue and Gerritsen Avenue and East 38th Street. Originally almost two thousand acres, over half of which has been donated to the National Park Service as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, the park is mainly a fertile salt marsh that is supplied with freshwater from Gerritsen Creek. Marine Park consists of recreational park areas and the Salt Marsh Nature Center. There is also a playground, several sports fields, and 0.83 mile-long running path, all of which were built on the ancient Keshawchqueren burial ground.

Notable people