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About Far Rockaway
Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in
the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. It describes the
easternmost section of the Rockaways, usually the area east of Beach 77th
Street, comprising the neighborhoods of Bayswater, Edgemere, Arverne, as well as
Far Rockaway proper and Downtown Far Rockaway. The neighborhood is part of
Queens Community Board 14.
Far Rockaway's character is that of an inner-city, oceanfront district, in some
ways having more in common with Asbury Park, New Jersey than with New York City.
Far Rockaway is one of the most distant New York neighborhoods from Manhattan,
the cultural and financial center of New York City. Formerly populated by
Eastern European Jewish and Irish immigrants, it now has a large African
American population, though the westernmost portion still remains mostly Irish.
Downtown Far Rockaway has a moderately large Central American population. There
is also a large Orthodox Jewish population in the easternmost part of Far
Rockaway, which borders Inwood and Lawrence, and other areas in the
densely-Jewish Five Towns area across the Nassau County border. The area is home
to a large and growing number of Haredi Jews with a large network of yeshivas
and Jewish communal needs.
Recently, the area is being renewed with new beach houses and waterfront
development. There has been a steady attempt at cleaning up the area, and along
with its rough appearance, the crime rate is relatively high.
Far Rockaway is one of two New York City neighborhoods whose subway terminus is
within realistic walking distance of the city limits (the Wakefield section of
the Bronx is the other). This fact led to an interesting scenario in 1985, when
New York City banned the sale of spray-paint cans to persons under the age of
18, in an effort to stem the tide of graffiti in the city; teenagers would
travel across the city line into either Nassau County (after getting off the
subway at the last stop in Far Rockaway) or Westchester County (from the last
stop in Wakefield) to purchase spray paint there (Nassau County has since
followed suit and prohibited spray-paint sales to minors, but Westchester County
has not).
Rockaway Beach is sometimes known as the "Irish Riviera."
Transportation
Access to Manhattan is available via the IND Rockaway Line (A) subway service,
which has a terminal at Mott Avenue. This subway stretch is completely elevated
throughout the Rockaway Peninsula. However, the Rockaway section of the New York
City subway system has proved to be unreliable and prone to power outages and
inconvenience to its passengers since it is so far from the center of New York
City. A July 2006 incident left passengers stuck for hours in the middle of a
heat wave, aggravated by the inaccessibility of the tracks at the location of
the breakdown.[2] it should also be noted that the Long Island Power Authority
maintains the electrical system for the Rockaways, not Consolidated Edison.
The Far Rockaway station is the terminus for the Long Island Rail Road's Far
Rockaway Branch, providing full service in both directions to Penn Station in
Midtown Manhattan and Flatbush Avenue / Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. The line
is unique in that trains leave New York City and make local stops in Nassau
County before crossing back into Queens and terminating at Far Rockaway.
Passengers can "change at Jamaica" between the various destinations and other
LIRR lines. During rush hour, express service bypasses Jamaica station.
Residents of Far Rockaway thus have two options for access to Manhattan, an
uncommon situation that provides a backup for commuters in the event of service
disruptions on any one system.
The LIRR Far Rockaway Branch had originally been part of a loop that travelled
along the existing route, continuing through the Rockaway Peninsula and heading
on a trestle across Jamaica Bay through Queens where it reconnected with other
branches. Frequent fires and maintenance problems led the LIRR to abandon the
Queens portion of the route, which was acquired by the city to become the IND
Rockaway Line, with service provided by the A train.