The Early years of Sunset Park and Industry City

In the heyday of the New York Harbor’s dominance of North American shipping during the 19th century, Sunset Park grew rapidly, largely as a result of Irish, Polish, and Norwegian immigrant families moving to the area. The neighborhood grew up around the Bush Terminal, a model industrial park completed between 1895 and 1925 between 32nd and 53d Streets. Developed by Irving T. Bush, the Terminal became the largest concentration of waterfront warehouses under one owner in New York City.

During and between the First and Second World Wars, Bush Terminal flourished, providing goods for the entire world.

Sunset Park’s manufacturing fortunes began a show decline after WW II. The rise of truck-based freight shipping and the ports in New Jersey, the growth of suburban sprawl, the closing of the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and the decreasing importance of heavy industry in the American northeast, all became factors. Families who had lived in the community for decades began moving out, and the homes in the neighborhood — largely modest but attractive rowhouses — lost value. The construction of the Gowanus Expressway in 1941 effectively cut the neighborhood off from the harbor, which further wounded the area, in a fashion often associated with the expressway’s builder: power-broker Robert Moses.

Rebirth

Sunset Park’s second age began with a wave of immigration from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, as well as other Latin American countries. By 1990, Hispanics comprised 50% of Sunset Park’s population, rehabilitating property values and developing a thriving community. Many people also immigrated from India and China, creating New York City’s third ‘Chinatown’, in the souteast portion of Sunset Park centered around 55th Street and 8th Avenue.

Brooklyn’s Chinatown

Since the 1980s, the neighborhood has attracted many East Asian immigrants, centered on an area now known as “Brooklyn’s Chinatown”, along 8th Avenue from 42nd to 68th Street, where the city’s third-largest Chinese community (after Manhattan’s Chinatown and Flushing, Queens) can be found. Some claim the reason the Chinese settled on 8th Avenue is because in Chinese folklore, the number eight is lucky for financial matters, and “8th Avenue” can be loosely interpreted as “road to wealth”. Another explanation is the direct subway ride to Manhattan’s Chinatown on the N, R and D lines.

8th Avenue is lined with Chinese businesses, including grocery stores, restaurants, Buddhist temples, video stores, bakeries, and community organizations, and even the Hong Kong Supermarket. Chinese businesses are also appearing on parts of 7th Avenue, and east on 9th Avenue.

People from Gujarat, India, have also been settling in and around the Sunset Park area since the early 1970’s and have built a thriving area community.

At the southern end of Sunset Park, and on into the predominantly Italian neighborhood of Bay Ridge, there is also a sizable Arab-American population. There are a few mosques in the area, halal markets, and restaurants featuring Middle Eastern cuisine and hookah bars.

Demographics

The 2000 Census [1] for Sunset Park, Brooklyn approximately shows that there were 120,441 people living in the neighborhood; 50.5% male and 49.5% were female; The median age was 30.8; 17.8% of residents were children, 73.2% were adults (18 years and over), and 9% were senior citizens (65 or over).

There were 29,723 total housing units, of which 95.8% were occupied, and 75.1% were rented and 24.9% were owned; The median property value was $235,400. The median household income in 1999 US dollars was $30,152, and the median family income was $31,247; The per capita income was $13,141; 27.9% of individuals, and 26% of families were living below the poverty line. 93.9% of residents were of one race, while 6.1% were multiracial; Roughly 42.6% of residents were Hispanic or Latino, 36.2% were “white”, Caucasian/Arab, 29% were Asian (mostly Chinese), 3.2% were “black” or African American, and 24.7% were “some other race”.

Transportation

Sunset Park is served extensively by road, rail, and ferry service. Sunset Park has access to three expressways; the Gowanus Expressway/Interstate 278, the Prospect Expressway/NY-27 and the Belt Parkway.

Six NYCTA bus lines serve Sunset Park: B9, B11, B35, B37, B63, B70.

Four subway lines run through Sunset Park. The BMT Fourth Avenue Line (D, M, N, R) has stations at Prospect Avenue, 25th Street, 36th Street, 45th Street, 53rd Street and 59th Street. The BMT West End Line (D, M) has a station at Ninth Avenue. The BMT Sea Beach Line (N) has a station at Eighth Avenue.

Freight trains run on embedded tracks along 1st and 2nd Avenues and on the old Long Island Rail Road Bay Ridge Branch rails which are adjacent to the BMT Sea Beach Line.

Ferry service is available at 58th Street and 1st Avenue at the Brooklyn Army Terminal to the Wall Street Ferry Pier at the Financial District in Manhattan or the US Coast Guard’s Riis Landing in Roxbury, Queens during the rush hour and on summer weekends. Ferry service was created in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks when the Gowanus Expressway and New York City Subway were at capacity.

The above image and text was provided by wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_park