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Breezy Point is a neighborhood in the
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...
of
Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
, located on the western end of the Rockaway peninsula, between Rockaway Inlet and
Jamaica Bay Jamaica Bay (also known as Grassy Bay) is an estuary on the southern portion of the western tip of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The estuary is partially man-made, and partially natural. The bay connects with Lo ...
to the north and the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
to the west and south. The community is run by the Breezy Point
Cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
, in which all residents pay the maintenance, security, and community-oriented costs involved with keeping the community private. The cooperative owns the entire community; residents own their homes and hold shares in the cooperative.Sciolino, Elaine
"A Cooperative on the Beach Loves Privacy"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', September 10, 1984. Accessed November 21, 2007.
''The New York Times'' described Breezy Point as consisting of "three small neighborhoods:" Rockaway Point, Roxbury, and namesake Breezy Point, and that ''Rockaway Point Boulevard'' "runs between the sections." It is less urbanized than most of the rest of New York City, and it is part of Queens Community District 14. Breezy Point is patrolled by the 100th Precinct of the
New York City Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
; its ZIP Code is 11697.


Geography

Breezy Point's three neighborhoods are: * Breezy Point, west of Ocean Avenue near the tip of the peninsula * , between Ocean Avenue and Beach 201st Street, and * Roxbury, about a mile east, near the Marine Parkway Bridge leading to Brooklyn. Breezy Point Tip, to the west of the community, is part of
Gateway National Recreation Area Gateway National Recreation Area is a U.S. National Recreation Area in New York City and Monmouth County, New Jersey. It provides recreational opportunities that are not commonly found in a dense urban environment, including ocean swimming, b ...
, which is run by the National Park Service. This isolated, area includes an ocean-facing beach, a shoreline on Jamaica Bay, sand dunes, and marshland. It is a breeding spot for the
piping plover The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, Passerellidae, sparrow-sized wader, shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band acro ...
, least tern,
black skimmer The black skimmer (''Rynchops niger'') is a tern-like seabird, one of three similar bird species in the Rynchops, skimmer genus ''Rynchops'' in the gull family Laridae. It breeds in North America, North and South America. Northern populations bir ...
, American oystercatcher and
common tern The common tern (''Sterna hirundo'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in Temperateness, temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is stron ...
.


Demographics

Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of the combined area of Breezy Point/ Belle Harbor/ Rockaway Park/ Broad Channel was 28,018, an increase of 1,307 (4.9%) from the 26,711 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the four neighborhoods had a population density of . The racial makeup of the neighborhoods was 78.3% (21,946)
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 7.5% (2,095)
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.1% (29) Native American, 2.1% (595) Asian, 0.0% (8)
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.2% (66) from other races, and 0.9% (259) from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 10.8% (3,020) of the population. However, according to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the community's ZIP Code (11697) is 98.2% white and has the nation's 2nd highest concentration of
Irish-American Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...
s, at 60.3% as of the United States Census, 2000 (Squantum, in Quincy, Massachusetts, is number 1, at 65%).QT-P13. Ancestry: 2000 for 11697 5-Digit ZCTA
,
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
. Accessed October 2, 2007.
The community's demographics are maintained as a result of a Cooperative rule that a person, prior to buying a house, must be recommended by three members of the Cooperative and approved by its board of directors. Breezy Point functions mainly as a summer get-away for many residents of New York. Estimates put summer residency at 12,000, while year-round residency was 4,337 in the most recent Census. Due to its history of population by Irish-Americans, Breezy Point has been called the "Irish Riviera." Since the mid-1990s, Italians and Jews have also moved into Breezy Point, making the concentration of Irish-Americans drop.Herszenhorn, David M
"THE CENSUS – A Region of Enclaves: Breezy Point, Queens; Bounded by Gates, Over a Toll Bridge"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', June 18, 2001. Accessed November 1, 2007. "The neighborhood, started in the early 1900s as a summer bungalow community and called the Irish Riviera..."


History

The community began as summer beach bungalows, in the "early 1900s", according to the ''New York Times'' although this is impossible because at the time the shoreline was further east until landfill extended the Rockaways. Breezy Point was sold to the Atlantic Improvement State Corporation for $17 million in 1960. The residents of the community purchased half of the land for approximately $11 million and formed the Breezy Point Cooperative. Today, it consists of about 3,500 homes. The construction of apartment buildings commenced in the late 1960s and was halted by City ordinance. Breezy Point is patrolled by its own private security force that restricts access to owners, renters and their guests. It also features three of New York City's nine remaining volunteer fire departments. On September 8, 2012, the community was struck by a
tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
shortly before 11 a.m. that started as a waterspout over the Atlantic Ocean and came ashore at the Breezy Point Surf Club.


Hurricane Sandy and subsequent fire

On October 29, 2012, Breezy Point was hit hard by
Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...
.
Jamaica Bay Jamaica Bay (also known as Grassy Bay) is an estuary on the southern portion of the western tip of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The estuary is partially man-made, and partially natural. The bay connects with Lo ...
and the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
flooded the land between these bodies of water. Most Breezy Point homes were damaged or destroyed by high water, and basements and vehicles were ruined. That night, a six-alarm fire arose at 173 Ocean Avenue. Local volunteer firefighters were trapped in place for several hours due to the flooding. Once the waters receded, the Rockaway Point Fire Department rescued more than 41 civilians, while the New York City, Point Breeze, and Roxbury Fire Departments found 130 homes burned to the ground. Nearby, another 50 homes were damaged by the fire. According to an official report in December, rising seawater caused the fire by contacting a house's electrical wires.


Historical note

A ''New York Times'' 1940 headline said: New Coast Guard Station: Work starts on $119,975 unit on Rockaway Point In actuality, this marked work on what was named "Station Rockaway Point, New York". Closure was announced May 2003.


Ecology

According to the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is a List of federal agencies in the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior which oversees the management of fish, wildlife, ...
, beaches on the Breezy Point peninsula are home to one of the most diverse breeding shorebird areas in the Metropolitan area.
Shorebirds FIle:Vadare - Ystad-2021.jpg, 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, forage for food c ...
that breed here include: *The
piping plover The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, Passerellidae, sparrow-sized wader, shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band acro ...
, federally designated as threatened *The Migratory Bird Treaty Act-protected American oystercatcher *The New York State Species of Special Concern,
black skimmer The black skimmer (''Rynchops niger'') is a tern-like seabird, one of three similar bird species in the Rynchops, skimmer genus ''Rynchops'' in the gull family Laridae. It breeds in North America, North and South America. Northern populations bir ...
*The
common tern The common tern (''Sterna hirundo'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in Temperateness, temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is stron ...
, designated threatened in New York State *The least tern, designated threatened in New York State The beaches in Breezy Point Tip are owned by the federal government and are federally and state-protected areas in which development is extremely limited. The beaches in Breezy Point are owned by the Breezy Point Cooperative as a consequence of litigation with the federal government in the 1980s.


Education

Breezy Point residents are zoned for schools in the
New York City Department of Education The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (more commonly known as New York City Publ ...
, which operates PS/MS 114 Belle Harbor School for grades K-8.


Notable residents

Notable current and former residents of Breezy Point include:
* Hugh Carey (1919–2011), 51st Governor of New York, was a resident during the time he served in Congress. * Harry J. Donnelly (1922–1989), politician who served two terms in the
New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...
. * Charles Hynes (1935–2019), district attorney of Kings County, New York from 1990 until 2013. * Brian McNamee (born c. 1967), former strength and conditioning coach for the
New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...
and
Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...
* Jimmy Ring (1895–1965), Major League Baseball player * Daniel T. Scannell (1912–2000), attorney and business executive who held numerous positions in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
's
Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...
. * Bob Turner (born 1941), businessman and politician who served as the
United States representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
for New York's 9th congressional district from 2011 to 2013.


References


External links


Breezy Point Tip visitor information

Breezy Point 9/11 Memorial

Breezy Point Catholic Club Pipes & Drums Band
{{authority control Neighborhoods in Queens, New York Irish-American culture in New York City Irish-American neighborhoods Condominiums and housing cooperatives in Queens, New York Neighborhoods in Rockaway, Queens Populated coastal places in New York (state) Beaches of Queens, New York