- Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a community on
Coney Island in the borough ofBrooklyn inNew York City .Location
It is bounded by Coney Island at
Ocean Parkway to the west, affluent, but non-gated Manhattan Beach atCorbin Place to the east, Gravesend atNeptune Avenue to the north (at theBelt Parkway ), and theAtlantic Ocean to the south (at the Riegelmann Boardwalk/beachfront).Jackson, Kenneth T.: "The Encyclopedia of New York City ": The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. P.139-140.]Education
Brighton Beach, like all of New York City, is served by the
New York City Department of Education . Affluent Manhattan Beach, New York is zoned to [http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/21/K225/default.htm?searchType=school PS 225 The Eileen E. Zaglin School] for grades K-8, as well as [http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/21/K100/default.htm?searchType=school PS 100 The Coney Island School] located on Brighton Beach and West 3rd for grades K-5 and [http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/21/K253/default.htm?searchType=school P.S. 253 The Magnet School of Multicultural Humanities] .Nearby high schools include:
* [http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/21/K344/default.htm Rachel Carson High School of Coastal Studies]
*John Dewey High School
*The Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences
*William E. Grady Vocational High School
* Abraham Lincoln High SchoolHistory
Brighton Beach was developed by
William A. Engeman as a beach resort in 1868, and was named in 1878 byHenry C. Murphy and a group of businessmen in an 1878 contest; the winning name evoked the resort ofBrighton, England . The centerpiece of the resort was the largeHotel Brighton (or Brighton Beach Hotel), placed on the beach at what is now the foot ofConey Island Avenue and accessed by the Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railway, later known as theBMT Brighton Line , which opened onJuly 2 ,1878 . The village was annexed into the 31st Ward of theCity of Brooklyn in 1894.Brighton Beach was re-developed as a fairly dense residential community with the final rebuilding of the Brighton Beach railway into a modern
rapid transit line of theNew York City Subway system c. 1920.The 1950s brought with it a neighborhood consisting mostly of second generation Americans, born of
concentration camp survivors who had lost their husbands, wives and some of their children. Everywhere were the signs of the refugees who had fled, with numbers on their forearms, making their home in a small and welcoming area near Coney Island. That generation brought forth a well educated and industrious group ofbaby boomers , born into freedom and knowing of oppression and extremeantisemitism only from their parents' memories. These were the years filled with the odd and quirky stores that so embellished the little neighborhoodseaside resort .There was, for example, the "Forty Thieves" store, so dubbed because the owners were not quite honest. Other notable locations included Mrs. Stahl's, a
knish establishment acclaimed as having the bestkasha and cherry cheese knishes, as well as Diamond's, a small clothing store owned byNeil Diamond 's parents. Other notable restaurants were Irving's Deli and the New Deal Chinese restaurant. The summer would bring with it a host of travelling subway riders, determined to find the best treats that Brighton Beach could provide on their way to the Coney Island beaches.Today, the area has a large community of Jewish immigrants who left the
Former Soviet Union between 1970 and the present day. However, living in theSoviet Union during its last decades made them, in many ways, culturally distinct from the Jewish immigrants that moved to the neighborhood decades earlier. The recent influx of Soviet culture has resulted in recent émigrés being more culturally similar to Russians andUkrainians than to the earlier Jewish immigrants. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many non-Jewish immigrants, like Georgians, also settled in Brighton Beach and the surrounding neighborhoods, taking advantage of the already established Russian-speaking community.Culture
Brighton Beach was dubbed "Little Odessa" by the local populace long ago, due to many of its residents having come from
Odessa , a city ofUkraine . [Johnstone, Sarah: "Ukraine", Lonely Planet, 2005. P.119.] In 2006,Alec Brook-Krasny was elected for the 46th District of theNew York State Assembly , the first electedSoviet -bornJewish politician from Brighton Beach.Brighton Beach is home to many other
ethnic group s. On Brighton 7th Street and Neptune Avenue, there is amosque where Muslims (mostly fromPakistan andBangladesh ) pray, and another between Brighton 8th Street and Banner Avenue known as Al-Arqam. Nearby areas are sometimes called "Pakistani Brighton". There are numerous Polish, Russian and Georgian residents, but relatively few Italian-Americans or African-Americans remainingFact|date=July 2008. There are also someKorea n markets, but for the most part their owners do not reside in the neighborhood. Notable past residents includetalk-show hostLarry King and current General Bancorp President Adnan Mohammad.Brighton Beach is replete with restaurants, food stores, cafes, boutiques, banks, etc., located primarily along Brighton Beach Avenue and its cross streets. The neighborhood has a distinctively ethnic feel – akin to
Manhattan 's Chinatown. The proximity of Brighton Beach to the city's beaches (Brighton Beach Avenue runs parallel to theConey Island beach area and the Boardwalk) and the fact that the neighborhood is directly served by the Brighton Beach Avenue subway station, makes it a popular summer weekend destination for thousands of New York City residents.In popular culture
*The 1994 film "
Little Odessa " is set in Brighton Beach.
*TheNeil Simon play, "Brighton Beach Memoirs ", which won twoTony award s in 1983, is set against the backdrop of Brighton Beach in 1937.
*InDarren Aronofsky 's 2001 movie, "Requiem for a Dream ", the character Sara Goldfarb (played byEllen Burstyn ) lives in an apartment on Brighton 6th Street.
*In the movie "Lord of War ", the main character, Yuri Orlov, played byNicolas Cage , lives in Brighton Beach.
*In the songs "Hey Pete" and "Xero Tolerance" byType O Negative , Brighton Beach is mentioned as the place where Pete is going to kill his cheating girlfriend. The D-train is his means of transportation in these songs.
* The French electronic music groupTelepopmusik has a song on their albumAngel Milk entitled "Brighton Beach".
* In the 2007 crime drama, "We Own the Night ", the character Bobby Green, played byJoaquin Phoenix , is the manager of a nightclub in Brighton Beach.
*Brighton Beach is also featured in the 1990s Russian spy-comedy with the extra long title - "There's Good Weather in Deribasovskaya, It's Raining Again in Brighton Beach"
*In the Russian crime filmBrother 2 , Danila, the protagonist, comes to Brighton Beach from Russia.
*"In Every Laugh A Tear" (Lesléa Newman ) takes place partly in Brighton Beach
*In the 2000 novel "Vector" by Robin Cook, disillusioned former Russian biochemical worker Yuri Davydov develops weapons-grade Anthrax in the basement of his Brighton Beach home.
*Brighton Beach is where Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character Neil McCormick was taken to be beaten and raped in 2004 film,Mysterious Skin .
*In the 2008 video game "Grand Theft Auto IV ", Brighton Beach is represented by the neighborhood of "Hove Beach." This is presumably a reference to the fact that Brighton in England has a well known beach of its own, which runs directly into that of neighbouring Hove.
*In the space flight simulatorOrbiter (sim) , there is a fictional base on themoon named Brighton Beach.
*Is mentioned in aRilo Kiley song, "Close Call," in which the lyrics "She was born on a Brighton pier to a gypsy mother and a bucket of tears..." are sung.Transportation
Car
Major Highways/Roads in Brighton Beach are the Belt Pkwy, Coney Island Ave, Ocean Pkwy.
Subway
You could acess the subway on Brighton Beach Ave. Stations are where Brighton Beach Ave is under subway. Under subway begins at Coney Island Ave and ends at W Brighton Ave when road splits.
References
See also
*
Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad
*There's Good Weather in Deribasovskaya, It's Raining Again in Brighton Beach , a 1992 filmExternal links
* [http://www.brightonbeach.com/ Brighton Beach Neighborhood Association]
* [http://www.brightonbeachbid.org/ Brighton Beach Business Improvement District]
* [http://www.nycfoto.com/showPage.php?albumID=865 Photo gallery]
* [http://viewofnewyork.free.fr/View%20Of%20New%20York/Brooklyn/Brighton%20Beach/index.html View of Brighton Beach]
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