ZIP Code 11214

Brooklyn was founded by the Dutch in the 17th century and grew into a busy port city by the 19th century. In 1898, after a long political campaign and public relations battle during the 1890s, in accordance to the new Municipal Charter of "Greater New York", Brooklyn was consolidated in and annexed. Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2,736,074 residents in 2020. It is located on the western portion of Long Island and shares a border with the borough of Queens. Brooklyn's official motto, displayed on the Borough seal and flag, is Eendraght Maeckt Maght, which translates from early modern Dutch as "Unity makes strength." In the first decades of the 21st century, Brooklyn has experienced a renaissance as a destination for hipsters, with concomitant gentrification, dramatic house price increases, and a decrease in housing affordability. The name Brooklyn is derived from the original Dutch town of Breukelen. The oldest mention of the settlement in the Netherlands is in a charter of 953 by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I as Broecklede. This form is made up of the words broeck, meaning bog or marshland, and lede, meaning small (dug) water stream specifically in peat areas. The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle Long Island's western edge, which was then largely inhabited by the Lenape, an Algonquian-speaking American Indian tribe often referred to in European documents by the place name "Canarsie".

Toponym

Brooklyn is the primary city name, but also Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Hgts are acceptable city names or spellings. The name Brooklyn is derived from the original Dutch town of Breukelen. The oldest mention of the settlement in the Netherlands is in a charter of 953 by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I as Broecklede. There have been so many variations of the name that its origin has been debated. Some have claimed breuckelen means "broken land" The current name, however, is the one that best reflects its meaning. The name of the ancient town in Holland has been Bracola, Broccke and Brocckede. The New Amsterdam settlement of Breuklen also went through many spelling variations, including Breucklyn, Breuckland, Brucklyn, Broucklyn, Brookland, Brockland, Broiclede, Brocklin, and Brookline/Brook-line. It was established in 1646, and the name first appeared in print in 1663. It is also known as Broikelen, Broekclen, Breikelen and finally Breuckelen. It has also been known as Brocklandia, Broikclen and Brockland. It also has been called Broukleen, Brokele, and Broukele, among other names. It became known as Brooklyn in the 19th century. The city's current name is Brooklyn, which means "town" or "city" in Dutch and "Brooklyn" in English, and means "a city of people" in the English language, and "a town" in Spanish.

History

The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years. The settlement began in the 17th century as the small Dutch-founded town of "Breuckelen" on the East River shore of Long Island. Brooklyn became a part of the West Riding of York Shire in the Province of New York, one of the Middle Colonies of nascent British America. Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the English captured the New Netherland colony in 1664, a prelude to the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North America's first tide mill, built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today. Brooklyn Heights, or Clover Hill, is where the village of Brooklyn was founded in 1816; Flatlands: as Nieuw Amersfoort in 1647; Flatbush: as Midwout in 1652, after the city of Utrecht, Netherlands; and Bushwick: as Boswijck in 1661. On August 27, 1776, the Battle of Long island (also known as the 'Battle of Brooklyn') was fought, the first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared. British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights near the modern sites of Green-Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park, and Grand Army Plaza. While Washington's defeat on the battlefield cast early doubts on his ability as commander, his withdrawal of troops and supplies across East River in the single night is now seen by historians as one of his most brilliant triumphs.

Geography

Brooklyn is 97 square miles (250 km²) in area. The borough is the second-largest by land area among the New York City's boroughs. Brooklyn lies at the southwestern end of Long Island, and the borough's western border constitutes the island's western tip. To the east of Brooklyn lies the borough of Queens, which contains John F. Kennedy International Airport in that borough's Jamaica neighborhood. Brooklyn experiences a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) with nearly 50 in (1,300 mm) of precipitation annually. The area averages 234 days with at least some sunshine annually, and averages 57% of possible sunshine annually. It lies in the USDA 7b plant hardiness zone and receives 2,535 hours of sunshine per annum. It is home to the Brooklyn Nets baseball team, which has been in existence since 1988. Brooklyn is the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers football team, who won the World Series of baseball in 1988. The Brooklyn Nets are a Major League Baseball franchise, having won the Super Bowl in 2004 and the World Cup in 2010. Brooklyn has a population of 2.2 million. It has one of the highest homicide rates in the U.S. among major cities, with more than 20 murders per 100,000 residents in 2013. It also has the highest murder rate in the United States, with nearly 20 per cent of murders occurring in the city of New York. The city has a high homicide rate, the highest of any major city in New York state.

Neighborhoods

Brooklyn's most populous racial group, white, declined from 97.2% in 1930 to 46.9% by 1990. Over 600,000 Jews, particularly Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, have become concentrated in such historically Jewish areas as Borough Park, Williamsburg, and Midwood. Over 200,000 Chinese Americans live throughout the southern parts of Brooklyn, primarily concentrated in Sunset Park, Bensonhurst, Gravesend and Homecrest. Brooklyn is the borough that is home to the highest number of Chinatowns in New York City. In 2010, 51.6% of the population was counted as members of religious congregations. In 2014, there were 914 religious organizations in Brooklyn, the 10th most of all counties in the nation. Many non-Orthodox Jews (ranging from observant members of various denominations to atheists of Jewish cultural heritage) are concentrated in Ditmas Park and Park Slope, with smaller observant and culturally Jewish populations in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Brighton Beach, and Coney Island. Since the 2000s, the Chinese population in the area dramatically shifted to majority Fuzhounese Americans, rendering this Chinatown with the nicknames "Fuzhou Town" or the "Little Fuzhou ()" of Brooklyn. Although the largest community of West Indians outside of the Caribbean is in the central Brooklyn neighborhoods of East Flatbush, Kensington, and Canarsie, Brooklyn's West Indian community is concentrated in the Crown Heights, East Flat Bush, and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods.

Demographics

At the 2020 census, 2,736,074 people lived in Brooklyn. In 2020, the government of New York City projected Brooklyn's population at 2,648,403. The 2019 census estimates determined there were 958,567 households with an average of 2.66 persons per household. There were 1,065,399 housing units in 2019 and a median gross rent of $1,426. In 2010, Brooklyn had some neighborhoods segregated based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Overall, the southwest half of Brooklyn is racially mixed although it contains few black residents. The northeast section is mostly black and Hispanic/Latino. As of 2010, 54.1% (1,240,416) of Brooklyn residents ages 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 17.2% (393,340) spoke Spanish, 6.5% (148,012) Chinese, 5.3% (121,607) Russian, 3% (79,469) Yiddish, 2.8% (63,019) French Creole, 1.4% (31,004) Italian, Hebrew, 1,2, Hebrew and 1.0% (23,207) Polish. In total, 45.9% of Brooklyn’s population ages 5 or older spoke a mother language other than English. The 2020 American Community Survey estimated the racial and ethnic makeup of Brooklyn was 35. 4% non-Hispanic white, 26.7% Black or African American, 13.6% Asian or Alaska Native, 0.1, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 4.1%, Hispanic or Latin American.

Culture

Brooklyn's official colors are blue and gold. The Brooklyn accent has often been portrayed as the "typical New York accent" in American media. Brooklyn hosts the world-renowned Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the second-largest public art collection in the United States, housed in the Brooklyn Museum. The borough is home to the arts and politics monthly Brooklyn Rail, as well as arts and cultural quarterly Cabinet. Over 60 ethnic groups, writing in 42 languages, publish some 300 non-English language magazines and newspapers in New York City. The annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade (mid-to-late June) is a costume-and-float parade. Brooklyn Community Access Television is the borough's public access channel. Brooklyn is also served by the major New York dailies, including The New York Times, the New York Daily News, andThe New York Post. Brooklyn has several local newspapers: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Bay Currents (Oceanfront Brooklyn), Brooklyn View, The Brooklyn Paper, and Courier-Life Publications. El Diario La Prensa, the largest and oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the U.S., maintains its corporate headquarters at 1 MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn. Major ethnic publications include the Brooklyn-Queens Catholic paper The Tablet, Hamodia, an Orthodox Jewish daily and The Jewish Press, a bilingual magazine printed in Italian and English since 1974. Our Time Press published weekly by DBG Media covers the Village of Brooklyn with a motto of "The Local paper with the Global-View".

Economy

Brooklyn's job market is driven by three main factors: the performance of the national and city economy, population flows and the borough's position as a convenient back office for New York's businesses. Since 1975, Brooklyn has shifted from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy. Since 2000, 91% of the approximately 38,704 business establishments in Brooklyn had fewer than 20 employees. The rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn has generated over US$10 billion of private investment and $300 million in public improvements since 2004. Brooklyn is also attracting numerous high technology start-up companies, as Silicon Alley, the metonym for New Yorkers' entrepreneurship ecosystem, has expanded from Lower Manhattan into Brooklyn. The borough's unemployment rate was 5.9% as of August 2008, and there were 37 banks and 26 credit unions operating in the borough in 2010. The Brooklyn Navy Yard employed 70,000 people at its peak during World War II. The Missouri, the ship on which the Japanese formally surrendered, was built there, as was the Maine, whose sinking off Havana led to the start of the SpanishAmerican War. The iron-sided Civil War vessel the Monitor was built in Greenpoint. From 1968 to 1979 Seatrain Shipbuilding was the major employer. Later tenants include industrial design firms, food processing businesses, artisans, and the film and television production industry. About 230 private-sector firms providing 4,000 jobs are at the Yard. In 2004, 215,000 Brooklyn residents worked in the services sector, while 27,500 worked in manufacturing.

Parks and other attractions

Coney Island developed as a playground for the rich in the early 1900s. It grew as one of America's first amusement grounds and attracted crowds from all over New York. Brooklyn's major professional sports team is the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. It has been home to many famous sports figures such as Joe Paterno, Vince Lombardi, Mike Tyson, Joe Torre, Sandy Koufax, Billy Cunningham and Vitas Gerulaitis. The Nets moved into the borough in 2012, and play their home games at Barclays Center in Prospect Heights. In April 2020, the New York Liberty of the WNBA were sold to the Nets' owners and moved their home venue from Madison Square Garden to the Barclays Center. The New York Transit Museum displays historical artifacts of Greater New York's subway, commuter rail, and bus systems. The second recorded game of baseball was played near what is today Fort Greene Park on October 24, 1845. The Brooklyn Atlantics and Eckords were the leading teams from the mid-50s through the Civil War, and there were dozens of local league teams. During this "Brooklyn era", Brooklyn's most famous historical team was the Brooklyn Dodgers, named for the "dodtrolley" for "dirt on the street" The Brooklyn Nets are a professional basketball team that moved to Brooklyn in 2012 and play at the Barclays Centre. The team's home games are played in Brooklyn Heights, a suburb of New York City. Brooklyn has a storied sports history.

Government and politics

As of November 2017, 89.1% of registered voters in Brooklyn were Democrats. Brooklyn has not voted for a Republican in a national presidential election since Calvin Coolidge in 1924. In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 79.4% of the vote in Brooklyn while Republican John McCain received 20.0%. In 2012, Barack Obama increased his Democratic margin of victory in the borough, dominating Brooklyn with 82.0%, to Republican Mitt Romney's 16.9%. In 2020, four Democrats and one Republican represented Brooklyn in the United States House of Representatives. One congressional district lies entirely within the borough. The Brooklyn Public Library is an independent nonprofit organization partially funded by the government of New York City, but also by New York State, the U.S. federal government, and private donors. The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with the local authority. The borough has 16 City Council members, the largest number of any of the five boroughs. Each of the city's five counties (coterminous with each borough) has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. The District Attorney of Kings County is Eric Gonzalez, who replaced Democrat Kenneth P. Thompson following his death in October 2016. The district also covers all of Staten Island and a small portion of Queens, and covers the West Side of Manhattan and the Upper East Side of Queens. In 2008, the district was represented by Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and Republican Jerrold Nadler.