Brighton Beach

For other uses, see Brighton Beach (disambiguation).

A Russian-language bookstore under the elevated train tracks in Brighton Beach

Brighton Beach is a community on Coney Island in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City, USA.

It is bounded by the community of Coney Island proper on the west, Manhattan Beach on the east, and the Atlantic Ocean on the south.

Brighton Beach was developed as a beach resort in 1878 and was named in a contest; the winning name evoked the resort of Brighton, England. The centerpiece of the resort was the large Hotel Brighton or Brighton Beach Hotel, placed on the beach at what is now the foot of Coney Island Avenue and accessed by the Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railway, known then and now as the Brighton Beach Line, which opened on July 2, 1878.

Brighton Beach was redeveloped as a fairly dense residential community with the final rebuilding of the Brighton Beach railway into a modern rapid transit line of the New York City Subway system c.1920. The community now has a large community of primarily Russian immigrants who left what was the Soviet Union in 1980s and 1990s. The majority of these immigrants are Jewish, however, living in the USSR has made them in many ways culturally distinct from the Jewish immigrants that moved to the neighborhood decades earlier from Tsarist Russia. While in many cases their Jewish origins played a role in their immigration (such as frustration with anti-semitism), the suppression of religion in general and Jewish culture in particular by the Communist Party has resulted in most of these emigres being culturally more like their non-Jewish fellow Russians than that of the earlier Jewish immigrants from that part of the world.

In late 1970's to mid 1980's Brighton Beach was beginning to become a bad neighborhood due to crime wave sweeping across much of America's cities. However, having just arrived and having nowhere else to go, new Russian immigrants fought bloody battles on the streets of Brighton Beach and succesfully pushed out most of the the criminal element in the neighborhood.

Currently, Brighton Beach is replete with restaurants (mostly Russian) and Russian food stores. During daytime, the street is filled with people - generally Russian immigrants. The community, with an estimated population of 150,000, has a distinctively ethnic feel - akin to Manhattan's Chinatown. The proximity of Brighton Beach to the city's beaches (the street runs parallel to the Coney Island beach area and the Boardwalk) and the fact that the street is located right under the Brighton Beach Avenue subway station, makes it a popular summer weekend destination for thousands of NYC residents.Brighton Beach is also home to largest population of the Russian Mafia, wich grew in size greatly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Russian Organized crime has since then moved west to California, Oregon, and Washington. The Russian Mafia is involved in such schemes as money laundering, Drug Trafficing, Arms Trafficing, Illeagal Women Trafficing, and many others. The Russian Mafia is considerd the most powerful organized crime syndicate in the world today with a bulstering money supply of over 10 billion dollars, along with very strong control over the Russian ecnonemy.

Bildung

Brighton Beach, like all of New York City, is served by the New York City Department of Education. Manhattan Beach is zoned to PS 225 The Eileen E. Zaglin School for grades K-8. Brighton Beach is not zoned to any high schools as all New York City high school students are required to apply to their high schools of choice.

Nearby high schools include:

• Rachel Carson's School of Coastal Studies
• John Dewey High School
• Leon Goldstein High School for Sciences
• William E. Grady Vocational High School
• Abraham Lincoln High School

External links

• Brighton Beach Neighborhood Assocation