Entry from November 15, 2004
Irish Riviera (Breezy Point)
Breezy Point (Far Rockaway) used to be called "the Irish Riviera." Spring Lake, New Jersey also claims the title. A newer nickname for the same area is "Hamptons West."
Wikipedia: Far Rockaway, Queens
Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. It describes the easternmost section of the Rockaways, usually the area east of Beach 77th Street, comprising the neighborhoods of Bayswater, Edgemere, Arverne, as well as Far Rockaway proper and Downtown Far Rockaway. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 14.
Far Rockaway's character is that of an inner-city, oceanfront district, in some ways having more in common with Asbury Park, New Jersey than with New York City. Far Rockaway is one of the most distant New York neighborhoods from Manhattan, the cultural and financial center of New York City. Formerly populated by Eastern European Jewish and Irish immigrants, it now has a large African American population, though the westernmost portion still remains mostly Irish. Downtown Far Rockaway has a moderately large Central American population. There is also a large Orthodox Jewish population in the easternmost part of Far Rockaway, which borders Inwood and Lawrence, and other areas in the densely-Jewish Five Towns area across the Nassau County border. The area is home to a large and growing number of Haredi Jews with a large network of yeshivas and Jewish communal needs.
Recently, the area is being renewed with new beach houses and waterfront development. There has been a steady attempt at cleaning up the area, and along with its rough appearance, the crime rate is relatively high.
(...)
Rockaway Beach is sometimes known as the "Irish Riviera."
16 September 1963, New York (NY) Times, pg. 41:
With a wry sense of its own identity, Breezy Point sometimes calls itself the Irish Riviera.
3 September 1973, New York (NY) Times, pg. 37:
"The Irish Riviera" was once the nickname for all of Breezy Point.
1 September 1976, New York (NY) Times, pg. 17:
On the left: Breezy Point, the eastern end of the Hamptons, with some Federal Babylonian architecture in the expansive and humorless style of Robert Moses, and the copoerative development known as "the Irish Riviera," white and mostly working class and as secure, along a single public road, as one of Governor Rockefeller's bomb shelters.
6 June 1999, New York (NY) Times, pg. NJ8:
Spring Lake, all lawns and porches, is often called "the Irish Riviera," the common wisdom being that this resort is to the New York Irish what Hyannis is to the Boston Irish.
Wikipedia: Far Rockaway, Queens
Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. It describes the easternmost section of the Rockaways, usually the area east of Beach 77th Street, comprising the neighborhoods of Bayswater, Edgemere, Arverne, as well as Far Rockaway proper and Downtown Far Rockaway. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 14.
Far Rockaway's character is that of an inner-city, oceanfront district, in some ways having more in common with Asbury Park, New Jersey than with New York City. Far Rockaway is one of the most distant New York neighborhoods from Manhattan, the cultural and financial center of New York City. Formerly populated by Eastern European Jewish and Irish immigrants, it now has a large African American population, though the westernmost portion still remains mostly Irish. Downtown Far Rockaway has a moderately large Central American population. There is also a large Orthodox Jewish population in the easternmost part of Far Rockaway, which borders Inwood and Lawrence, and other areas in the densely-Jewish Five Towns area across the Nassau County border. The area is home to a large and growing number of Haredi Jews with a large network of yeshivas and Jewish communal needs.
Recently, the area is being renewed with new beach houses and waterfront development. There has been a steady attempt at cleaning up the area, and along with its rough appearance, the crime rate is relatively high.
(...)
Rockaway Beach is sometimes known as the "Irish Riviera."
16 September 1963, New York (NY) Times, pg. 41:
With a wry sense of its own identity, Breezy Point sometimes calls itself the Irish Riviera.
3 September 1973, New York (NY) Times, pg. 37:
"The Irish Riviera" was once the nickname for all of Breezy Point.
1 September 1976, New York (NY) Times, pg. 17:
On the left: Breezy Point, the eastern end of the Hamptons, with some Federal Babylonian architecture in the expansive and humorless style of Robert Moses, and the copoerative development known as "the Irish Riviera," white and mostly working class and as secure, along a single public road, as one of Governor Rockefeller's bomb shelters.
6 June 1999, New York (NY) Times, pg. NJ8:
Spring Lake, all lawns and porches, is often called "the Irish Riviera," the common wisdom being that this resort is to the New York Irish what Hyannis is to the Boston Irish.
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