NEIGHBORHOOD
Canarsie is a neighborhood in the southern part of Brooklyn and is bordered on the east by Fresh Creek Basin, East 108th St., and the L Subway line, on the North by Linden Boulevard, on the west by Remsen Avenue and on the South by Jamaica Bay. Canarsie is surrounded by the neighborhoods of East Flatbush, Flatlands, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, and East New York. Canarsie was built on swamps near Jamaica Bay.
The name “Canarsee”‘s etymology is in dispute, but it some scholars of Native American tongues say it means “fenced land” or “fenced place.” Beginning in the 1600s, years of warring with the invading Dutch took their toll on the Indians in western Long Island; most of the Canarsees repaired east and today most of the descendants of the Canarsees can be found at the Poospatuck Reservation, near Patchogue in eastern Long Island. The reservation numbered but 271 in the 2000 Census. The first European to make a permanent home in the Canarsie area was Dutchman Peter Claesen Wyckoff, who arrived in 1652 after several years of indentured servitude in Albany. The home that he built that year at Canaries’ outskirts, Where Southern Italian immigrants with Jews settled in the area. During the 1990’s, much of Canarsie’s white population left to Staten Island, Long Island, and Queens, part of a national urban phenomenon referred to by many as “white flight.”
Today, Canarsie’s population is mostly West Indian due to the large numbers of Immigrants from the Islands living there. At the southeast end of the neighborhood lies Canarsie Pier on Jamaica Bay, a fishing recreation area. Canarsie Pier is part of Gateway National Recreation Area which is a National Park Service site. At the other end are mostly commercial warehouses and buildings. Canarsie has many one and two family homes, although there are two large public housing developments; NYCHA's "Breukelen" houses, and "Bayview" houses, and a number of small apartment buildings scattered throughout the
The name “Canarsee”‘s etymology is in dispute, but it some scholars of Native American tongues say it means “fenced land” or “fenced place.” Beginning in the 1600s, years of warring with the invading Dutch took their toll on the Indians in western Long Island; most of the Canarsees repaired east and today most of the descendants of the Canarsees can be found at the Poospatuck Reservation, near Patchogue in eastern Long Island. The reservation numbered but 271 in the 2000 Census. The first European to make a permanent home in the Canarsie area was Dutchman Peter Claesen Wyckoff, who arrived in 1652 after several years of indentured servitude in Albany. The home that he built that year at Canaries’ outskirts, Where Southern Italian immigrants with Jews settled in the area. During the 1990’s, much of Canarsie’s white population left to Staten Island, Long Island, and Queens, part of a national urban phenomenon referred to by many as “white flight.”
Today, Canarsie’s population is mostly West Indian due to the large numbers of Immigrants from the Islands living there. At the southeast end of the neighborhood lies Canarsie Pier on Jamaica Bay, a fishing recreation area. Canarsie Pier is part of Gateway National Recreation Area which is a National Park Service site. At the other end are mostly commercial warehouses and buildings. Canarsie has many one and two family homes, although there are two large public housing developments; NYCHA's "Breukelen" houses, and "Bayview" houses, and a number of small apartment buildings scattered throughout the