ipl-logo

Personal Narrative Essay: The City Of Far Rockaway

1074 Words5 Pages

In 2008, I moved to an apartment in Rockaway Park located in Far Rockaway. I’ll admit, the neighborhood was far from attractive when I first arrived. The rumor mills stirred up a storm suggesting that Far Rockaway was well… “Rough around the edges” for a lack of a better term. Working on Riker’s Island, most of our patients who reside in Queens often came from Far Rockaway, thereby confirming the rumors that the town was riddled with crime, infested with drugs and plagued with anything one might consider rebellious or unscrupulous were true. And on my first day, I got lost and winded up surrounded by… you guessed it, The Projects. That was enough to dither anyone from any potential Real Estate or, in my case, rental agreement – regardless how appealing the offer could be. So why did I agree to move there in spite of the distasteful first impression? Before I can answer that, allow me to dive into the demographic details and …show more content…

It runs from Riis Park, all the way to Long Beach or Atlantic Beach, Long Island. The Jews occupy some of Queens, (Seagirt) to Long Beach (Lawrence, NY or Five Towns). The Blacks occupy most of Queens, from Seagirt to Beach 100 Street. And the remaining of Far Rockaway belongs to the Irish all the way up to Breezy Point, which is 98% white according to Wikipedia.
But what sets the Rockaways apart from all other towns and neighborhood across the entire New York State is the beach. Sure, there are beaches everywhere and once you’ve seen one, then you’ve seen them all. That could be true, yet, it’s not just the beach; it’s the boardwalk, the houses, the buildings and the overall experience. Far Rockaway might be the only region that allows people from all walks of life to share the same experience, regardless of income, race or creed. Unlike the Hamptons you don’t need to be a millionaire to enjoy the shore. The beach is ours and no one can take that away from

Show More
Related

Amazing Grace Kozol Summary

1097 Words | 5 Pages

The Life of Bronx As Jonathan Kozol talk about the life of the Bronx in New York in his book, Amazing Grace, he talked about a lot of many things going on in the Bronx, like crimes, poverty, health, the environment, and many more. In the book, Kozol mentioned a lot about crimes either a murder, robbery, rape, or shootings. Again, in the book, there was a part that popped out to me, it was about the police in South Bronx. And lastly, the poverty of The Bronx. Although many years have passed, have the situation of the Bronx changed or have it stayed the same?

Read More

Race, Housing, And The Soul Of Suburbia Summary

1580 Words | 7 Pages

The idea of equality for all people, regardless of their race, is instilled in the American society of today. Unfortunately, this idea has not always been present, which ultimately has caused many issues for America’s society in the past. As discussed in the book Our Town: Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia, David L. Kirp focuses on the inequality that was found between the low-income blacks and the middle class whites in a South Jersey town, Mount Laurel. At the time, the whites had a goal of running the blacks out of the town by making the costs of housing expensive enough where blacks could not afford it. This lead to unequal treatment for the blacks who lived in Mount Laurel compared to the whites when it came to housing opportunities.

Read More

Analysis Of Why The Beach Is A Bummer By Roxane Gay

242 Words | 1 Pages

In the NY Times article “Why the Beach Is a Bummer,” Roxane Gay exploits the beach and the ways it never actually lives up to the expectation many have when summer comes around. Gay speaks of her childhood on the beaches of Haiti and how beautiful it was, but how different it is in the United States because there's such a high expectation for the beach since many areas aren’t surrounded by them. “The beach becomes a kind of utopia — the place where all our dreams come true”(Gay), meaning the beach becomes romanticized by so many when in reality there’s just sand in places where it doesn't belong whether in your book or on your body. Gay expresses how soon after arriving at the beach boredom approaches from having nothing to do besides

Read More

Summary Of Is The New Brooklyn Economy

739 Words | 3 Pages

Is there change in Brooklyn? What type of changes? Are the changes beneficial to the ecology and economy? Brooklyn is best known for the historical monuments that may remind us of the yester-years of our past; Coney Island, Nathan’s hot dog, Junior’s cheesecake, the Botanical Garden are well known in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn that was once considered nostalgic is now becoming more uber-trendy and a replacement for Manhattan.

Read More

Personal Narrative: Mt. Holly, NJ

288 Words | 2 Pages

This housing was eventually sold and renamed the Mount Holly Gardens. This was not known to be the ideal place to raise a family. It was known as the “projects” or “ghetto.” The streets were riddled with garbage, people hanging out on the corners, stray cats and dogs wondering about.

Read More

Summary Of Suburban America Problems And Promise

1491 Words | 6 Pages

The film presents a brief history of how suburbs came into existence, and it focuses on listing the challenges that the suburban communities faced many decades ago, as well as challenges that are present today. In addition, the film also shows some events that illustrate that despite some problems that the communities are facing, there are also hopes for positive outcomes. To demonstrate the complexities and the challenges that the suburban communities are facing, the author of the film utilized various locations around the country. The movie shows clips from multiple states that include Colorado, California, Virginia, Ohio, and Illinois. However, some of the main events in the film take place in the various towns of the New York state.

Read More

Summary Of Garbage By Kate Kelley

930 Words | 4 Pages

To anyone who will listen, they boast of leading the world in everything from Mafia murders to porno movie house.” (106). Kelley stress how narrow minded New York’s people are. Most normal individuals within society wouldn’t brag about negative aspect of their city and their people, especially about their

Read More

Kozol's Amazing Grace Analysis

1367 Words | 6 Pages

Gladwell explained that “Black Americans are much likely to stay in place and much less likely than whites to engage in contextual mobility” (Gladwell, 2015,p.3). Since South Bronx is mostly African Americans and Hispanics, not much contextual mobility occurs within this community and that results in not many changes in circumstances or opportunities for these people. The only move they do proceed in doing is referred to as “churning” as Gladwell puts it and only do so if the house is unlivable. These people don’t seek for a better lifestyle, but they are forced into this better lifestyle.

Read More

Personal Narrative: The Glass Castle: A Memoir

245 Words | 1 Pages

New York, Scribner, 2006, page 245. Like Jeannette Walls, my first glimpse of the city sent a rush of adrenaline through my body. The idea of living in New York City was nerve wracking since city life was so different compared to living in a sheltered town like White Rock. When I was 11, my family and I moved to the city due to my father receiving a job offer there as a professor. Several weeks passed before I got somewhat used to living there, and I occasionally hoped people didn’t judge me for being

Read More

South Bronx In The 70s Analysis

526 Words | 3 Pages

A large number of multi-family apartment buildings were abandoned along with the bad economy and unemployed people, produced a large quantity of street gangs which were using drug dealing for support themselves. Also this large amount of abandoned buildings, because there owners weren’t receiving any money of them, start to pay to this gangs for burn the buildings entirely and them be able to collect the money of the insurance. In total over the 40% of the south Bronx was burned and abandoned between 1970 and

Read More

Lincoln Park: The Role Of Gentrification In Inner City

1077 Words | 5 Pages

Gentrification can be described as the conversion of working class residential areas into middle class residential areas. The process of gentrification tends to take place in inner-city neighborhoods that are located close to central business districts. The concept of gentrification began in the 1960s with the movement of private-market investment capital into downtown business districts of major urban centers or inner-cities. During the 1970s, there was a decline in the housing in inner cities, which caused the push to rehab the deteriorating housing near the central business districts. Some of the rehabilitation of the deteriorating housing was publicly subsidized, but the majority was financed by the private market.

Read More

Personal Narrative: My Life In East Oakland

545 Words | 3 Pages

The way I felt about my city and my surroundings had a strong correlation with the way I felt about myself. Prior to this realization, my dreams and aspirations for the future were minimal. I performed well throughout elementary school, and I was moved up a grade because my reading and math skills were advanced. However, when I began attending middle school, the new atmosphere combined with all of the new awareness I gained as I started transitioning from a child to an adolescent ended up in me lowering the expectations I had for myself. Once I regained my optimism and saw that Oakland is not what people say it is, I began seeing life in an optimistic way as

Read More

Personal Narrative: My Growing Up In Baltimore Maryland

373 Words | 2 Pages

I grew up in inner city Baltimore Maryland. Neither of my parents were or are followers of Christ. They divorced when I was very young. I spent most of my life moving from place to place with my mother and two brothers. I gave up on high school when I failed my freshmen year.

Read More

Zadie Smith's Find Your Beach

814 Words | 4 Pages

In “Find Your Beach”, a narrative essay written by Zadie Smith, the writer expresses her belief that is one is adamant enough, one can arrive at their beach - a paradise-like environment that people dream of, but is believed to be very hard to obtain. The idea of a person’s “beach” being hard to discover can be observed through Smith’s personal background, as it is almost mythical for this English writer living in Soho, Manhattan to come by a beach. What I took away from Smith’s text is the idea that when you finally arrive at your beach, “sooner or later you will be sitting on that beach wondering what comes next”. Overall, I interpreted one’s beach being defined as a person’s happiness. It is something we all have the potential to posses

Read More

Gentrification Informative Speech

1145 Words | 5 Pages

Title: Gentrifying Chicago neighborhoods. General Purpose: To inform my audience of Gentrification in the Norther part of Chicago around the 1960s. Specific Purpose: At the end of my speech, the audience will understand the meaning of gentrification, how Puerto Rican families in the Northern part of Chicago lost their homes to Gentrification, how they fought against gentrification, and how gentrification is now occurring to Mexican families in the Southern part of Chicago. Thesis: Puerto Rican families lost their homes in the 1960s when Lincoln Park was gentrified despites their best efforts, and today Mexican families are losing their homes in Pilsen to gentrification. Introduction I. Attention: What would you risk in order to continue having a home?

Read More

More about Personal Narrative Essay: The City Of Far Rockaway

Related Topics

Open Document