Brooklyn Invades Staten Island
"I'm no racist!" the Staten Island real estate broker assured me. "I'll rent to any black from Staten Island before I'll rent to a Brooklynite!"
Surely it must have been one of the great intra-city migrations in NYC history - when thousands of Brooklynites (most notably those of Italian ancestry) moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island, taking advantage of the new Verrazano Narrows Bridge. (Old times from SI called it the “Guinea Gang Plank). The movement started in the Sixties but was really taking off in the early to mid-Seventies. It was almost a cliche; Vinny and Maria from Bensonhurst marry and get their first place together on Staten Island.
The developers were waiting for Vinny and Maria. Houses and garden apartment complexes were popping up everywhere. Many of the homes had no basements; they sat on concrete slabs planted in rows on top of a former marsh somewhere. My cousin was one of the pioneers in her development, somewhere off of Richmond Avenue. Her two-family “mother-daughter” house was a long haul from any established neighborhood, and public transit was a farce. One bus had a graffito scribbled by some disgruntled driver that said something like “1960-1970" Brooklyn. 1970-1975 Bronx. Now SI. Tell the mayor we need new busses!”
The long-term residents of SI (defined as those who were there before the bridge) often scorned the new arrivals, ridiculing everything from their Brooklyn accents to the cars they drove. But they certainly made money off of them. The new buildings they put up were as cheaply-made as can be. If a lot wasn't wide enough for a house, they would put it in sideways. What garbage!
Gradually, an additional chapter developed for the Brooklyn emmigrants. As they got ahead economically (and these were very hard-working and entrapeneurial people, despite what the old timers thought) they frequently left for Long Island or New Jersey.
Surely it must have been one of the great intra-city migrations in NYC history - when thousands of Brooklynites (most notably those of Italian ancestry) moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island, taking advantage of the new Verrazano Narrows Bridge. (Old times from SI called it the “Guinea Gang Plank). The movement started in the Sixties but was really taking off in the early to mid-Seventies. It was almost a cliche; Vinny and Maria from Bensonhurst marry and get their first place together on Staten Island.
The developers were waiting for Vinny and Maria. Houses and garden apartment complexes were popping up everywhere. Many of the homes had no basements; they sat on concrete slabs planted in rows on top of a former marsh somewhere. My cousin was one of the pioneers in her development, somewhere off of Richmond Avenue. Her two-family “mother-daughter” house was a long haul from any established neighborhood, and public transit was a farce. One bus had a graffito scribbled by some disgruntled driver that said something like “1960-1970" Brooklyn. 1970-1975 Bronx. Now SI. Tell the mayor we need new busses!”
The long-term residents of SI (defined as those who were there before the bridge) often scorned the new arrivals, ridiculing everything from their Brooklyn accents to the cars they drove. But they certainly made money off of them. The new buildings they put up were as cheaply-made as can be. If a lot wasn't wide enough for a house, they would put it in sideways. What garbage!
Gradually, an additional chapter developed for the Brooklyn emmigrants. As they got ahead economically (and these were very hard-working and entrapeneurial people, despite what the old timers thought) they frequently left for Long Island or New Jersey.
posted by Tony the Tour Guy | 8:23 PM
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