Avenue U#Chinatown

{{Main|Chinatown, Brooklyn}}

Avenue U in Homecrest now supports southern Brooklyn's second Chinatown,{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/06/09/nyregion/new-york-citys-newest-immigrant-enclaves.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|title=A guide to the new immigrant enclaves of New York City|author=Kirk Semple|newspaper=The New York Times|date=2013-06-08|access-date=2013-06-09}}{{cite book|author=Ellen Freudenheim |title=Brooklyn: A Soup-to-Nuts Guide to Sites, Neighborhoods, and Restaurants |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |edition=2nd |date=1999| location=New York |page=103 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6JDcZ794OuwC&q=Avenue+U+Chinatown&pg=PA103 |isbn=9780312204464|access-date=2013-02-11}}{{cite book |author=Hauck-Lawson |first1=Annie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7yjunQcc-oC&q=Q+trains+goes+to+Brooklyn+Avenue+U+Chinatown&pg=PA136 |title=Gastropolis: Food and New York City |last2=Deutsch |first2=Jonathan |date=2009 |publisher=Columbia University |isbn=9780231136532 |series=Arts and traditions of the table |location=New York |page=136 |access-date=2013-02-11}} as evidenced by the growing number of Chinese food markets, bakeries, restaurants, beauty and nail salons, and computer and consumer electronics dealers between Coney Island Avenue and Ocean Avenue.{{cite web|url=http://web.mta.info/nyct/maps/subwaymap.pdf |title=MTA/New York City Transit Subway Map |publisher=MTA |access-date=2014-06-12}} Since 2004, the {{NYCS|Q}} train on the BMT Brighton Line goes to Canal Street in the Manhattan Chinatown to Brooklyn's Avenue U Chinatown directly. A third Chinatown has subsequently emerged in southern Brooklyn, in Bensonhurst, served by the {{NYCS trains|West End}}.

This Chinatown on Avenue U is actually a second extension of Manhattan's Chinatown, after the original Brooklyn Chinatown, which had developed in Sunset Park. Within a sixteen-year period, the Chinese population grew an estimated fourteenfold.{{cite web|author=Sallie Han and Daniel Young|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/nydn-features/avenue-u-evolves-mein-st-u-s-article-1.767069|title=AVENUE U EVOLVES INTO MEIN ST., U.S.A. |work=New York Daily News |date=1997-02-07 |access-date=2013-02-11}} The increasing property values and congestion in Brooklyn's first established Chinatown on 8th Avenue in Sunset Park led to the still increasing Chinese population in Brooklyn pouring into the Sheepshead Bay and Homecrest sections, which in the late 1990s resulted in the establishment of a second Chinatown on Avenue U between the Homecrest and Sheepshead Bay sections.{{cite web|author=Michael Cooper|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/22/nyregion/neighborhood-report-sheepshead-bay-new-language-and-a-new-life-for-avenue-u.html |title=NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: SHEEPSHEAD BAY; New Language, and a New Life, for Avenue U|work=The New York Times|date=1995-10-22 |access-date=2013-02-11}}{{cite book|author=Wendy Wan-Yin Tan |title=Chinatowns of New York City |publisher=Arcadia |series=Then and Now |date=2008 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQaZQdxN5fYC&q=Avenue+U+Chinatown+is+the+smallest+Chinatown+of+New+York&pg=PA10 |isbn=9780738555102| access-date=2013-02-11}}

The Avenue U Chinatown is now in expansion mode, despite originating initially from less than ten blocks,{{cite book|author=Min Zhou |title=Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave |publisher=Temple University |series=Conflicts in urban and regional development |date=1992 |location=Philadelphia |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcBxKK0cljcC&q=NYC+Chinatown+started+as+ten+blocks&pg=PA6 |isbn=9780877229346|access-date=2013-02-11}}{{Citation|author=Min Zhou |contribution=Ethnicity as social capital: community-based institutions and embedded networks of social relations |editor1=Glenn C. Loury|editor2=Tariq Modood|editor3=Steven Michael Teles|title=Ethnicity, Social Mobility and Public Policy: Comparing the USA and UK |publisher=Cambridge University |date=2005 |place=Cambridge / New York |page=142 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=usCZdjje1zMC&q=NYC+Chinatown+started+as+ten+blocks&pg=PA142 |isbn=9780521823098|access-date=2013-02-11}} originally resembling Manhattan's Chinatown in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when that Chinatown was still in the early stages of its development, and concentrated within a ten-block section of Mott, Doyers, and Pell Streets.

The Chinese residents call Avenue U in Chinese translation {{lang|zh-CN|U大道}} and call Sheepshead Bay ({{lang|zh-CN|羊头湾}}).{{cite book|author=Nancy Foner |title=New Immigrants in New York |publisher=Columbia University |date=1987 |page=145 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MR4iVnvulMQC&q=NYC+Chinatown+started+as+ten+blocks&pg=PA145 |isbn=9780231061308 |access-date=2013-02-11}}{{cite book|author=Martin Dunford and Jack Holland |title=The Rough Guide to New York City |publisher=Rough Guides |edition=6th |date=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l1YKyCci5PEC&q=Chinatown+began+on+Mott+Street&pg=PT144 |isbn=9781858282961 |access-date=2013-02-11}}{{cite book|author=Jan Lin |title=Reconstructing Chinatown: Ethnic Enclave, Global Change |publisher=University of Minnesota |series=Globalization and community |date=1998 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W5h_49sX0SQC&q=Chinatown+began+on+Mott+Street&pg=PA31 |isbn=9780816629046 |access-date=2013-02-11}} Just outside this Chinese enclave, also on Avenue U, there is a Chinese supermarket named New York Mart.{{cite web|url=http://kensingtonkitchen.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/new-york-mart-on-avenue-u/ |title=Local Love: New York Mart on Avenue U |publisher=Kensingtonkitchen.wordpress.com |date=2011-04-15 |access-date=2012-01-11}} The East West Bank currently serves as the largest Chinese financial institution for the Avenue U Chinatown.{{cite web |url=http://www.eastwestbank.com/English/BL-Brooklyn.asp |title=Branch Locations - Brooklyn |publisher=Eastwestbank.com |access-date=2013-02-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908055015/http://eastwestbank.com/English/BL-Brooklyn.asp |archive-date=2012-09-08 |url-status=dead }}

This newly emerging Chinese enclave and as well as in sections of Bensonhurst are primarily Cantonese populated and more of extensions of the Western Cantonese section of Manhattan's Chinatown or Little Hong Kong/Little Guangdong or Cantonese Town and although they all together have far surpassed Manhattan's Chinatown as being the largest Cantonese cultural centers of NYC, however this Avenue U Cantonese enclave alone is still the smallest Cantonese enclave of NYC while Bensonhurst alone is now home to the largest Cantonese cultural center of NYC. However, there are small numbers of Fuzhou and Mandarin speakers. There is also a small significant amount of Vietnamese Chinese residents integrated into the community as well.{{Cite web |date=2019 |title=Profile of New York City's Vietnamese Americans |url=https://www.aafederation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2019vt.pdf |access-date=2 October 2022 |website=Asian American Federation Census Information Center}}{{Cite web |date=September 2007 |title=Community Health Needs & Resource Assessment: An Exploratory Study of Vietnamese in NYC |url=https://med.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/asian-health2/chnra_vietnamese_0.pdf |access-date=2 October 2022 |website=NYU School of Medicine, Institute of Community Health and Research, Center for the Study of Asian American Health}}{{Cite web |date=2019 |title=Profile of New York City's Chinese Americans |url=https://www.aafederation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2019ch.pdf |access-date=2 October 2022 |website=Asian American Federation}}{{Cite web |date=2019 |title=NYC'S ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER (API) IMMIGRANT POPULATIONS |url=https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/immigrants/downloads/pdf/Fact-Sheet-NYCs-API-Immigrant-Population.pdf |access-date=2 October 2022 |website=NY Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs}}

File:Schenk-Crooke House2.jpg-Crooke House, built 1675, as it stood on what is now the corner of Avenue U and East 63rd Street]]

Chinese immigrants have become the second largest foreign-born group in New York City behind the Dominican Republic. As of 2016, approximately 12 percent of New York City's population, or 380,000 people, were born in the Dominican Republic. In second place, approximately 11 percent of New York City's population, or 350,000 people, were born in China. China, however, had the largest source of immigrants within Brooklyn. Chinese immigrants made up approximately 14 percent of Brooklyn's population, totaling to about 129,000 people. Bensonhurst specifically contained about 78,000 of those immigrants, making Bensonhurst's total population 53 percent foreign-born.{{Cite web|url=https://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/nyc-population/newest-new-yorkers-2013.page|title=The Newest New Yorkers|last=Lobo|first=Arun|date=2013|website=NYC Planning|publisher=Population Division of the New York City Department of City Planning|access-date=Oct 8, 2016}} The Avenue U Chinatown has the most pronounced and quickest growing Chinese population in all of New York City.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/nyregion/influx-of-chinese-immigrants-is-reshaping-large-parts-of-brooklyn.html|title=With an Influx of Newcomers, Little Chinatown's Dot a Changing Brooklyn|last=Robbins|first=Liz|date=Apr 15, 2015|website=The New York Times|access-date=Oct 8, 2016}} In the period of time from 1990-2000, the overall number of people living on Avenue U increased by 16-30 percent.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/ci_demographics.pdf|title=Demographic Analysis|last=New York City Government|date=2000|website=nyc.gov|pages=2–6|access-date=Nov 10, 2016}} Brooklyn's population, as of 2010, is 2.553 million and this number is expected to increase by over 11 percent by 2040.{{Cite web|url=http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/data-maps/nyc-population/projections_report_2010_2040.pdf|title=New York City Population Projections by Age/Sex & Borough,2010-2040|last1=Salvo|first1=Joseph|last2=Lobo|first2=Arun Peter|date=2010|website=nyc.gov|access-date=Nov 10, 2016|last3=Maurer|first3=Erica}}

Though Brooklyn's Avenue U has the largest Chinese population in all of New York City, the street itself is a filled evidence of other cultures. The Cantonese influence is visibly laced throughout the shops and restaurants on Avenue U. In addition, there are Italian, Mexican, Russian, Vietnamese, Uzbek, and more markets and restaurants scattered along the street. Culturally, Avenue U has hosted more than Chinese immigrants, moving from Jewish to Irish and Italian to Russian to Chinese and Mexican immigrants alike. With each wave of new immigrants, the old culture will find a new place within New York to settle.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/realestate/10livi.html|title=A Neighborhood Both Insular and Diverse|last=Mooney|first=Jake|date=Aug 8, 2016|website=The New York Times|access-date=Oct 8, 2016}}

Middle-class immigrants populate Gravesend, one section in which Avenue U is located. As of 2008, these immigrants pay upward of $600,000 to live close to their relatives. Jewish, Irish, and Italian families most of all populate the Sephardic community. At the same time, Chinese, Mexican, Russian, and Yugoslavian immigrants also live in Gravesend.

There are three New York City Subway stations in Brooklyn named Avenue U:

• Avenue U station (BMT Brighton Line), served by the {{NYCS trains|Brighton local}}
• Avenue U station (IND Culver Line), served by the {{NYCS trains|Culver IND south local}}
• Avenue U station (BMT Sea Beach Line), served by the {{NYCS trains|Sea Beach}}

Bus service on Avenue U is provided by the following:

• The {{NYC bus link|B3}} bus operates on Avenue U for its entire length, except from 86th Street to Stillwell Avenue and from East 71st Street to Bergen Avenue. East 71st Street is the route’s eastern terminal.
• The {{NYC bus link|B47}} runs on the avenue between Mill Avenue and East 54th Street, located near Kings Plaza, where it terminates.
• The {{NYC bus link|B100}} runs between Mill Avenue and East 66th Street.
• The {{NYC bus link|BM1}} express bus runs between East 71st Street and East 66th Street.

{{Portal|China|New York (state)|New York City|United States}}

• Chinatowns in NYC:
• Brooklyn's Fuzhou Town
• Chinatown, Manhattan
• Chinatown, Flushing
• Chinatown, Elmhurst
• Little Hong Kong/Guangdong
• Little Fuzhou
• Corona, Queens
• Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
• List of Brooklyn streets
• List of lettered Brooklyn avenues

{{Reflist}}

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{{Brooklyn Streets|state=collapsed}}

{{Chinatowns in the United States}}

Category:Marine Park, Brooklyn

*U

Category:Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn

Category:Chinatowns in New York City

Category:Chinatowns in the United States