Kensington, Brooklyn

File: Kensington PO jeh.JPG]]

The land where Kensington now sits was first colonized by Dutch farmers during the seventeenth century within the town of Flatbush. It was re-settled by British colonists in 1737. First developed in 1885 after the completion of Ocean Parkway, the neighborhood was named after the place and borough in West London, at the turn of the century.{{cite web |url=http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/jul/25/ask-historian-ask-your-brooklyn-questions/ |title=Ask the Historian |access-date=July 31, 2010 |publisher=WNYC |archive-date=July 31, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731084257/http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/jul/25/ask-historian-ask-your-brooklyn-questions/ |url-status=dead }}

The small area between 18th and Foster Avenues, in the southern portion of the neighborhood, contains a distinctive, slightly diagonal street grid and is also known as Parkville. The area, originally part of the town of Flatbush, was originally known as Greenville and its land was first acquired in 1852 by the Freeman's Association, shortly after the completion of Coney Island Avenue on the eastern boundary of Kensington and Parkville. Public School 92 (later P.S. 134) and the Roman Catholic Church of St. Rose of Lima were built to service the subsection in 1870. A librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library wrote that "Parkville is one of those wonky neighborhoods that isn't often referenced" because of its small size.{{cite web | title=What's Up With Parkville? | website=Brooklyn Public Library | date=February 18, 2015 | url=https://www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2015/02/18/whats-parkville | access-date=October 20, 2019 | archive-date=October 20, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020123552/https://www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2015/02/18/whats-parkville | url-status=live }}

Despite political tensions, the town of Flatbush was annexed by the city of Brooklyn in 1894, presaging the consolidation of the five boroughs of New York City on January 1, 1898. Accordingly, further spates of development occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of which was initially concentrated in the village of Windsor Terrace (which had more southerly borders than the contemporary neighborhood, being bounded by Church Avenue on the south, Gravesend [McDonald] Avenue on the west, the historical Brooklyn–Flatbush town line near Terrace Place on the north, and Prospect Park Southwest and Coney Island Avenue on the east).{{Cite web |date=1890 |title=Index Map From Kings County 1890, New York |url=https://historicmapworks.com/Map/US/1600/Index+Map/Kings+County+1890/New+York/ |website=Historic Map Works}} These efforts also encompassed Brooklyn Real Estate Exchange President Jeremiah Johnson, Jr.'s circa 1891 Kensington Heights{{Cite web|title=Image 23 of Building a nation and where to build ideal American homes|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.buildingnationwh00john/?sp=23|access-date=2022-07-03|website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA|archive-date=July 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703170533/https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.buildingnationwh00john/?sp=23|url-status=live}} and circa 1894 Kensington-in-Flatbush developments, the former in the vicinity of Ditmas Avenue and the latter possibly in the vicinity of Church Avenue; detached suburban villas on and adjoining Ocean Parkway that attracted wealthier residents from more urbanized areas, including Brooklyn Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick; hybrid commercial/walk-up apartment structures on commercial thoroughfares; and a variety of limestone- and brick-fronted townhouse rows.

As the area was gradually rezoned amid the construction of the IND Brooklyn Line, six-story elevator apartment houses{{Cite web|url=https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/nyre/cul:d2547d7z2n|title=The Thomas Jefferson, 140 Ocean Parkway|website=Dlc.library.columbia.edu|access-date=December 6, 2021|archive-date=December 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206022653/https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/nyre/cul:d2547d7z2n|url-status=live}} became increasingly prevalent on upper Ocean Parkway and in its periphery between the late 1920s and 1941, replacing many of the suburban villas.{{Cite web|url=https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/nyre?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search_field=all_text_teim&q=ocean+parkway|title=The New York real estate brochure collection Search Results|website=Dlc.library.columbia.edu|access-date=December 6, 2021|archive-date=December 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206022358/https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/nyre?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search_field=all_text_teim&q=ocean+parkway|url-status=live}} Following World War II, the development of the Prospect Expressway ensured that luxury buildings (by now often exceeding six stories due to building code revisions and further zoning changes, as exemplified by the Marlene J. [later known as the Caton Towers]{{Cite web|url=https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/nyre/cul:905qfttg92|title=The Marlene J., 135 Ocean Parkway|website=Dlc.library.columbia.edu|access-date=December 6, 2021|archive-date=December 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206022511/https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/nyre/cul:905qfttg92|url-status=live}} and the Americana Towers{{Cite web|url=https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/nyre/cul:4xgxd255n9|title=Americana Towers, 455 Ocean Parkway|website=Dlc.library.columbia.edu|access-date=December 6, 2021|archive-date=December 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206024322/https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/nyre/cul:4xgxd255n9|url-status=live}}) continued to be developed on Ocean Parkway and in its immediate vicinity until the mid-1960s. Since the 1990s, there has been a notable resurgence in various forms of residential development, including new apartment houses on Ocean Parkway and smaller structures on side streets.

Throughout much of the 20th century, Kensington was seldom distinguished as a distinct neighborhood, with many residents and demographers identifying the area as the western section of Flatbush.{{Cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/02/realestate/l-flatbush-258989.html|title = Flatbush|newspaper = The New York Times|date = July 2, 1989|access-date = December 1, 2021|archive-date = December 1, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211201191433/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/02/realestate/l-flatbush-258989.html|url-status = live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.drmetablog.com/2006/09/did_roz_chast_a.html|title=Did Roz Chast Attend P. S. 217?|website=Drmetablog.com|access-date=December 1, 2021|archive-date=December 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201223000/https://www.drmetablog.com/2006/09/did_roz_chast_a.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://brooklynboard.com/diary/diary.php?f=Brooklyn%20Is%20My%20Hometown|title=The Brooklyn Board|website=Brooklynboard.com|access-date=December 6, 2021|archive-date=December 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206021733/https://brooklynboard.com/diary/diary.php?f=Brooklyn%20Is%20My%20Hometown|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O3g9DwAAQBAJ&dq=james+florio+flatbush&pg=PT317|isbn=9780813594316|title=Standing on Principle: Lessons Learned in Public Life|date=May 7, 2018|publisher=Rutgers University Press|access-date=March 19, 2023|archive-date=April 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407113033/https://books.google.com/books?id=O3g9DwAAQBAJ&dq=james+florio+flatbush&pg=PT317|url-status=live}}{{cite tweet|number=1249742646630809603|user=petermarksdrama|title=@jslaff Flatbush: Beverly Road and Ocean Parkway. (My grandma Flora lived in Brightwaters Towers on Surf Ave., by t...|date=April 13, 2020}}{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/wpaguidetonewyor0000unse|title = The WPA guide to New York City : The Federal Writers' Project guide to 1930s New York|year = 1982|website=archive.org}}{{cite news | url=https://nyti.ms/45Xm17u#permid=128817407 | title=An Extremely Detailed Guide to an Extremely Detailed Map of New York City Neighborhoods | work=The New York Times | date=October 30, 2023 | last1=Buchanan | first1=Larry | last2=Katz | first2=Josh | last3=Taylor | first3=Rumsey | last4=Washington | first4=Eve }} The descriptor West Flatbush was also used by various religious & civic organizations and urban planners in the first half of the 20th century before largely falling into disuse after 1954.{{Cite book|last=Hazelton|first=Henry Isham|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZsspAQAAMAAJ&dq=%2522west+flatbush%2522&pg=PA174-IA11|title=The Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, Counties of Nassau and Suffolk, Long Island, New York, 1609-1924|date=1925|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company Incorporated|language=en|access-date=October 25, 2022|archive-date=October 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231001164826/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZsspAQAAMAAJ&dq=%2522west+flatbush%2522&pg=PA174-IA11|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|last=Associates|first=Harland Bartholomew &|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HY_VAAAAMAAJ&dq=%2522west+flatbush%2522+subway&pg=PA78|title=Plans for Major Traffic Thoroughfares and Transit, Lower East Side, New York City, Prepared for the Lower East Side Planning Association by Bartholomew and Associates...|date=1932|publisher=The Association|language=en|access-date=October 25, 2022|archive-date=October 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231001164820/https://books.google.com/books?id=HY_VAAAAMAAJ&dq=%2522west+flatbush%2522+subway&pg=PA78|url-status=live}}{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/bigfix0000robe/page/98/mode/2up?q=%22west+flatbush%22 | title=The Big Fix | date=January 1954 | publisher=Henry Holt and Co. }} While the Kensington moniker continued to be employed by branches of certain governmental institutions (including the Post Office Department and the Brooklyn Public Library), it was also used by demographers to differentiate the largely working class, ethnically heterogeneous{{cite book |url = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015076474587&view=1up&seq=1&skin=2021 |title = Economic status of Brooklyn college students (in 1933) Prepared ... - Full View |via = Babel.hathitrust.org |year = 1935 |access-date = December 15, 2021 |archive-date = December 15, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211215223023/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015076474587&view=1up&seq=1&skin=2021 |url-status = live }} tracts west of Ocean Parkway from the historically affluent, Old Stock and Jewish American-dominated tracts east of Coney Island Avenue.{{cite web |url=http://www.1940snewyork.com/ |title=Welcome to 1940s New York: NYC neighborhood profiles from 1943, based on the 1940 Census |website=1940snewyork.com |access-date=December 1, 2021 |archive-date=October 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019125509/http://www.1940snewyork.com/ |url-status=live }} A 1945 fifteen-year retrospective study of Brooklyn Protestantism by the Committee for Cooperative Field Research included the Kensington tracts between the historical villages of Windsor Terrace and Parkville (alternatively characterized as the "Ocean Parkway corridor") within the boundaries of Flatbush, also noting that a contemporaneous survey of 3,072 families indicated that 41% of residents identified as Roman Catholic (exemplified by a recent influx of second and third-generation Italian Americans from South Brooklyn and other northern neighborhoods), 33% as Jewish (primarily concentrated in apartment houses on "main traffic ways") and 26% as Protestant, with the latter population remaining concentrated in "private dwellings on the side streets" amid an ongoing decline.{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/brooklynprotesta0000comm/page/n268/mode/1up?q=%22ocean+parkway%22 | title=Brooklyn Protestantism, 1930-1945 : A study of social change and church trends | date=November 19, 2023 }} In his 2015 memoir, musician Marky Ramone (who resided at 640 Ditmas Avenue throughout much of his childhood in the 1960s) noted the area's distance from major thoroughfares in eastern Flatbush, necessitating a two-fare public transit zone via bus to Erasmus Hall High School.{{Cite book|last1=Ramone|first1=Marky|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oWpNAgAAQBAJ&q=erasmus+hall|title=Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone|last2=Herschlag|first2=Richard|date=2015-01-13|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4516-8779-8|language=en|access-date=October 25, 2022|archive-date=October 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231001164820/https://books.google.com/books?id=oWpNAgAAQBAJ&q=erasmus+hall|url-status=live}}

Beginning in the 1950s, demographic shifts in eastern Flatbush — exemplified by white flight among the Jewish American community and the concomitant emergence of an Afro-Caribbean immigrant community in the vicinity of Flatbush Avenue — would contrast with comparative stability in the Kensington tracts, notwithstanding the effects of a decade-long population decline{{Cite web |title=Search for "brooklyn communities" |url=https://www.bjpa.org/bjpa/search-results?search=brooklyn+communities |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315004547/https://www.bjpa.org/bjpa/search-results?search=brooklyn+communities |archive-date=March 15, 2023 |website=Berman Jewish Policy Archive}} likely stemming from a variety of factors, including the beginning of post-Levittown mass suburbanization and the broader amelioration of New York City's postwar housing shortage. In 1956, the closure and ensuing "bustitution" of the Church Avenue streetcar line irrevocably altered a longstanding facet of the neighborhood's public transit landscape.{{cite web|url=http://www.brooklynrail.net/pdf/PCC_demise_NYCTA_1956_Press_Release-1.pdf|date=1956|title=Press release|website=Brooklynrail.net|access-date=February 2, 2022|archive-date=June 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627232135/http://www.brooklynrail.net/pdf/PCC_demise_NYCTA_1956_Press_Release-1.pdf|url-status=live}}

Although New York City Deputy Municipal Reference Librarian Thelma E. Smith described the Kensington tracts from McDonald Avenue to Coney Island Avenue as a "sub-neighborhood" of Flatbush in a 1966 annotated bibliography of neighborhood histories and reportage for city officials,{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SG0sAAAAMAAJ&q=mcdonald%20avenue | title=Municipal Reference Library Notes | date=August 26, 1965 | access-date=July 4, 2023 | archive-date=October 1, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231001164858/https://books.google.com/books?id=SG0sAAAAMAAJ&q=mcdonald%20avenue | url-status=live }} The New York Times would characterize Ocean Parkway as the western boundary of Flatbush in early 1968.{{Cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1968/02/14/archives/after-era-of-stability-flatbush-yields-to-change-the-talk-of.html|title = After Era of Stability, Flatbush Yields to Change; the Talk of Flatbush|newspaper = The New York Times|date = February 14, 1968|access-date = December 1, 2021|archive-date = December 1, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211201191430/https://www.nytimes.com/1968/02/14/archives/after-era-of-stability-flatbush-yields-to-change-the-talk-of.html|url-status = live}} Shortly thereafter, the New York City municipal government informally designated the tracts between McDonald and Coney Island Avenues as Kensington in the 1969 Plan for New York City.{{Cite web|url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/atlases-of-new-york-city#/?tab=navigation&roots=30593990-bc6a-0132-4f30-58d385a7bbd0/28:8b252450-c603-012f-14f1-58d385a7bc34/2:f861f390-c603-012f-bea3-58d385a7bc34|title=Atlases of New York City|website=Digitalcollections.nypl.org|access-date=December 1, 2021|archive-date=December 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201191430/https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/atlases-of-new-york-city#/?tab=navigation&roots=30593990-bc6a-0132-4f30-58d385a7bbd0/28:8b252450-c603-012f-14f1-58d385a7bc34/2:f861f390-c603-012f-bea3-58d385a7bc34|url-status=live}} Similarly, Gilbert Tauber and Samuel Kaplan asserted that southern Windsor Terrace, the traditional Kensington tracts and western Midwood constituted the sprawling neighborhood of "Kensington-Ocean Parkway" in The New York City Handbook, first published by Doubleday in 1966.{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkcityhandb0000taub | title=The New York City handbook; a comprehensive, practical guide for natives and newcomers living and working in New York to the ins and outs of the five boroughs' assets, systems, neighborhoods, services and opportunities | date=November 19, 1966 | publisher=Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday }} (Indeed, after the contemporary community boards of New York City were established in 1963, much of present-day Kensington was appended to the Borough Park-dominated Brooklyn Community Board 12, possibly stemming from Kensington Democratic leader Howard Golden's affiliation with Borough Park's then-powerful Roosevelt Club.{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-UCAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22roosevelt+democratic+club%22+borough+park&pg=PA36 | title=New York Magazine | date=February 20, 1984 | access-date=June 13, 2022 | archive-date=October 1, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231001164821/https://books.google.com/books?id=d-UCAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22roosevelt+democratic+club%22+borough+park&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q=%22roosevelt%20democratic%20club%22%20borough%20park&f=false | url-status=live }} Conversely, the eastern Flatbush and Midwood tracts were incorporated into Brooklyn Community Board 14, a division that endures to the present.)

Although the formation of such community organizations as the Kensington-Flatbush Preservation Association would further popularize the moniker throughout the 1970s, press accounts continued to describe the area as Flatbush.{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/464962605/?terms=%22ocean%20parkway%22%20%22flatbush&match=1 |title=2 Apr 1973, 275 - Daily News |website=Newspapers.com |access-date=December 1, 2021 |archive-date=December 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201191432/https://www.newspapers.com/image/464962605/?terms=%22ocean%20parkway%22%20%22flatbush&match=1 |url-status=live }} In April 1973, Brooklyn Borough President Sebastian Leone said that planned renovations of upper Ocean Parkway (along with a smaller portion in contemporary Midwood) "[would] be an asset to the Flatbush community."{{Cite news |date=April 21, 1973 |title=Some Linear Parks For Ocean Parkway |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/465343513/?terms=%22ocean%20parkway%20in%20flatbush%22&match=1 |url-access=subscription |work=New York Daily News |location=New York City |pages=189 |via=Newspapers.com}} Brooklyn-born sports journalist Stan Fischler also identified the IND Church Avenue station as being located in Flatbush in Uptown, Downtown, his 1976 history of the New York City subway system.{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/uptowndowntowntr00fisc/page/102/mode/2up?q=flatbush | isbn=9780801531187 | title=Uptown, downtown : A trip through time on New York's subways | date=November 19, 1976 | last1=Fischler | first1=Stan | publisher=Hawthorn Books }} Reflecting this transitional milieu, the area surrounding a March 1977 gas station shootout at 417 Dahill Road was alternatively characterized as being part of Borough Park (by reporters Thomas Raftery and Paul Meskil) and as a "worn section of Flatbush" (by columnist Pete Hamill) on the same page of the New York Daily News.{{Cite newspaper |last=Raftery |first=Thomas |last2=Meskil |first2=Paul |date=March 7, 1977 |title=Slain Brooklyn Bandit Was Ex-Cop |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/391597900/ |url-access=subscription |work=New York Daily News |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}

During this period, the Kensington tracts began to experience significant demographic changes. Most of the area's long-endangered mainline Protestant churches (including the historically prominent Prospect Park Baptist Church{{cite web | url=https://www.brownstoner.com/history/past-and-present-the-prospect-park-baptist-church/ | title=Past and Present: The Prospect Park Baptist Church | date=April 12, 2013 | access-date=March 15, 2023 | archive-date=March 15, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315002324/https://www.brownstoner.com/history/past-and-present-the-prospect-park-baptist-church/ | url-status=live }}) were forced to close due to a lack of parishioners, while the area's deeply-rooted Irish American community continued to be supplanted by new waves of upwardly mobile Italian Americans moving out from less desirable sections of central and northern Brooklyn, paralleling developments in nearby Sunset Park. In a 1974 interview with Wendy Schuman of The New York Times, a banker opined that Ocean Parkway "just [wasn't] prestigious anymore" as younger residents fully embraced suburbanization, leaving a substantial and rapidly aging white ethnic population (most of whom settled in the area between the early 1930s and the early 1950s){{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/neighborhoodsofb0000unse/page/148/mode/1up | isbn=9780300103106 | title=The neighborhoods of Brooklyn | year=2004 | last1=Jackson | first1=Kenneth T. | last2=Manbeck | first2=John B. | publisher=Yale University Press }} that proved reluctant to move due to New York's favorable rent regulation laws. Another resident who recently moved to Ocean Parkway cited the area's perceived isolation from eastern Flatbush, by now a predominantly Caribbean American community, as his impetus for relocation: "I'm a bigot. I don't care how much money they have. I'm not going to live with Blacks and Puerto Ricans. I'll move out and keep on moving. Five years ago I would have punched a guy in the nose for talking like this."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/20/archives/change-bends-a-spine-in-brooklyn-change-bends-a-spine-of-brooklyn.html|title=Change Bends a 'Spine' in Brooklyn|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 20, 1974|last1=Schuman|first1=Wendy|access-date=December 2, 2021|archive-date=December 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211202005527/https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/20/archives/change-bends-a-spine-in-brooklyn-change-bends-a-spine-of-brooklyn.html|url-status=live}}

By the early 1980s, the Kensington designation was rapidly adopted by real estate interests as these tenants (who often identified as Flatbush residents) began to die or retire elsewhere, leading to a greater awareness of the name through a surfeit of advertising. During this period, the area became desirable to a wide range of New Yorkers (including young professionals adversely affected by gentrification in such neighborhoods as Park Slope and Tribeca; Orthodox Jews, African Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans from Borough Park, eastern Flatbush and other nearby neighborhoods; and a variety of post-1965 immigrant communities, including substantial Eastern European and South Asian enclaves) as a dual locus of relatively affordable rentals amid the city's burgeoning co-op conversion movement, further entrenching the notion of Kensington as a discrete neighborhood among new residents.{{Cite news |last=Kosmer |first=John |date=December 23, 1984 |title=Goodby, loft; hello, Brooklyn |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/487127398/?terms=%22kensington%22%20%22brooklyn%22%20%22loft%22%20%22young%20professionals%22&match=1 |url-access=subscription |work=New York Daily News |location=New York City |page=255 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/485887675/?terms=%22kensington%22%20%22f%20train%22&match=1 |title=21 Apr 1981, 171 - Daily News at Newspapers.com |access-date=December 1, 2021 |archive-date=December 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201191431/https://www.newspapers.com/image/485887675/?terms=%22kensington%22%20%22f%20train%22&match=1 |url-status=live }} In 1983, The New York Times described the Ocean Parkway boundary as a vestigial border in a feature about the Community Board 14 tracts of Flatbush.{{Cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/30/realestate/in-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-flatbush.html|title = In You're Thinking of Living in Flatbush|newspaper = The New York Times|date = January 30, 1983|last1 = Motyka|first1 = Joan|access-date = December 1, 2021|archive-date = December 1, 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211201191431/https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/30/realestate/in-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-flatbush.html|url-status = live}} Nevertheless, City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center sociologist William B. Helmreich included Kensington within the boundaries of Flatbush (while acknowledging its unique demographic mix and comparatively downscale architectural profile) in The Brooklyn Nobody Knows (2016).{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qGobDQAAQBAJ&q=flatbush|isbn = 9781400883127|title = The Brooklyn Nobody Knows: An Urban Walking Guide|date = October 3, 2016|publisher = Princeton University Press|access-date = March 19, 2023|archive-date = October 1, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231001164821/https://books.google.com/books?id=qGobDQAAQBAJ&q=flatbush|url-status = live}} Additionally, members of "frum" Orthodox Jewish communities in the area frequently extend the boundaries of Flatbush to an area that corresponds to (and often exceeds) the pre-consolidation township, including contemporary Kensington and Midwood.

Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Kensington-Ocean Parkway was 36,891, a decrease of 46 (0.1%) from the 36,937 counted in 2000. Covering an area of {{convert|364.84|acres}}, the neighborhood had a population density of {{convert|101.1|PD/acre|PD/sqmi PD/sqkm}}.[http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/data-maps/nyc-population/census2010/t_pl_p5_nta.pdf Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610175331/http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/data-maps/nyc-population/census2010/t_pl_p5_nta.pdf |date=June 10, 2016 }}, Population Division - New York City Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016.

The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 47.9% (17,686) White, 6.9% (2,558) African American, 0.1% (49) Native American, 24.1% (8,879) Asian, 0.0% (9) Pacific Islander, 0.7% (274) from other races, and 2.5% (926) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.6% (6,510) of the population.[http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/data-maps/nyc-population/census2010/t_pl_p3a_nta.pdf Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin - New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610170733/http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/data-maps/nyc-population/census2010/t_pl_p3a_nta.pdf |date=June 10, 2016 }}, Population Division - New York City Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.

Kensington is a very ethnically diverse neighborhood, consisting of South Asian (Bangladeshi and Pakistani), Orthodox Jewish (Hasidic), Uzbek, Latin American, Polish, and Ukrainian communities.{{Cite web|url=https://bklyner.com/shubho-noboborsho-kensington-celebrates-bengali-new-year/|title="Shubho Noboborsho!" - Kensington Celebrates Bengali New Year|website=Bklyner.com|date=April 16, 2018|access-date=January 25, 2020|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125062148/https://bklyner.com/shubho-noboborsho-kensington-celebrates-bengali-new-year/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://brooklyn.news12.com/story/34774463/bangladeshi-community-grows-in-kensington|title=Bangladeshi community grows in Kensington|website=Brooklyn.news12.com|access-date=January 25, 2020|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125061938/http://brooklyn.news12.com/story/34774463/bangladeshi-community-grows-in-kensington|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://brooklynjewish.org/neighborhoods/kensington/|title=Kensington {{pipe}} The Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative (BJHI)|website=Brooklynjewish.org|access-date=January 25, 2020|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125062549/http://brooklynjewish.org/neighborhoods/kensington/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ediblebrooklyn.com/event/uzbek-food-shopping-tour-brooklyn/|title=Uzbek Food Shopping Tour in Brooklyn|website=Ediblebrooklyn.com|access-date=February 2, 2022|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125062126/https://www.ediblebrooklyn.com/event/uzbek-food-shopping-tour-brooklyn/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/isis-brooklyn-uzbeks.html|title=Inside the Brooklyn Uzbek Community, After Several of Its Own Were Arrested Under Suspicion of Terrorism|date=November 5, 2015|website=Nymag.com|access-date=January 25, 2020|archive-date=May 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180525005142/http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/isis-brooklyn-uzbeks.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ps179kensington.org/about|title=About Us - P.S. 179 Kensington|website=Ps179kensington.org|access-date=January 25, 2020|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125061935/http://www.ps179kensington.org/about|url-status=live}} The intersection of McDonald and Church Avenues was co-named Little Bangladesh in October 2022 in recognition of the area's large and growing Bangladeshi community.{{cite web |last=Brendlen |first=Kirstyn |date=October 18, 2022 |title='A permanent part of this community': Kensington street co-named 'Little Bangladesh' to celebrate, commemorate Bangladeshi community |url=https://www.brooklynpaper.com/kensington-street-little-bangladesh-conaming/ |access-date=October 1, 2023 |website=Brooklyn Paper |archive-date=April 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401074520/https://www.brooklynpaper.com/kensington-street-little-bangladesh-conaming/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Rahmanan |first=Anna |date=October 21, 2022 |title=This street in Brooklyn has officially been renamed Little Bangladesh |url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/this-street-in-brooklyn-has-officially-been-renamed-little-bangladesh-102122 |access-date=October 1, 2023 |website=Time Out New York |archive-date=March 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322024524/https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/this-street-in-brooklyn-has-officially-been-renamed-little-bangladesh-102122 |url-status=live }}

The 2020 census data from New York City Department of City Planning showed each the White and Asian population ranges are roughly equal with each of their population being at between 10,000 and 19,999 residents. In addition, there were 5,000 to 9,999 Hispanic residents; however, the Black residents were fewer than 5,000.{{Cite web|url=https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/planning-level/nyc-population/census2020/dcp_2020-census-briefing-booklet-1.pdf|title=Key Population & Housing Characteristics; 2020 Census Results for New York City|publisher=New York City Department of City Planning|date=August 2021|access-date=November 7, 2021|pages=21, 25, 29, 33|archive-date=September 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925151633/https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/planning-level/nyc-population/census2020/dcp_2020-census-briefing-booklet-1.pdf|url-status=live}}{{cite web | title=Map: Race and ethnicity across the US | website=CNN | date=August 14, 2021 | url=https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/us/census-race-ethnicity-map/ | access-date=November 7, 2021 | archive-date=October 4, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004102038/https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/us/census-race-ethnicity-map/ | url-status=live }}

File:Culver ramp from Cortelyou platform jeh.jpg takes the IND Culver Line from a tunnel to an elevated structure.]]

The New York City Subway's IND Culver Line ({{NYCS trains|Culver IND north}}) runs along the western part of the neighborhood and stops underground at Fort Hamilton Parkway and at Church Avenue. The line rises above ground to an elevated structure ({{NYCS trains|Culver IND south}}) to serve the Ditmas Avenue and 18th Avenue stations.{{NYCS const|map}} In addition, Kensington is served by the {{NYC bus link|B8|B16|B35|B67|B68|B69|B103}} local buses, as well as the {{NYC bus link|BM1|BM2|BM3|BM4}} express buses to Manhattan.{{Cite NYC bus map|B}}

File:New BPL 4207 18th Av Kensington jeh.jpg

The Kensington branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is located at 4207 18th Avenue, near the intersection of Seton Place and East Second Street. It was originally created in 1908 as a "deposit station" with a small collection, and was located at P.S. 134, three blocks east of the current library. Within four years, it had moved twice, and in 1912, it relocated to 770 McDonald Avenue, at the southwest corner of Ditmas Avenue. The library moved again in 1960 to a location four blocks east, on 410 Ditmas Avenue, between East 4th & East 5th Streets. The current facility opened in 2012.{{cite web | title=Kensington Library | website=Brooklyn Public Library | date=August 19, 2011 | url=https://www.bklynlibrary.org/locations/kensington | access-date=February 21, 2019 | archive-date=February 21, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221171042/https://www.bklynlibrary.org/locations/kensington | url-status=live }}

Public schools in Kensington include four public primary schools: P.S. 130 (shared with Windsor Terrace), P.S. 230, P.S. 179, and P.S. 134. There are three middle schools: M.S. 839, J.H.S. 62 and J.H.S. 23. The area has no public high schools.{{cite news|last1=Mooney|first1=Jake|title=Living in Kensington, Brooklyn Name From London, People From Everywhere|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/realestate/25livi.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|access-date=April 10, 2015|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 25, 2008|archive-date=February 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221112431/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/realestate/25livi.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|url-status=live}} There is also an Orthodox Jewish school called Yeshiva Torah Vodaas.{{Cite web|url=https://www.torahvodaath.org/|title=Yeshiva Torah Vodaath|website=Torahvodaath.org|access-date=February 2, 2022|archive-date=February 11, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211153206/https://www.torahvodaath.org/|url-status=live}}

• Yisroel Belsky (1938-2016) Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas a senior kashrut advisor at the Orthodox Union And a leading Jewish halachic decisor.{{Cite web|url=https://oukosher.org/blog/consumer-kosher/a-giant-in-our-midst-the-legacy-of-rav-chaim-yisroel-belsky-ztl-at-the-ou/|title=A Giant in Our Midst: The Legacy of Rav Chaim Yisroel Belsky zt"l at the OU|date=February 11, 2016|website=OU Kosher Certification|access-date=August 23, 2019|archive-date=August 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823114843/https://oukosher.org/blog/consumer-kosher/a-giant-in-our-midst-the-legacy-of-rav-chaim-yisroel-belsky-ztl-at-the-ou/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://jewishaction.com/tribute/rabbi-chaim-yisroel-belsky/rabbi-chaim-yisroel-belsky-consummate-american-gadol/|title=The Consummate American Gadol|date=June 21, 2016|website=Jewish Action|access-date=August 23, 2019|archive-date=August 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823114844/https://jewishaction.com/tribute/rabbi-chaim-yisroel-belsky/rabbi-chaim-yisroel-belsky-consummate-american-gadol/|url-status=live}}
• Bryce Dessner (born 1976), composer and guitarist.
• Jo Freeman (born 1945), feminist scholar.{{Cite web|date=2015-04-23|title=Former volunteers, now in Brooklyn, recall Summer Voting-Rights Project of 1965|url=https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2015/04/23/former-volunteers-now-in-brooklyn-recall-summer-voting-rights-project-of-1965/|access-date=2022-07-03|website=Brooklyn Eagle|language=en-US|archive-date=February 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220062919/https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2015/04/23/former-volunteers-now-in-brooklyn-recall-summer-voting-rights-project-of-1965/|url-status=live}}
• Paul Giannone, founder of the eponymous Paulie Gee's pizzeria in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. Raised in Kensington.
• Sid Luckman (1916–1998), Hall of Fame quarterback for the Chicago Bears from 1939 to 1950; led them to four NFL championships. According to the 1940 Federal Census, Luckman lived at 318 East 8th Street in Kensington.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}
• Bruce Morrow (born 1935), radio disc jockey known as "Cousin Brucie."{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}
• Gedalia Schorr (1910-1979) Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and a leading Jewish scholar.{{cite web|url=http://agudathisrael.org/wp-content/uploads/1980/09/JO1979-V14-N03.pdf|page=8|title=The Jewish Observer|date=October 1979|website=Agudathisrael.org|access-date=February 2, 2022|archive-date=August 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823120216/http://agudathisrael.org/wp-content/uploads/1980/09/JO1979-V14-N03.pdf|url-status=live}}
• Albert Shanker (1928–1997), president of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1985 and president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) from 1974 to 1997.
• Sufjan Stevens (born 1975), singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.{{Cite news|last=Ryzik|first=Melena|date=2010-10-14|title=Mr. Strummy-Strum Tries a Synth Sound|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/arts/music/17sufjan.html|access-date=2022-07-03|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=December 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208220610/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/arts/music/17sufjan.html|url-status=live}}
• Frank Terpil (1939–2016), rogue CIA agent, arms trader, international felon.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQyggh7Ats8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/iQyggh7Ats8 |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Frank Terpil - Confessions Of A Dangerous Man |publisher=YouTube |access-date=June 27, 2017}}{{cbignore}}
• Qian Julie Wang (born 1987), civil rights lawyer and author of Beautiful Country.
• Nisson Wolpin (1932-2008), editor of The Jewish Observer{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1874/rabbi-nisson-wolpin-ztl|title=Rabbi Nisson Wolpin, zt"l :: Jewish Media Resources|first=Jonathan|last=Rosenblum|website=Jewishmediaresources.com|access-date=August 23, 2019|archive-date=August 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823115536/http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1874/rabbi-nisson-wolpin-ztl|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://cross-currents.com/2017/05/28/rabbi-nisson-wolpin-zl-shloshim-recollections/|title=Rabbi Nisson Wolpin, z"l: Shloshim Recollections|website=Cross-currents.com|date=May 28, 2017|access-date=August 23, 2019|archive-date=June 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621105155/https://cross-currents.com/2017/05/28/rabbi-nisson-wolpin-zl-shloshim-recollections/|url-status=live}}
• Eric Wong, American music executive

{{reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Kensington, Brooklyn}}

{{Brooklyn}}

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Category:Neighborhoods in Brooklyn