Brighton Beach In Brooklyn, NY Walking Tour

Original Film Date: Tuesday July 30th, 2024

I walked around the streets of Brighton Beach in south Brooklyn and I even went to Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach Ave, and Coney Island. Brighton Beach is also known to be "Little Odessa" with an Eastern European population from Russia and Ukraine, along with other countries such as Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia (country), and a small number of people from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mexico, Central America etc. This neighborhood has a lot of high rise residential buildings and some new luxury homes/apartments around the corner. There are plenty of traditional ethnic restaurants and food markets line Brighton Beach Avenue. The beach and boardwalk here are more laid-back with many locals throughout Brooklyn and other parts of New York visiting the beaches, including Coney Island with Luna Park.

The neighborhood of Brighton Beach was founded in 1868 and it used to be included in the Sheepshead Bay area until exiting out as its own community district. It used to land purchased from Native Americans in 1645 for certain trading with Dutch settlers. The English settlers later came to the area and a resort was built by Englishman William A. Engeman. He called the resort Brighton Beach, which the name derived from the English city Brighton in Great Britain (UK). In 1905, Brighton Beach opened its own area of old-school amusement park rides with a long boardwalk, games to play, live entertainment and a roller coaster. It was called Brighton Beach Park, but that theme park burned down in arson and unfortunately shut down in 1919. Brighton Beach remained a beach, and then it was redeveloped as a residential community. The neighborhood was attracting a large Jewish population moving in during the Great Depression and World War II, especially with the Holocaust. Many Jews became Holocaust survivors after World War II becoming a majority of the neighborhood's demographics. They also moved in to Manhattan Beach on the right side of southeast Brooklyn. When a lot of Jews lived there, there were a few Jewish-type theaters that were religious, including synagogues and some Jewish schools. A lot of younger residents were moving to Brighton Beach in the mid to late 20th century and creating new opportunities in the community.

In the 1970s, a lot of Soviet immigrants from the former Soviet Union were mostly Ashkenazi Jews from Russia and Ukraine or "Soviet Jews". They decided to call the main street of Brighton Beach as "Little Odessa" named after Ukraine's beach city Odessa. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many more immigrants from the new former USSR countries moved in. The language spoken widely with those groups coming in is Russian. A large number of Russian businesses, cafes, restaurants, some schools, clubs, and offices opened in the neighborhood. In the apartment areas, drugs used to be a social problem with some residents living in low-income poverty and it addressed right away.

As of today in 2024, Brighton Beach still has a large Russian populaton living there with recent Central Asians moving in. It used to be a large Jewish population moving in, and now we have Orthodox Christians and Muslims taking over as the Jewish population got outnumbered in recent years. There are 11,000 Holocaust survivors still living in Brighton Beach and closer communities today. Coney Island with the amusement park Luna Park, New York Aquarium, Coney Island Amphitheater, and of course of beaches next to them attract many locals and some tourists. The gentrification in Brighton Beach started off with Russian christians moving in, younger families from Russia living in the neighborhood, and new businesses replacing former old-school spots that were owned by a Jewish population. Now, there's high rent increasing just as many other neighborhoods in Brooklyn. When you visit Brighton Beach and next door neighborhoods, you will see new developments coming in like luxury apartments, houses, offices, and some new people flocking by. The highway Belt Parkway is a good view to see the new rent-rising buildings getting constructed. Part 2 of the Brighton Beach walking tour will be out soon after this video.

Background song: Carl Zeer & Waterbeld & Fearson - Talk To Me (NCS - Copyright Free Music)