Neighborhoods
Staten Island, much like the rest of New York City, is composed of a network of neighborhoods. As important as neighborhoods are to quality of life and group and individual identity, neighborhoods are sometimes difficult to define. Political scientist Ken Thomson, in his book From Neighborhood to Nation (2001), offers a good starting point. "Neighborhoods," Thomson writes, "are geographically defined collections of people with common interests determined largely by their physical proximity to each other."
Neighborhoods are often defined by their distinctiveness from the surrounding area that creates a sense of solidarity among neighbors. Characteristics that typically define neighborhoods include geography, architecture, racial and ethnic homogeneity, and social and economic class homogeneity.
New York City is the largest municipal government in the United States. Over the years, there has been recognition of the need to represent neighborhood needs before the central city government and bureaucracy. The most established subdivision in New York City is the community board. Community boards offer local input into New York City's budget, management and land use planning decisions as they affect the jurisdiction of the community board. The borough president and members of the city council appoint community board members. Staten Island has three community boards that represent the North Shore, Mid-Island and South Shore communities of Staten Island respectively.
Much of the data presented on this site reflects that important division of North Island, Mid-Island, and South Shore communities.
The Community Boards, however, are quite huge by the standards of most municipal governments in the United States. Community Boards can represent up to 250,000 people in New York City; on Staten Island the three Community Boards represent well over 100,000 people each. To give some sense of scale, 58% of American municipalities have a population of fewer than 10,000 citizens.
Staten Island
| Community Board (1999) | Population Represented |
|---|---|
| Community Board #1 | 162,000 |
| Community Board #2 | 128,000 |
| Community Board #3 | 153,000 |
Source: Infoshare, drawing on 2000 U.S. Census Data
The community boards on Staten Island are actually geographically contiguous clusters of neighborhoods. The list below contains the names of Staten Island's neighborhoods, but since these designations have little formal or legal standing, lines between communities are drawn based mostly on shared understandings of citizens of various neighborhoods. Occasionally, New York City agencies draw neighborhood lines to improve service delivery.
The Neighborhoods of Staten Island:
Download PDF of Staten Island Neighborhoods- Annadale
- Arlington
- Bloomfield
- Bull's Head
- Castleton Corners
- Clifton
- Fort Wadsworth
- Fresh Kills
- Grant City
- Graniteville
- Grasmere
- Great Kills
- Grymes Hill
- Lighthouse Hill
- Livingston
- Mariners Harbor
- New Brighton
- New Dorp
- New Springville
- Oakwood Beach
- Port Ivory
- Port Richmond
- Port Richmond Center
- Randall Manor
- Rosebank
- Rossville
- Shore Acres
- Silver Lake
- South Beach
- St. George
- Stapleton
- Sunnyside
- Todt Hill
- Tottenville
- Ward Hill
- West Brighton
