to
Update
is a neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways, usually delineated as the area east of Beach 77th Street, comprising smaller the neighborhoods of Bayswater, Edgemere, Arverne, as well as Far Rockaway proper and Downtown Far Rockaway. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 14.
Far Rockaway's character is that of an inner-city, oceanfront commuter town, in some ways having more in common with Asbury Park, New Jersey than with New York City. Far Rockaway is one of the most distant New York neighborhoods from Manhattan, the cultural and financial center of New York City. Formerly populated by Eastern European Jewish and Irish immigrants, it now has a large African American population, though the westernmost portion still remains mostly Irish. Downtown Far Rockaway has a moderately large Central American population. There is also a decent sized Orthodox Jewish population in the easternmost part of Far Rockaway, which borders Inwood and Lawrence, and other areas in the densely-Jewish Five Towns area across the Nassau County border. The area is home to a large and growing number of Haredi Jews with a large network of yeshivas and Jewish communal needs.
Far Rockaway is one of two New York City neighborhoods whose subway terminus is within easy walking distance of the city limits (the Wakefield section of the Bronx is the other). This fact led to an interesting scenario in 1985, when New York City banned the sale of spray-paint cans to persons under the age of 18, in an effort to stem the tide of graffiti in the city; teenagers would travel across the city line into either Nassau County (after getting off the subway at the last stop in Far Rockaway) or Westchester County (from the last stop in Wakefield) to purchase spray paint there (Nassau County has since followed suit and prohibited spray-paint sales to minors, but Westchester County has not.) The zip code of Far Rockaway is 11691.
The neighborhood, like all of New York City, is served by the New York City Department of Education. Far Rockaway residents are zoned to several different elementary schools:
Far Rockaway residents are zoned to I.S. 53 Brian Piccolo .
All New York City residents who wish to attend a public high school must apply to high schools. Far Rockaway High School is in Far Rockaway and Beach Channel High School is near Far Rockaway.
Stella Maris High School, an all-girls Catholic high school, is located adjacent to the beach.