Between Ocean and City: The Transformation of Rockaway, New York

Columbia History of Urban Life

by Lawrence S. Kaplan, Carol P. Kaplan

Rockaway Beach was once a popular seaside resort in south Queens with a small permanent population. Shortly after World War II, large parts of this narrow peninsula between the ocean and the bay became some of New York City's worst slums. A historian who grew up in the community and his wife, a social worker, together present an illuminating account of this transformation, exploring issues of race, class, and social policy and offering a significant revision of the larger story of New York City's development. In particular, the authors qualify some of the negative assessments of Robert Moses, suggesting that the "Power Broker" attempted for many positive initiatives for Rockaway.

Based on extensive archival research and hundreds of hours of interviews with residents, urban specialists, and government officials past and present, Between Ocean and City is a clear-eyed and harrowing story of this largely African American community's struggles and resiliency in the face of grinding poverty, urban renewal schemes gone wrong, and a forced ghettoization by the sea.

264 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2003

Reviews

[Lorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeper dive into the politics of why beautiful prime oceanfront realty in NYC is, to this day, still undeveloped.

[Deimosa Webber-Bey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the most important book I've ever read.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

As life-long Rockaway local, I've been exposed to word-of-mouth history for most of my life (save for local historian Emil Lucev's pieces in The Wave Newspaper over the decades). This book had been on my to-read list ever since it came out, but I didn't get to it until recently. It's a thoroughly researched and in-depth history of the Rockaways—all of the Rockaways—and I am so glad I finally read it.

While local legend and lore lays Rockaway's decline largely at the feet of Robert Moses, the Kaplans' work reveals the limits of Moses' influence here, and points to a more familiar and close-to-home culprit (greedy landlords) as well the overall societal shift that sent "people like us" (white, working class first- and second-generation Americans) out toward the greener pastures of Long Island and other suburbs in the post war years. Although we were among the stubborn/sentimental/or maybe just thrifty families who stayed put, my understanding of Rockaway has always from that limited perspective. So this scholarly study was a refreshing and really expanded my appreciation for, and frustration with, our little corner of New York City in all is glorious diversity. I highly recommend it as a companion to The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, which largely skates over Moses' impact on Rockaway, as well as for any local who would like to get a glimpse of the broader history of the entire peninsula.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much a history, I enjoyed this book about Rockaway, where I spent half of last summer. Particularly fascinating for me was realizing how deep-rooted some of the Rockaway tendencies are (locals vs. outsiders is one that comes to mind - it's still going strong today, for instance, with the Playland Motel up for sale as a direct consequence of it). At times, the text was like reading something from Upton Sinclair: Terrible living conditions, especially after the LIRR Jamaica Trestle burned during the mid-20th Century; the city putting problem families and the mentally ill in Rockaway public housing, where there were no jobs and few resources; and rampant racism, with developers using scare tactics to convince whites in Rockaway that suspect black folks were taking over the neighborhoods.

Written in 2003, this book could use a new edition that details post-Sandy given how quickly the peninsula has been changing in recent years.