Rockaway Park, Queens

The heavily Irish Rockaway Park has been called the "Irish Riviera".[3] The 2000 United States Census showed that 36.0% of the population were of Irish ancestry in the ZCTA for ZIP Code 11694.[4] The Saint Patrick's Day parade in Rockaway is the second-largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City, second only to New York City's Saint Patrick's Day Parade up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.[5]

The neighborhood is centered around Beach 116th Street, a two-block street that runs from Beach Channel Drive southward to Ocean Promenade.[6] At the street's northern end is Tribute Park, which has a memorial to the 343 firefighters killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks,[7] and at its southern tip is a memorial to the 265 victims of American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed nearby on November 12, 2001.[8]

Manhattan is accessible to commuters via the A and ​S trains at the Rockaway Park – Beach 116th Street station, the terminus of the IND Rockaway Line and its associated services.[9]

The area is served by bus routes operated by MTA New York City Bus. The Q22 bus runs the length of the Rockaway Peninsula.[10] The Q52 SBS runs from Beach 54th Street in Arverne, over the Cross Bay Bridge via Cross Bay Boulevard to Woodhaven.[10] The Q53 SBS runs from Beach 116th Street, over the Cross Bay Bridge via Cross Bay Boulevard to Woodside, and Woodside LIRR station and 61st Street subway station.[10] The Q35 runs from Beach 116th Street to the Flatbush Avenue – Brooklyn College subway station, and the Brooklyn College, in Brooklyn via the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and Flatbush Avenue. It goes through Belle Harbor, Neponsit, and Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula.[10]

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, which caused massive infrastructure damage to the A train south of the station at Howard Beach – JFK Airport, ferry operator SeaStreak began running a city-subsidized ferry service between a makeshift ferry slip at Beach 108th Street and Beach Channel Drive in Rockaway Park and Pier 11/Wall Street in Manhattan's Financial District, then continuing on to the East 34th Street Ferry Landing. In August 2013, a stop was added at Brooklyn Army Terminal.[11] The service was extended multiple times.[12] finally ending on October 31, 2014.[13] On May 1, 2017, NYC Ferry's Rockaway route started operations between Pier 11/Wall Street in Manhattan's Financial District and Beach 108th Street in Rockaway Park, with a stop at Brooklyn Army Terminal.[14][15]