thumb|Aerial view of Sea Gate

thumb|Beach strip

thumb|Eastern border of Sea Gate

thumb|The [[Atlantic Yacht Club building, which burned down in 1933]]

thumb|[[Coney Island Light, also known as Norton's Point Light]]

Sea Gate is a private gated community at the far western end of Coney Island at the southwestern tip of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Located on the portion of the Coney Island peninsula west of West 37th Street, it contains mostly single-family homes, some directly on Gravesend Bay.

History

The area that is now Sea Gate was once known as Norton's Point. "Norton" was the name of the owner of a casino, which was situated where the Coney Island Light now stands. The neighborhood held a reputation for gambling before it was developed into a residential neighborhood. The "Lindy Park" sea wall/bulkhead (officially known as Beach Reservation extending from Beach 48th Street to Beach 50th Street) was destroyed leaving Sea Gate, Coney Island and beyond open to any rough seas and additional damage.

Description

Sea Gate is a gated community on the Coney Island peninsula west of West 37th Street.

There are two points of interest in Sea Gate. Located on Beach 47th Street in Sea Gate is the Coney Island Light, is a lighthouse built in 1890, before the area was populated. The lighthouse is the former home of Frank Schubert, the United States' last civilian lighthouse keeper, who died in 2003..

Controversy

There have been some controversial cases involving the Sea Gate Public Safety Department.

In 2013, Christopher Simmons, a Black officer with the Sea Gate Public Safety Department filed a federal discrimination and retaliation lawsuit alleging that the Sea Gate Association's president called him a "schwartze" (a Yiddish racial slur for "Black") and that he was passed over for promotion, demoted, and then fired. In 2020, residents of Sea Gate called for the head of the Sea Gate Public Safety Department to resign amid accusations of racism and nepotism. Residents also filed a lawsuit against the Sea Gate Homeowners Association, alleging non-white residents were harassed for not providing IDs, vehicles were followed outside of the boundaries of the gates, and that discrimination occurred against Black members of the Public Safety force.

Another incident, in 2020, involved an off-duty New York Police Department officer being contacted by a Sea Gate Public Safety Department officer (despite not being in Sea Gate) and questioned, with the Sea Gate officer allegedly drawing his firearm twice. The NYPD (now retired) officer, took legal action.

Demographics

Sea Gate is largely populated by families living in single- and two-family houses, 54 percent being rentals. As of 2000, the median age was 38.6 years and the median household income was $41,659. In addition to city and state taxes, residents also pay dues and charges to the Sea Gate Association, which have averaged $3,000 per year.

In 1960, Sea Gate was 99 percent white, and by the 2010 census, Sea Gate was 83 percent white. The community became majority Jewish by the 1930s; prior to the 1930s, there were signs in the community reading "no dogs or Jews". Many Hasidic Jews and Russians have settled in Sea Gate, along with a small number of middle-class Black families. Tensions around race and class exist between Sea Gate and the rest of Coney Island which has a significantly larger Black and Latino population. Both Sea Gate homeowners association and their public safety department have been frequently accused of racism and have been the subject of multiple federal lawsuits.

Transportation

Public access to Sea Gate is available from Surf Avenue on the and from Mermaid Avenue on the . Express service to/from Manhattan is also available south of Neptune Avenue on the .

Police and crime

Sea Gate, which is in the confines of Community District 10, is patrolled by the 60th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 2951 West 8th Street in Brooklyn, NY.

Notable residents

  • Chaim Zanvl Abramowitz (1902–1995), "the Ribnitzer Rebbe"
  • Austin Basis (born 1976), actor
  • Mordechai Ben David and his son, Yeedle, singers
  • Jeffrey Epstein (1953–2019), Wall Street financier and convicted sex offender
  • Mark Epstein (born 1954), property developer, and the brother of Jeffrey Epstein
  • Leonard Everett Fisher (1924–2024), writer (The Jetty Chronicles)
  • Jack Foley (1891–1967), inventor of movie sound effects techniques
  • Yossi Green (born 1955), Jewish music composer
  • Moss Hart (1904–1961), playwright and theatre director
  • Itzik Manger (1901–1969), Yiddish poet and writer
  • Ludwig Satz (1891–1944), Yiddish theater and film actor
  • Andrea Batista Schlesinger (born 1976), political writer and campaigner who was executive director of the Drum Major Institute
  • Frank Schubert (1915–2003), last civilian lighthouse keeper in the United States
  • Sandra Seacat (1936–2023), actress/acting teacher and coach (lived there as Sandra Kaufman, her then-married name, for most of the 1960s)
  • Harriet Shorr (1939–2016), artist, writer, poet and professor who was known for large-scale realistic still life paintings.
  • Beverly Sills (1929–2007), opera singer
  • Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991), Yiddish author
  • Ernst Steiger (1832–1917), bookseller, publisher and bibliographer.
  • Jake Steinfeld (born 1958), actor, fitness specialist and fitness trainer

References