Sunset Park Restoration Committee.

As of 2010, there were over 400 different neighborhoods within the five boroughs of New York City. The origins of New York City neighborhoods are thought to have stemmed from the original six wards that were chartered under Governor Thomas Dongan in 1686 in what is now lower Manhattan. Over the years, neighborhoods gradually became defined by several factors: the people that lived within the neighborhoods; neighborhood churches; and neighborhood businesses and their customers. As wealth grew in New York City, neighborhoods became increasingly segregated according to class and ethnicity. For example, in Manhattan, the wealthy began to move into enclaves uptown, while the working poor remained in the tenements of lower Manhattan. Further, Jewish and African American neighborhoods had historically been segregated.

In Brooklyn, several other factors helped to grow and define its neighborhoods. As Brooklyn consolidated, first into a city (1834) and then as a borough (1898), areas that were once independent villages or towns often became neighborhoods. Further, many working class and ethnic groups moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn to escape cramped living conditions or discrimination. As mass transit became more widely accessible during the late 19th to early 20th centuries, workers were able to live in Brooklyn and commute to their jobs in Manhattan.

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