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The word “ozone” has one of its definitions as “fresh, pure air”. Ozone Park hence, can be interpreted as Fresh Air Park, or Park of Fresh Air. This is quite a very catching and intriguing name for a neighborhood. The neighborhood of Ozone Park was once considered as one of New York City “Little Italy”. This neighborhood being close to the John F. Kennedy International Airport has been greatly affected by the immigration flow in New York City. Ozone Park has been ethnically shifting thus growing more diverse throughout the years. However, as Ozone Park grew more culturally diverse, it has as well grown as a less unified community.

Thesis Statement

As Ozone Park grew larger on its cultural diversity, it has as well grown as a less unifed community.

Interview Responses

Conducting this interviews had indeed helped on my quest of finding out information about my neighborhood. The person that I interviewed is Marta Rusenetti. Marta has lived in Ozone Park for 60 years!!! She and her parents came directly from Italy to Ozone Park, where they bought their house. What attracted her family to this town, was that people from the same town in Italy were coming to Ozone Park; meaning it was an Italian community on the formation. She confirmed what I had found out in previous research, Ozone Park had once been one of New York’s “little Italies”. “Everybody knew each other, even people from the other blocks, we all knew each other”. Is one of the things Marta assured. Marta also described how involved in the community she was. She was part of a comity that was held every month. “People were asked to give two dollars a month as donation to improve the neighborhood”.
When I asked her about the Mafia activity that used to happened in Ozone Park she said ”Ohh no that was way later, and even then it was much better that how it is now” “You see lilltle gangs of black, Hispanics, and Indians on the corners, you didn’t see that even we the mafia was around”

By SHAWN G. KENNEDY. "If you're thinking Of living in: Ozone Park. " New York Times (1857-Current file) [New York, N.Y.] 29 Jul 1984,***[insert pages]*** ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2004). ProQuest.http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=120442713&SrchMode=5&Fmt=10&retrieveGroup=0&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1191350431&clientId=13031 . 2 Oct. 2007

This article was written in 1984, yet it proves to be of much help on proving some historical background about the neighborhood. The first paragraphs even go into explaining some of the possible roots of the name Ozone Park. This includes the derivative of the word ozone, meaning air and is suggested how people used to come to that particular area in search of "wide open spaces and ocean breezes". Again a geographical sense of the location of Ozone Park is provided, explaining its extension, and naming and listing the bordering neighborhoods. Howard Beach, Wooodhaven, South Ozone Park, are among the neighborhoods Ozone Park is settled around. The neighborhood is bordered by Atlantic Ave, 106 street, Belt Parkway and the Queens-Brooklyn border line, commonly known as city-line. This was the very first thing I learned when I moved into the neighborhood because i happen to live on "city-line", meaning every time I cross the street I'm at a different borough. Even though this artictle eventually goes on into the real-state at the time, it provided some very relevant facts about Ozone Park's background history, even going back in to 1870's. Arounf this time, even though according to external research Ozone Park was already established, a huge factory was created by business men Grosjean and Lalance . This is what is considered as one of the most significant stimulant for the growth and development of the neighborhood. Many houses where created in order to house the employees, this led to churches, schools, and commerce to also started rising.



Seyfried, Vincent F.: The story of Woodhaven and Ozone Park/
New York : The Leader Observer, [1986]
(pg 29-83)(pg 110-170) October 1, 07

The author of this book distinguishes on writing about various neighborhoods of New York City, specially of Queens. Even though the name of this book is The story of Woodhaven and Ozone Park, most of the book emphasized on primarily Woodhaven. However on the preface of the book the author clarifies this situation stating that these two communities are so "closely intertwined", and "developed together". This is indeed true since these two neighborhoods are right besides each other. Referring to Ozone Park, in this book it is mentioned, what i have already found out on previous research, that at the early beginning, Ozone Park was settled "east land of the Rockaway branch of the LLRR to 106st and Rockaway Blvd". However it eventually expanded down to Atlantic Ave which became to separation line between Woodhaven and Ozone Park, but still developing and growing simultaneously. In this book I found very surprising facts about the history of Ozone Park, going back more than a century ago. For example around the 1830's the neighborhood served as one of the most significant centers for Horse Racing gaining a great reputation and economic growth. In this book it is also mentioned the impact of the development of the neighborhood that the factory which LaLance and Gosjean opened. Statistic and census reports are also listed and explained during different periods time. For example during the "explosive boom of the 1920" statistics show how in Ozone Park in the year of 120 there were only 30 commercial stores opened, but by the end year of 1925 this had grown to 200 stores.

Interview Questions

1. How long have you been living in the neighborhood?


2. What attracted you to choose this neighborhood?


3. follow-up question- What makes you still want to live in this neighborhood?


4. What are some of the most significant changes in this neighborhood that you have experienced so far?


5. follow-up question - Have these changes been for the better or the worse? Why?


6. How is the social aspect of your community, currently? ( How's the community involved on neighborhood issues?)
7. follow-up question- How was the social aspect before compared to how it is now?
8. Are there any significant, major or impacting events that you can recall happening in Ozone Park?
9. Doing some previous research, I came to find out that Ozone Park, at one point, served as a center of Italian Mafia activities. Do you remember how the neighborhood was like at that moment? Meaning, the "enviornment in the air", the mood, the people, how was it like during that time?
10. Can you name some of the ethnicity flows you have seen so far (different types of ethnic groups)? How have any of them affected the neighborhood, if they did at all? Did they bring any changes?
11. wrapping-up question- Would you recommend the neighborhood of Ozone Park as choice for new home buyers?

Before 1950

This structure stands out significantly; perhaps because of the area it is located. This Church is right of an important intersection between Woodhaven Boulevard and Rockaway Boulevard. However the structure itself is rather very particular. With more than 100 years old this church stands intact. Unlike most catholic churches, which follow more of gothic structure (long and sharply pointy), this church resembles more of a castle structure. The building itself as a whole, is made out of bricks. They can be easily seen and I hope this picture shows them as well. The color of this church is more of a orange/brown color.

In the picture above, we see to the left a separated long tower. This is where the giant bell is kept at, at the very top of this tower. An enormous dark colored cross is encrypted on its front wall, which can be seen from a very far distance. This large long tower I’m sure that makes a lot of people wonder if at its very top there is a princess waiting to be saved.

This church is indeed decorated in a very detailed manner. At its front there are three large dark glass windows. One of them being bigger than the other two, lies in the center. Below these windows there are three small white sculptures, represented either a saint or Virgin Mary. This church consists of only two entrances. Instead of there being a main one located in the center, this church has two very welcoming entrees to the side. To provide a delicate detail and follow every church typical makeup , at the very top of the church there is a high, slim white cross.

Research Paragraphs

First to give a geographical sense of this neighborhood, Ozone Park is located in the southeastern part of the borough of Queens, New York City. It lies northwest of the JFK international airport, with a population of 23,371 people as for 2007*. As the picture above indicates Ozone Park was first established on 1882 more than a century ago. The first ethnic group to settle in this neighborhood was, to my surprise, Italians. To even a greater surprise this particular neighborhood was a center of the Italian Mafia, with even the infamous John Gotti as a resident of this neighborhood.

In the past years, however, Ozone Park was been highly flooded by immigrations from South Asia (many Muslims), West Indies, including Trinidadians and Jamaicans, and Guyanese from South America. This is indeed the current condition, since my neighbors to the right are Trinidadians while to the left are Muslims from Bangladesh. However the cultural diversity still remains since there are many Italians living in my block. Race wise some statistics obtained from http://neighborhoods.rdesk.com/zip-code/Zip_Code_11416_Ozone_Park_ , indicate the following “36.25% of people are white, 8.40% are black, 15.95% are asian, , and 39.21% claim 'Other'.”


* also obtained from http://neighborhoods.rdesk.com/zip-code/Zip_Code_11416_Ozone_Park_

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_Park,_Queens
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Ozone+Park,+Queens