Ozone Park
Ozone Park is a New York City neighborhood located in the southwestern part of the borough of Queens bordering Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Howard Beach, and the borough of Brooklyn, about 8 miles east, southeast of Midtown Manhattan. The northern border is Atlantic Avenue, west border is Drew Street (City Line) at the Brooklyn border, south border is South Conduit Avenue, and the east is 108th Street. It is the home of the Aqueduct Racetrack, a popular spot for thoroughbred racing.
History
Housing was first developed in the area after the Long Island Rail Road began service through the area in 1880 as part of its route from Long Island City to Howard Beach. The name "Ozone Park" was chosen to "lure buyers with the idea of refreshing breezes blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean to a park-like community"[1].
In the 1990's, the neighborhood's population exploded with new immigrants, increasing the population density and leading to many small private homes being converted to condos and multi-family houses. This has become a major controversy in the neighborhood as longtime residents feel their suburban-like residential streets are beginning to look like more urban parts of the borough, such as Jackson Heights and Astoria.
Mafia
Ozone Park was widely perceived as a center for mafia activities until the early 1990s. Lucchese crime family members and mob associates owned many businesses throughout Ozone Park.
Thomas DeSimone, a Lucchese crime family associate, shared an apartment here, with his then girlfriend, Theresa Ferrara. She was later murdered due to issues involving the 1978 Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Her torso eventually was found washed up on the beach.
John Gotti co-opted the Bergen Hunt and Fish Club which is located in the neighborhood and would host a huge block party and fireworks show along 101st Avenue every July 4th. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani became very unpopular here in the late 1990s when he denied local residents permits to host similar block parties along 101st Avenue in an effort to appear to apply uniform enforcement on such events city-wide.
On Friday, February 9, 1990, the people of Ozone Park waited anxiously for the jury to reach a verdict on John Gotti's case. The Jury found him not guilty on four assault charges and two conspiracy charges. When the courtroom was cleared, the jubilant Gotti was escorted out of the courthouse through a private elevator reserved for judges. Once on the street, Gotti raised his fist in triumph for the crowds of supporters standing behind police barricades. The victory was greeted with cheers and celebratory fireworks. In Ozone Park, red and yellow balloons awaited Gotti's return.
After he later went to prison, neighborhood residents protested his incarceration. When John Gotti died in jail, the citizens of Ozone Park mourned. His funeral procession traveled through the city. Throughout Ozone Park, there were flowers and remembrance for the mobster.
In October 2004, FBI agents, backed by cadaver-sniffing dogs, a helicopter and heavy construction equipment, swooped down on the site on 75th Street in Ozone Park, Queens, specifically searching for at least two bodies believed to have been stuffed into steel drums, and three more wrapped in canvas. Believed to be buried there include John Favara — The neighbor of John Gotti, who accidentally ran over John Gotti's son. Also believed to be buried there, Tommy DeSimone — the crazy hit man portrayed by Joe Pesci in the movie "GoodFellas" — and Bonanno crime family capos Dominick "Big Trin" Trinchera and Philip "Philly Lucky" Giaccone. The fifth man was described as a thug who refused to carry out the hit on DeSimone, only to wind up being personally killed by a furious Gotti. The five men may be just the beginning of a long list of victims hidden in the Mafia dumping ground.
As many as 15 more corpses could be buried at the empty, weed-choked spot in Ozone Park — most of them the remains of victims killed by the Gotti-run Gambino family. On Monday, December 20, 2004, DNA tests confirmed that the skeletal remains unearthed from the Ruby St. lot the previous October, are those of Dominick "Big Trin" Trinchera and Philip "Philly Lucky" Giaccone. Neither Tommy DeSimone nor John Favara's remains were unearthed in the Ruby St. lot excavation.
Son of Sam
The summer of 1977 was a frightful one for the people of New York City. The "son of sam" David Berkowitz was on the loose. Some of the numerous murders he committed took place in the Queens area, mostly of young Italian-American women. During this summer, the people of Queens feared for their lives. He wrote a letter to Ozone Park's own, Captain Joseph Borrelli of the NYC police department.
Demographics
The makeup of the neighborhood has historically been mostly Italian and Irish (who continue to hold a strong presence in the neighborhood), but recent immigrants from South Asia, the West Indies (Indo-Trinidadians) and South America (Indo-Guyanese) have come into the neighborhood. There is a smaller minority of African Americans and Hispanics, mainly closer to the Brooklyn border. These new arrivals have helped Ozone Park becoming one of the fastest-growing and ethnically diverse neighborhoods in New York City. Most residents are middle-class and live in private homes on tree-lined residential streets. There are pockets of wealthier areas in the southern part of the neighborhood close to the Belt Parkway.
Transportation
There are many bus routes that run through Ozone Park. The Q7 runs on Rockaway Boulevard, Q21 and Q41 run on Cross Bay Boulevard, Q11 up Woodhaven Boulevard, Q112 runs on Liberty Avenue along which the IND Vorlage:NYCS A train becomes elevated (and also makes stops in the neighborhood), the Q8 which runs on 101st Avenue, and the Q24 runs on Atlantic Avenue.
Schools
- Public Schools
- P.S. 64 Joseph P. Addabbo School
- Junior High School 202 R. H. Goddard
- Middle School 137 America's School-Heroes
- P.S. 63 Old South School
- P.S. 65
- John Adams High School
- Private Schools
- St Elizabeth's RC Elementary
- St Mary Gate of Heaven RC Elementary
- St Stanislaus Bishop - Martyr RC Elementary
- Little Dolphin Pre-School
- Closed Schools
- Our Lady of Wisdom RC Secondary
Notable People from Ozone Park
- Charles Camarda - astronaut, Mission Specialist on STS-114, first space shuttle flight since the loss of the Columbia
- Justin Credible - Professional wrestler
- Anthony Ench - From Ozone Park, Involved in The Howard Beach incident.
- Tommy DeSimone - Mob associate
- Joseph Patrick Addabbo - Congressman and Has School named after him.
- Thomas Joseph Downey- United States Congressman from Suffolk County, New York from 1975-1993.
- Gerald Edelman - 1972 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[2]
- Peter Facinelli - actor
- John Gotti - Mafia Boss.[3]
- Thomas Uva -modern day Bonnie and Clyde.
- Rosemarie Uva - Modern day Bonnie and Clyde.
- Cyndi Lauper - actress/singer
- Carol Heiss - Olympics figure skater
- Dominick Pizzonia - Ozone Park Mobster
- Bernadette Peters - actress/singer.[4]
- Dominick Valenti - host of The Wrestling Hotseat.
- Debra Wilson - comedian, one of the original cast members on the sketch comedy series MADtv.
- Salvatore Polisi - Mob Associate, Government Informant, Sins Of The Father - Nick Taylor.
- John Swiader- A member of D Battery, 547th AAA Battalion, and was attached to the 95th Division during the combat phase in Europe.
- Carmine Fatico - Mob Capo for the Gambino Family
- Joseph Borrelli - NYC Police Captain. (recieved a letter from the 'Son of Sam')
- Jack Kerouac - writer , although he was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, he lived here with his parents after he was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1943. He wrote his first novel, The Town and the City, as well as the quintessential On The Road while living in Ozone Park. His friends jokingly called him "The Wizard of Ozone Park," being both a play on words referring to the film The Wizard of Oz and a takeoff on the nickname of inventor Thomas A. Edison, "the Wizard of Menlo Park."
References
- In the movie Boss Of Bosses starring Chazz Palminteri, there is a scene with John Gotti in Ozone Park at his club. (The Bergin Hunt and Fish Club)
- ↑ If You're Thinking of Living In/Ozone Park; Changing Faces, Enduring Values, The New York Times, October 5, 2003
- ↑ Gerald Edelman - 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, Israel High-Tech Magazine, July 1, 2005
- ↑ 'Dapper Don' John Gotti dead: Brought down by the Bull, CNN.com, June 11, 2002
- ↑ Artshound.com biography of Bernadette Peters, accessed December 16, 2006