Little Uzbekistan (Midwood, Brooklyn)
When the Soviet Union broke up in the 1990s, many people from the Soviet satellite countries moved to New York City, especially to Brooklyn. Midwood and Kensington acquired the name “Little Uzbekistan” by about 2011.
Wikipedia: Midwood, Brooklyn
Midwood is a neighborhood in the south-central part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is within Community District 14; is patrolled by the 61st, 66th, and 70th precincts of the New York City Police Department; and is served by the New York City Fire Department at a station on East 14th Street housing Engine 276, Ladder 156 and Battalion Chief 33.
It is bounded on the north by the Bay Ridge Branch tracks just above Avenue I and Brooklyn College campus of the City University of New York, and on the south by Avenue P and Kings Highway. The eastern border is Nostrand Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, or Coney Island Avenue, McDonald Avenue or Ocean Parkway to the west is the other boundary.[1]
(...)
Many Midwood residents moved to the suburbs in the 1970s, and the neighborhood and its commercial districts declined. Drawn by its quiet middle-class ambiance, new residents began pouring into Midwood during the 1980s; many of them were recently landed immigrants from all over the world. The largest group were from the Soviet Union, but substantial numbers also arrived from Jamaica, Haiti, Mexico, Guyana, and elsewhere in South America; from Ireland, Italy, Poland, the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), and elsewhere in eastern Europe; and from Greece, Turkey, Israel, Syria, the Persian Gulf states, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, China, and Korea. In a short time, Midwood was transformed, from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood with a smattering of Irish-Americans and German-Americans, to a remarkably polyglot section of the borough of Brooklyn.
Twitter
Ted Clubberlang
@jmurf710
In little uzbekistan aka the other side of queens boulevard
9:35 PM - 16 May 2010
WNYC
Published in The Brian Lehrer Show
The New Littles: Uzbeks, Liberians, and More
Jun 9, 2011
Each Thursday in June, the Brian Lehrer Show and Andrew Beveridge of Social Explorer will discuss New York’s diverse communities - areas of ethnic concentration that are changing quickly or that you may not know about.
Joining us this week is President of the Staten Island Liberian Community Association Telee Brown, PhD candidate in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center Bernadette Ludwig, and President and co-founder of the Uzbek Initiative Farkhod Muradov.
random notes: geographer-at-large
June 21, 2011
The New “Littles”: Mapping ethnic enclaves in NYC
(...)
Little Uzbekistan in Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn
YouTube
Bruklin, Kichik O’zbekiston/Little Uzbekistan in Brooklyn, NYC
@AmerikaOvozi
Published on Jun 1, 2013
Nyu-York - dunyoning eng katta shaharlaridan biri. Sakkiz milliondan oshiq odam yashaydi. Uning Bruklin tumani 19-asr oxirlarigacha Amerikaning eng yirik shaharlaridan biri bo’lgan, chunki hajm jihatidan katta edi. Bugun ham ikki yarim milliondan oshiq aholiga ega. Atlantika okeani bo’yidagi bu azim hudud, ayniqsa uning Brayton Bich deya nomlangan sohil qismi Sovet davrida ham muhojirlar o’chog’i edi. AQShga kelgan o’zbekistonliklar uchun Bruklin birinchi bekat. Yaqinda u yerga safar qilib, “Amerika Manzaralari” ko’rsatuvini taqdim etgan Navbahor Imamovaning hikoya qilishicha, Bruklinda bugun kichik O’zbekiston vujudga kelgan.
Untapped Cities—New York
NYC’s Micro Neighborhoods: Little Uzbekistan in Ditmas Park and Midwood
06/02/2014 at 10:00 am
by billy hagberg
(...)
The neighborhood itself is idyllic; row upon row of beautiful townhouses stretching out between and out of Ocean Parkway and Coney Island Avenue and dotted with local businesses. The nascent Uzbek community is fairly visible, given that a large portion of it are of the Bukharan Jewish faith which observes a dress code. Bukharan Jews are native to Central Asia, descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel exiled during the 7th century. They now live here in Brookyln, and are also in Forest Hills, Queens.
Bukharan food shops are plentiful as well, serving a mix of Central Asian, Jewish and even Chinese and Southeast Asian plates, such as palov (similar to pilaf) and oshi piyozi or stuffed onion. There are also numerous bakeries along the main drag of Coney Avenue, such as Ostrovitsky’s on Avenue J with kosher sweets and baked goods. More broadly Uzbek food like traditional and hearty beef and lamb dishes are available throughout the area, notably Uzbek Palace further South on Avenue P.
International Business Times
NYC ISIS Plot: Brooklyn’s Uzbek Muslim Enclave Shocked By Proposed Violence
BY THOMAS BARRABI @TBARRABI
LORA MOFTAH @LORAMOFTAH ON 02/26/15 AT 4:03 PM
(...)
Hundreds of these immigrants live in the “Little Uzbekistan” micro-neighborhood in Brooklyn at the convergence of Kensington, Midwood and Ditmas Park. The apartment Juraboev shared with Saidakhmetov was in Midwood, according to the New York Daily News.
New York (NY) Times
Accusations of Terrorism Worry Brooklyn’s Uzbek Community
By LIZ ROBBINS MAY 10, 2015
(...)
Of the nearly 56,000 Uzbek immigrants in the United States in 2013, according to the latest American Community Survey from the census, almost half live in New York City. About 12,000 Uzbeks live in Brooklyn, more than double the number in 2000. The population has more than tripled in the neighborhoods of Borough Park, Kensington and Midwood, as well as Homecrest and Sheepshead Bay, according to demographers at Queens College.
(...)
Uzbek culture was in full flourish on a recent Saturday night at Emir Palace, which opened a year and a half ago and features a banquet hall on the first floor and a restaurant with a dance club on the second. About 200 people of all ages in the banquet hall were celebrating a 1-year-old’s birthday with traditional music and dancing. Upstairs, another band played European pop music, a disco ball spinning and the vodka flowing.
“We make a little Uzbekistan here,” Mr. Akramov said next to a wall adorned by pictures of Uzbek landmarks. “We help each other so we don’t forget our roots.”