Little Yemen (Bay Ridge, Brooklyn)
“Little Yemen” is a nickname of both Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and Morris Park, in the Bronx. .
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, has seen an influx of residents from Arab and Middle Eastern countries. The Yemen Café and Restaurant opened at 176 Atlantic Avenue in 1986. The nickname “Little Yemen” has been cited in print since at least November 10, 2009, when “The Mayor of Little Yemen Has No Term Limits” by Katie Robbins was printed in The L Magazine.
Bay Ridge has also been nicknamed “Little Palestine” and “Beirut” for the same reason.
“Little Yemen” in the Bronx has a Wikipedia page, which states, “It is wedged in-between Van Nest and Pelham Parkway. The heart of the neighborhood is located on White Plains Road at Rhinelander Avenue.” “Little Yemen, the Bronx” was posted on Twitter by RABYAAH ALTHAIBANI رابعة الذيباني🗳 on July 11, 2019. “‘People were really pushed out from Downtown Brooklyn — that’s really where New York’s Yemeni community has its roots,’ says @DebbiAlmontaser, one of our co-founders here in YAMA explains” was posted on Twitter by YAMA Action on November 19, 2021.
Wikipedia: Little Yemen
Little Yemen is an ethnic enclave located in the eastern half of Bronx, New York in Morris Park. It is wedged in-between Van Nest and Pelham Parkway. The heart of the neighborhood is located on White Plains Road at Rhinelander Avenue.
The Yemeni American Community started growing in large numbers after the war started in Yemen in 2014. Yahay Obeid, Outreach Liaison for the Bronx Muslim Center worked with Google and a journalist to change the name of the area to Little Yemen.
There are over 500 Yemeni owned businesses within a one mile radius of Little Yemen, most are Deli and Groceries. Previously, the area was mostly Italian and Latino.
Wikipedia: Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, US It is bounded by Sunset Park on the north, Seventh Avenue and Dyker Heights on the east, The Narrows Strait, which partially houses the Belt Parkway, on the west and the Verrazano bridge on the south. While Fort Hamilton is often considered a separate neighborhood, it is part of Bay Ridge. Fort Hamilton and most of Bay Ridge share the ZIP code of 11209; the remainder is in 11220 (actually the Bay Ridge post office is in 11220).
Life
Bay Ridge is a largely middle-class neighborhood. With its strong family presence, it is not uncommon to see third or fourth generation families living in the region. Until the early 1990s Bay Ridge was a primarily Irish, Italian, and Norwegian[ neighborhood. Today, Bay Ridge maintains a sizable Irish, Italian, and Greek population, but like other areas in South/Southwest Brooklyn, late in the 20th century it saw an influx of Russian, Polish, and Lebanese, and lesser numbers of Chinese. In recent decades many Middle Eastern and Arab Americans have moved to Bay Ridge. Bay Ridge has many international restaurants and bars, especially along 3rd and 5th Avenue, its main commercial strips. Many refer to the community as “Brooklyn’s Gold Coast.”
The L Magazine
The Mayor of Little Yemen Has No Term Limits
by Katie Robbins |11/10/2009 12:30 PM
(...)
Akram Nassir is the scion of Atlantic Avenue.
Together with his uncle, Al Subadi, Nassir runs Yemen Café, the restaurant that Al Subadi and Nassir’s father Hatem opened in 1986. It was by no means the family’s first foray into the business. The stretch of Atlantic between Henry and Court Streets has been known for its swath of Middle Eastern restaurants for over forty years, and Nassir is the progeny of one of its first families.
Twitter
Lisa Concepcion
@LisaLoveCoach
Fake?? That video was real!! 3 years ago Ft. Hamilton Pkwy aka “little yemen” Brooklyn. #GodBlessAmerica
8:05 PM · Sep 17, 2017·Twitter for Android
29 April 2019, New York (NY) Times, “With Boycott, Yemeni-American Bodega Owners Flex Political Muscle” by Christina Goldbaum, pg. A15:
Some remnants of little Yemen still dot the gentrified landscape around Downtown Brooklyn near Atlantic Avenue.
Sandwiched between a Barneys New York and an Urban Outfitters on Atlantic Avenue, the two Yemeni restaurants left on this stretch of pavement bustle with customers each night, the aroma of lamb broth and warm fava beans mashed into foul wafting onto their stoops.
But as the prices of real estate around Downtown Brooklyn rose, many Yemeni-Americans sold the buildings they owned in the neighborhood and moved their stores into other parts of the city. Today, Yemeni-owned bodegas are sprinkled throughout every borough of New York.
Twitter
RABYAAH ALTHAIBANI رابعة الذيباني🗳
@rabyaahahmed
Little Yemen, the Bronx ♥️
The Bronx, NY 10462 https://g.co/kgs/6Z37nX
7:45 PM · Jul 11, 2019·Twitter for iPhone
The Bronx Ink
Putting Little Yemen on The Map
Posted on 15 September 2019. Tags: Bronx, bronx museum, culture, google, immigrants, map, Morris park, Van Nest, Web
by Lila Hassan
At a small intersection with an under-developed park called Green Streets, no longer than the length of three tightly parked cars, lies the center of Little Yemen in Morris Park. Door-to-door services crowd the street in front, including Al-Meraj, a halal meat market, and Gamal Business Services, where Arabic-language employees provide tax, translation, and notary services.
Twitter
Ruth_Papazian
@PuRpleIsPowRful
After voting, I walked 10 min further West in Van Nest (an area Google Maps has labeled “Little Yemen” b/c of the influx of immigrants from that country in recent yrs) to visit Billadi Markets to buy pantry staples I previously traveled to Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn to find. (1/3)
10:01 PM · Nov 5, 2019·Twitter Web App
Twitter
Pollito
@Concep95
They really named Morris park near Bronx park wash Little Yemen
6:49 AM · Jan 13, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
Google Books
Bridge of Lies
By Greg Dinallo
Open Road Distribution
2021
Pg. ?:
It angled southeast beneath the city to Bay Ridge Avenue in Brooklyn. Winter had finally arrived, and a cold wind buffeted them as they walked the few blocks to Fifth Avenue, Little Yemen’s Main Street, which was lined with two- and three-story prewar buildings.
Bronx (NY) Times
CB 11 approves street renaming in Bronx’s ‘Little Yemen’
By Jason Cohen
Posted on February 3, 2021
Former Yemeni President Ibrahim al-Hamdi was assassinated in 1977 at just 40 years of age, but is known to have had a tremendous impact on the country — with some even comparing him to JFK.
Today, with a war going on in Yemen, those in the Morris Park community of Little Yemen, which has a one mile stretch of 500 businesses, want to recognize their late leader.
Yahay Obeid, the vice chairman of Community Board 11, is also director of outreach for the Bronx Muslim Center on Rhinelander Avenue and a Morris Park resident. He recently circulated a petition to rename a street for al-Hamdi and on Jan. 28, the board approved that White Plains Road between Cruger and Rhinelander Avenues to be renamed Ibrahim al-Hamdi Way.
19 April 2021, New York (NY) Times, “Your Tuesday Briefing” by Melina Delkic, (oneline):
In a new book, “Names of New York,” the geographer Joshua Jelly-Schapiro tells the story of the city’s history through its streets and the names they carry. In some cases, residents — rather than city officials — invented the names: A Yemeni-born supervisor at Kennedy Airport petitioned Google Maps to mark several Bronx blocks as Little Yemen.
Norwood News (Bronx, NY)
Third Yemeni American Day Parade Held in Bronx’s “Little Yemen”
August 6, 2021 Archive, Blog, Community, Employment, Latest, News
By DAVID GREENE
(...)
Several hundred Yemeni Americans and their supporters in the Bronx celebrated the 3rd Annual Yemeni American Day Parade as they marched through the streets of “Little Yemen” on Sunday, Aug. 1.
Twitter
Ayat
@klnkane
Replying to @the_waheeb
Did u go to bay ridge it’s like little Yemen fr
12:49 PM · Aug 13, 2021·Twitter for iPhone
YouTube
#morris #nyc #bronx
Morris park- Little Yemen Bronx, NY
Nov 8, 2021
AZ PLANET
Driving thru morris park little yemen#morris #nyc #bronx
Grub Street
NEIGHBORHOODS NOV. 15, 2021
Take a Trip Around Little Yemen “I’ve been in the Bronx for 20 years — I never expected that this would happen.”
By Chris Crowley
(...)
Only a few years ago, referring to this pocket of the Bronx — a portion of Van Nest bordering the Bronx’s “other Little Italy” in Morris Park — as “Little Yemen” would have been a stretch. The neighborhood then was home to just three restaurants serving Middle Eastern food and a handful of markets, but the past three years have seen an explosion of growth. The local businesses now include multiple restaurants, coffee shops, and sweets stores; the supermarkets Dar Al Hajar and Al-Quds (named for the famous stone palace in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a); several hookah lounges; barbershops; and Yemeni-owned travel agencies. Hungry visitors will find saltah, the lamb stew topped with whipped fenugreek, or they can pair Yemeni-style coffee with bint al-sahn, a layered, flaky bread drizzled with honey and garnished with nigella seeds.
Twitter
YAMA Action
@YAMAMerchants
“People were really pushed out from Downtown Brooklyn — that’s really where New York’s Yemeni community has its roots,” says @DebbiAlmontaser, one of our co-founders here in YAMA explains.
Read more about the BIG hearts in Little Yemen, Bronx NY
grubstreet.com
Take a Trip Around Little Yemen
“I’ve been in the Bronx for 20 years — I never expected that this would happen.”
3:03 PM · Nov 19, 2021·Twitter Web App
YouTube
Little Yemen in Brooklyn NYC Walking tour
Jan 20, 2022
Scouts
Untapped New York (May 6, 2022)
A GUIDE TO BAY RIDGE’S GROWING ARAB COMMUNITIES
NOAH SHEIDLOWER
In Bay Ridge, a neighborhood in the southwest corner of Brooklyn, the scent of cinnamon and cardamom wafts out into the streets, which are lined with Yemeni and Palestinian restaurants, shops selling traditional clothing and manufactured goods, and community and religious centers lining every block. That’s because the neighborhood is home to a rapidly growing community of Arab residents who have nicknamed the neighborhood “Little Palestine” and “Little Yemen.” Though some residents have had family in New York City for over a century, including some who trace their lineage to a wave of Syrian migrants who fled the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s, most started coming in the 1960s and ’70s, with new waves from the Middle East in the last few years escaping conflict and unrest. Bay Ridge has one of the largest Arab-American and Middle Eastern populations of any neighborhood in New York City, though it was not always so ethnically diverse.
Most of the community’s shops and restaurants are on 4th and 5th Avenues between 67th Street and 75th Street, with a few places on 3rd Avenue. Starting north at 5th Avenue around 67th Street is Yemen Unity Restaurant, a small local Yemeni restaurant a few doors down from the Yemeni American Merchants Association.
Twitter
Mayor Eric Adams
@NYCMayor
Small businesses are the life blood of our city — join us in Little Yemen in the Bronx to close out National Small Business Week!
Mayor Eric Adams
@NYCMayor
Small businesses are the life blood of our city — join us in Little Yemen in the Bronx to close out National Small Business Week!
1:31 PM · May 6, 2022·Twitter Media Studio
Twitter
Morris Park Business Improvement District
@Morrisparkbid
#MorrisPark Little Yemen the #Bronx capital of #NationalSmallBusinessWeek2022 today, bringing together community and businesses to highlight the unique qualities each community in our borough - thank you
@bronxbp Vanessa Gibson and Deputy BP @jpegnyc_ for acknowledging our work!
8:33 PM · May 6, 2022·Twitter for iPhone