EDGEMERE

Edgemere’s boundaries are roughly from Beach 56th Street to Beach 32nd Street. The south side of the neighborhood remains chronically undeveloped, with mile-long stretches of weeds and dirt occupying the barren land. The boardwalk ran all through the neighborhood prior to its destruction from Hurricane Sandy, which on most streets here was the only southern semblance of a structure, save for some billboards. On the north side of the freeway are schools, housing projects, community centers, and numerous single and two-family homes.

Edgemere is home to the seldom-visited Rockaway Community Park. “Situated on 253 acres on the Jamaica Bay in southern Queens, Rockaway Community Park offers a great opportunity for wildlife and nature lovers… Once a resort for the well-heeled of New York, Rockaway Community Park is now an unspoiled getaway for all New Yorkers,” the Parks Department Website says. The neighborhood is also home to the increasingly popular Edgemere Farm, a community garden offering fresh greens and more to the entire peninsula.  A nature preserve has also taken shape as paved winding walkways have been added.

Construction continues throughout Edgemere with new commercial and residential buildings rising up seemingly every day. One of the main roads, Edgemere Ave., will remain closed throughout the summer as work on Arverne East, a misleadingly named housing community expected to bring 1,500 units to the area, continues.