East New York is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 5. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Cypress Hills Cemetery to the north, the Borough of Queens to the east, Jamaica Bay to the south, and the railway tracks next to Van Sinderen Avenue to the west. Linden Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue are the primary thoroughfares through East New York. ZIP codes include 11207, 11208, and 11239. The area is patrolled by the 75th Precinct located at 1000 Sutter Avenue. New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) property in the area is patrolled by P.S.A. 2. During the twentieth century, East New York came to be a commuter town predominantly inhabited by African Americans and Hispanics. Violent crime is a problem in the community; East New York has for many years led New York City in crimes and murders reaching a record 129 in 1993.

East New York has a population around 90,000. Over half the population lives below the poverty line and receives public assistance (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF], Home Relief, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid). East New York is predominantly African American with a significant Puerto Rican and Dominican population as well.

East New York is home of Black Circle News, a print and online media outlet, serving diverse cultures, educating and informing Brooklyn working-class communities as a means to adding and upgrading the quality of life.

East New York consists primarily of semi-detached multi-unit rowhouses similar to those found in Brownsville and Soundview. However, many have been demolished leaving vacant lots in their stead or have been redeveloped into subsidized multi-unit rowhouses. The area is also home to the East Brooklyn Industrial Park. Public housing developments of various type and a smaller number of tenements populate the area. The total land area is one square mile.

In 1980, the forty-four block East Brooklyn Industrial Park was established by the New York City Public Development Corporation in the northwest quadrant of East New York, Brooklyn. Bounded by Atlantic Avenue, Sheffield Avenue, Sutter Avenue and Powell Street.

City Line is a subsection of East New York. The Brooklyn-Queens border to the east, Fountain Avenue to the west. Salem Fields Cemetery to the north and Jamaica bay to the south.

New Lots is often included in East New York, and the reverse has been true in past centuries. The boundaries of New Lots, starting from the south and moving counterclockwise, are: Linden Blvd to the south, the Fountain Avenue to the east, Sutter Avenue to the north, and Van Sinderen Avenue to the west. New Lots includes multiple low income public housing developments and is largely industrial.

Spring Creek is the southeastern part of the former Town of New Lots, and is often included in East New York. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Linden Blvd to the north, the Fountain Avenue border to the east, Gateway National Recreation Area to the south, and Schenck Avenue to the west. Spring Creek includes the Starrett City apartment complex, the Gateway Plaza Mall, and is largely undeveloped.

Cypress Hills is a subsection north of New Lots. The Cypress Hills housing project is not in Cypress Hills, it is in the City Line subsection of East New York. Van Sinderen Avenue to the west & Eldert Lane, Drew Street, 75th Street, Dumont Avenue,78th Street and 155th Avenue to the east. It is located north of Sutter Avenue and south of Highland Park & the Cypress Hills Cemetery.

Starrett City is a large subsidized apartment complex. Each building has between 11 and 20 floors. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Flatlands Avenue to the north, Hendrix Avenue to the east, Jamaica Bay to the south, and the Fresh Creek Basin to the west.

A chain of hills, geologically a terminal moraine, separates northwestern Long Island from Jamaica and the Hempstead Plains, the main part of Long Island's fertile outwash plain. Through one low spot in the chain passed a few 18th Century roads, including the ferry road or Jamaica Turnpike from Brooklyn to Jamaica, hence it was called "Jamaica Pass". During the American Revolutionary War invading British and Hessian soldiers ended an all-night march at this pass in August 1776 to surprise and flank General George Washington and the Continental Army, to win the Battle of Long Island.

In the middle 19th century the road between Brooklyn and Jamaica became the Brooklyn and Jamaica Plank Road. The New York and Manhattan Beach Railway and the Long Island Rail Road were also built through the pass. The point where they met was called Broadway Junction. As often happened at 19th century railroad junctions, a railway town arose. Rapid transit lines were built and brought urban sprawl to this recently rustic northern part of the Town of New Lots. The road to Brooklyn was renamed Fulton Street, the one to Jamaica, Jamaica Avenue and the one to Williamsburg, Broadway. East New York was annexed as the 26th Ward of the rapidly growing City of Brooklyn, and in the 20th century its name came to be applied to much of the former township.

In 1939, the Works Progress Administration Guide to New York City wrote:

After World War II, thousands of manufacturing jobs left New York City thereby increasing the importance of the remaining jobs to those with limited education and job skills. During this same period, large numbers of Puerto Ricans and African-Americans emigrated to New York City looking for employment. East New York, no longer replete with the jobs the new residents had come for, was thereby faced with a host of new socioeconomic problems, including widespread unemployment and crime.

Walter Thabit, a city planner for East New York, chronicled in his book, How East New York Became a Ghetto, the change in population from mostly working class Italians and Jewish residents to residents of Puerto Rican and African descent. Thabit argues that landlords and real estate agents played a significant role in the downturn of the area. Puerto Ricans were moving in masses to New York City in the late 1950s, at a time when unemployment rates in Puerto Rico soared to 25 percent, and left Puerto Rico on the brink of poverty.

Thabit also describes how the construction of public housing projects in East New York further contributed to its decline, noting that many of the developments were built by corrupt managers and contractors. He argues that the city government largely ignored the community when it could have helped turn it around.

Writing in the New York Press, Michael Manville accused Thabit of poor research, sweeping generalizations, and a failure to distinguish the actions of racist individuals from the effects of a racist capitalist system, and contends that much of the urban renewal and public housing efforts of the period were in fact well-intentioned, if ill-considered and hubristic.

New developments are rising in the area, including the Gateway Center, located on what was once part of a landfill near Jamaica Bay. The Gateway shopping mall in Starrett City near East New York is suburban-style, including retailers like Bed Bath & Beyond, Staples, Marshalls, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Boulder Creek Steakhouse, Target, The Home Depot, and BJ's Wholesale Club. The development was welcomed by many in the neighborhood for the jobs it would provide and is frequented by people from all over Southern Queens and Southern Brooklyn, bringing business into the neighborhood. Unfortunately, that promise has been elusive, as the low-wage, high turnover positions which comprise the majority of jobs there do little to generate higher wealth in the community.

After a wave of arson ravaged the low income communities of New York City throughout the 1970s, many of the residential structures in East New York were left seriously damaged or destroyed. The dilapidated homes and streetscapes served as the fictional setting for the film Death Wish 3. The city, through its Department of Housing Preservation and Renewal, initiated several rehabilitation programs designed to redevelop many formerly abandoned apartment buildings[citation needed] and designate them low income housing beginning in the late 1970s. Also many subsidized multi-unit townhouses and newly constructed apartment buildings have been or are being built on vacant lots across the neighborhood. It is important to note that because of the restrictions placed by the rent-stabilization code on many of the redeveloped multi-family buildings, a significant number of these properties have fallen into disrepair and are at risk of landlord abandonment.

East New York is served by the East New York station of the Long Island Railroad. It is served by the 3 train Junius Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, Van Siclen Avenue and New Lots Avenue stations on the IRT New Lots Line and the L train at Atlantic Avenue, Sutter Avenue, Livonia Avenue, New Lots Avenue on the BMT Canarsie Line. It is served by the Liberty Avenue, Van Siclen Avenue, Shepherd Avenue, Euclid Avenue, and Grant Avenue stations of the IND Fulton Street Line as well as the Broadway Junction station of the A, C, J, L, and Z lines of the New York City Subway. It is where the East New York Yard of the New York City Subway, and the East New York Bus Depot are located, near Jamaica Avenue. The B6, B12, B13, B14, B15, B20, B25, B82, B83, BM5, Q24 and Q56 buses also serve East New York.

The73rd Precinct is located at 1470 East New York Avenue in the Ocean Hill - Brownsville area of Brooklyn, New York. Ocean Hill - Brownsville is primarily residential one, two and four family homes with Housing developments. On the commercial side there are factories, warehouses and different types of storage facilities. There are two primary shopping areas - one on Pitkin Avenue between Saratoga Avenue and Mother Gaston Blvd., and the other is located on Belmont Avenue between Rockaway Avenue and Mother Gaston Blvd.

East New York is patrolled by the NYPD's 75th and the Brooklyn North Task Force as well has Transit District 33 and Police Service Area 2 Precinct.

All areas of New York City are within the New York City Department of Education school district. East New York is one of the areas that suffers from very high high school dropout rates. Stabbings, gang violence, and robberies are just a few of the common problems found in the local schools like East New York Family Academy.

One of the neighborhood's local public high school, Thomas Jefferson High School, shut down in June 2007 due to extremely low academic performance: a graduation rate of 29%, with only 2% entering the school at grade level in math and 10% entering at grade level in in reading). The school was known for its ROTC program. Four new high schools were organized in the old building.

ATURA  Barren Island  Bath Beach  Bay Ridge  Bedford  Bedford-Stuyvesant  Bensonhurst  Bergen Beach  BoCoCa  Boerum Hill  Borough Park  Brighton Beach  Brooklyn Chinatown  Brooklyn Heights  Brownsville  Bushwick  Canarsie  Carroll Gardens  City Line  Clinton Hill  Cobble Hill  Coney Island  Crown Heights  Cypress Hills  Ditmas Park  Downtown  Dumbo  Dyker Heights  East Flatbush  East New York  East Williamsburg  Farragut  Fiske Terrace  Flatbush  Flatlands  Fort Greene  Fort Hamilton  Fulton Ferry  Georgetown  Gerritsen Beach  Gowanus  Gravesend  Greenpoint  Greenwood Heights  Highland Park  Homecrest  Kensington  Little Poland  Madison  Manhattan Beach  Mapleton  Marine Park  Midwood  Mill Basin  Navy Yard  New Lots  New Utrecht  Ocean Hill  Ocean Parkway  Park Slope  Pigtown  Plum Beach  Prospect Heights  Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn  Prospect Park South  RAMBO  Red Hook  Sea Gate  Sheepshead Bay  South Park Slope  Starrett City  Stuyvesant Heights  Sunset Park  Vinegar Hill  Weeksville  White Sands  Williamsburg  Windsor Terrace  Wingate

Barren Island - Bath Beach - Bay Ridge - Bedford Stuyvesant - Bensonhurst - Bergen Beach - Boerum Hill - Borough Park - Brighton Beach - Brooklyn Heights - Brownsville - Bushwick - Canarsie - Carroll Gardens - City Line - Clinton Hill - Cobble Hill - Coney Island - Crown Heights - Cypress Hill - Ditmas Park - Downtown Brooklyn - DUMBO - Dyker Heights - East Flatbush - East New York - Farragut - Fiske Terrace - Flatbush - Flatlands - Fort Greene - Fort Hamilton - Fulton Ferry - Georgetown - Gerritsen Beach - Gowanus - Gravesend - Greenpoint - Greenwood Heights - Highland Park - Homecrest - Kensington - Madison - Manhattan Beach - Marine Park - Midwood - Mill Basin - New Lots - New Utrecht - Ocean Hill - Park Slope - Plum Beach - Prospect Heights - Prospect Lefferts Gardens - Prospect Park South - RAMBO - Red Hook - Rugby - Seagate - Sheepshead Bay - Spring Creek - Starrett City - Stuyvesant Heights - Sunset Park - Vinegar Hill - Weeksville - Williamsburg - Windsor Terrace - Wingate -