Bensonhurst

Bensonhurst is a working class neighborhood located in the south-central part of Brooklyn. Bensonhurst runs from about 14th Avenue to 25th Avenue and from Gravesend Bay to 63rd Street, encompassing Bath Beach and part of Dyker Heights and bordered by the Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Gravesend, and Borough Park sections.

Currently the neighborhood is undergoing a transformation; many of the original houses dating back over 90 years ago are being torn down and replaced by three-story brick apartment buildings and multi-family dwellings. Bensonhurst is becoming a more integrated neighborhood as many Eastern European, Russian, and Asian families have moved in.

Visitors from throughout the New York City metropolitan area flock to the neighborhood each year in late August or early September to take part in the colorful Santa Rosalia Festival, held on 18th Avenue from Bay Ridge Parkway (75th Street) to 69th Street. St. Rosalia is the patron saint of the city of Palermo and is sometimes venerated as the patron for the entire island of Sicily (a sizeable portion of Bensonhurst's Italian American residents are of Sicilian heritage).

Famous people

Harvey Fierstein, Elliott Gould, Richard Jei, Rhea Perlman, Leah emini, Ray Suarez grew up in Bensonhurst.
Playwrite Abe Burrows, writer of Guys and Dolls and Can-Can was a graduate of New Utrecht High School
Actor Tony Sirico of The Sopranos lives in Bensonhurst.
Larry King, the famous talk show host, lived in Bensonhurst and graduated from Lafayette High School in 1951.
The Three Stooges (Moe, Shemp, and Curly) were all from Bensonhurst.
Saturday Night Fever was filmed in Bensonhurst's Philips Dance Studio.
The television series Welcome Back Kotter was set in Bensonhurst.