Borough Park (usually spelled Boro Park by its residents), is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City in the United States.
Borough Park is home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside of Israel, with one of the largest concentrations of Jews in the United States and Orthodox traditions, rivaling many insular communities. Since the average number of children in Hasidic and Hareidi families is 6.72, Borough Park is experiencing sharp growth. It is an economically diverse area, with rich, working class and poor people living side-by-side and going to the same schools and synagogues.
Its heart lies between 11th and 18th Avenues and 40th and 60th Streets. Borough Park is patrolled by the NYPD's 66th Precinct.
The neighborhood has undergone many transformations in recent decades. Demographically, it has changed from a neighborhood of Italian, Irish, and Modern Orthodox Jewish families to one of mostly Hasidic Jewish families.
In a 2000 Census study, it was reported that an estimated 76,600 Jews lived in Borough Park. Since that time, Borough Park has grown significantly, and has earned the title of "baby boom capital" of New York City because of its high birth rate. The neighborhood recorded 4,523 births in 2004, the highest in the city. The closest Brooklyn neighborhood in terms of population growth was Williamsburg, home to many Satmar Hasidim, which reported 3,839 births. Borough Park's birth rate, 24.4 per 1,000 residents, has translated into major growth in the neighborhood.
Hasidic families often require larger homes, and this has fueled construction and renovation projects across the neighborhood. The vast majority of these projects involve larger bedrooms and kitchens. Since 1990, the Building Department has issued more permits for private construction projects - new homes and additions - in the Borough Park area than in any other residential neighborhood in Brooklyn." These construction projects were aided with a new law in 1992, which established Borough Park as a special zoning district where residents could build on 65% of their lot. This reduced the size of setbacks and backyards tremendously.
Many of these births occur at Maimonides Medical Center, a prominent hospital in the Borough park area. The Maimonides Infants & Children’s Hospital of Brooklyn is fully accredited as a “children’s hospital within a hospital”; it is just one of only three such facilities in New York City. Here, at the The Stella and Joseph Payson Birthing Center, Maimonides handles more births than any other hospital in New York State.
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