Downtown Far Rockaway

About the Area

Far Rockaway is home to a diverse community of residents and businesses in the easternmost part of the Rockaway Peninsula. The area is located at the end of the A train and the Long Island Railroad, and within walking distance of both Jamaica Bay and Rockaway’s famed boardwalk. Downtown Far Rockaway is anchored by the Central Avenue, Mott Avenue, and Beach 20th Street retail corridors.

Neighborhood in Need

Despite its historic role as the commercial core of the Rockaway Peninsula, Downtown Far Rockaway had experienced decades of disinvestment, resulting in retail vacancies and a lack of community services, amenities, housing options, and quality open spaces.

A Road Forward: The Downtown Far Rockaway Working Group

In November 2015, Councilman Donovan Richards convened the Downtown Far Rockaway Working Group—a team of local and state elected officials, and community, business, and nonprofit stakeholders—to develop a set of goals and recommendations to revitalize the neighborhood. A vision for Downtown Far Rockaway emerged, calling for smart and community-driven investments by the City, and culminating in a 2016 letter to the mayor detailing the working group’s recommendations.

Roadmap for Action

The Downtown Far Rockaway Roadmap for Action is the ongoing comprehensive response to the letter from the working group and a major interagency plan to re-establish Downtown Far Rockaway as the commercial hub of the peninsula. Released in Summer 2016, the Roadmap for Action includes the following five strategies:

• Identifying new opportunities for mixed-income housing
• Improving transportation infrastructure and transforming public space
• Strengthening existing commercial corridors, small businesses, and connections to jobs
• Expanding upon community services and cultural assets
• Rezoning the downtown area to unlock development potential for commercial and residential uses

Since its release, the City has made progress on all of these strategies and released an update in November 2018.

Continuing Toward a Vision

Building on the progress to date, the City’s investments in Downtown Far Rockaway continue—toward a vision of increased economic opportunity and improved quality of life for everyone who calls the neighborhood home.

Our contact with the Far Rockaway community continues as well—through regular meetings with the council member and the Downtown Far Rockaway Working Group, which meets on a quarterly basis to ensure that the City’s commitments are on track.