Talk:Willowbrook, Staten Island

Orthodox Jewish Community in Willowbrook
I am changing the info to say that Willowbrook is the center of SI's Orthodox Jewish community, but it is not necessarily the center of SI's Jewish community. Heartland Village/New Springville, as well as Bay Terrace also have concentrations of Jews (quite probably more than in Willowbrook), although the Orthodox presence in those neighborhoods is smaller, and hence less visible (Bay Terrace has one Orthodox congregation, and Heartland Village/New Springville has three, and many more Israelis). Also, while there are non-Orthodox Jews who identify as Conservative/Reform (as well as non-affiliated) who DO live amongst the Orthodox in Willowbrook, the article erroneously states that there are Conservative and Refrom synagogues in the Willowbrook area. There are none, although there are several elsewhere on Staten Island, and the non-Orthodox Jews who reside in Willowbrook will typically drive to the synagogues which are located in the other areas of SI--an activity that is forbidden to Orthodox Jews who observe thh Jewish Sabbath and festivals on those days.

No source or evidence to support that Jewish families from Brooklyn or Queens populated Willowbrook
Many of the owners of the newly built homes were Jewish families from the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, and as a result, Willowbrook became the center of the island's Orthodox Jewish community, which from the turn of the century until the late 1960s and early 1970s was primarily centered in Staten Island's North Shore neighborhood of Tompkinsville.

The statements regarding the Orthodox Jewish community are true, but there's no source or evidence to support that these people moved from Brooklyn or Queens. So I'll be deleting from the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

In 1950, Staten Island had over 191,000 people. In 2007, Staten Island had roughly 480,000 people. The U.S. as a whole in 1950 had 151 million people, by mid-2007, the U.S. had 302 million, so during this 57 year time period, it doubled. If Staten Island had an average rate of immigration to the U.S., there should be 382,000 people. However, Staten Island has a much higher rate of immigration. Staten Island's 19 percent foreign-born, as opposed to the average rate of about 11 percent in the U.S. So that's explain the extra slightly less than 100,000 in natural increase. It's not to say some Staten Islander's haven't left, nor some haven't moved in from where ever, but there's nothing to support that a significant wave of Jewish people moved from Brooklyn or Queens. With that being said, there's no reason to believe why Staten Islander's, including Jewish people, couldn't have built up these neighborhoods on their own. Perhaps that's why the Jewish population has decreased in other Staten Island neighborhoods, such as Tompkinsville, and has risen in more open suburban environments like Willowbrook or Arden Heights. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.73.230.11 (talk) 04:38, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

The neighborhood was also drastically transformed with the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in November 1964.

Because of the deleting of the unsourced quotes above, this quote becomes moot. The explanation provided to this quote above lacks evidence. It's important to source information, because some people, sadly, actually believe everything they read on Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.73.230.11 (talk) 05:04, 9 February 2009 (UTC)