New Springville, Staten Island
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New Springville is a neighborhood in Staten Island, New York. The island makes up one of the five boroughs of New York City; the city is the largest in the United States.
[edit] History
Located near the island's geographical center, the neighborhood was founded in 1680 as Karle's Neck Village. By the early 19th Century the community included a dock (on Richmond Creek) and several freshwater springs, leading to its being renamed first Springville, then later New Springville.
New Springville remained largely rural until 1964, when the E. J. Korvette department store chain opened an outlet on the site of a former chicken farm. This was followed, in 1973, by the opening of the Staten Island Mall on the grounds of what had been a little-used airport, which changed the character of the neighborhood completely; soon adjacent land was converted to business (mostly retail) use as well, and New Springville has emerged as a commercial and administrative core rivaling St. George. New Springville has also become a major public transportation hub, second in size on Staten Island only to that of the St. George ferry terminal; six city bus routes serve the area, including one going to Brooklyn, with the terminal consisting of the Yukon bus depot which opened in the early 1980s and can accommodate 380 buses.
[edit] Transportation
Despite this, New Springville is among the more poorly served areas in all of Staten Island for public transportation, with de facto commuting curfews despite being part of a city renowned for 24 hour mass transit.
The Staten Island Ferry is 7 miles away. Public transportation to the Ferry is inadequate, with the closest Staten Island Rapid Transit train almost 4 miles away and buses that run infrequently after rush hour, often taking as long as 45 minutes to reach St. George and not always in sync with the boat schedule.
Express bus service is $10.00 round trip to Manhattan. X17, X19 and X31 bus routes that service New Springville, end in the early evening. The last X17 from New Springville to Manhattan is at 3:00pm on weekdays and the route is not run at all on Sundays, leaving the neighborhood completely cut off from Manhattan. ([1]) This lack of mass transit, however, adds to the family-friendly nature of the neighborhood.
Staten Island in general, and New Springville specifically, have very little representation on the Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York). Information relating to the Board Members deliberately omits their home boroughs. ([2]) The New York City Mayor only has 4 appointments to the MTA board, even though New York City is comprised of five counties in the State of New York. MTA officials believe that New Springville residents are not of the ilk who (a) are employed past rush hour, (b) attend sporting events and concerts at Madison Square Garden, (c) attend Broadway shows; or (d) enjoy the city's robust nightlife. Ironically, when the MTA held a requisite board meeting on Staten Island, the MTA board members opted to drive their government-subsidized vehicles to the meeting in lieu of taking mass transportation. ([3])
[edit] Explosion in Development
In addition to its explosive development as a business district, New Springville also experienced massive residential growth during the latter third of the 20th Century, with thousands of single-family homes being built there, along with apartment and condominium complexes near the Staten Island Mall. ([4]) In recent years, a new educational complex has been under construction within these apartments and condominiums. Completed is P.S.58 (Space Shuttle Columbia School), an elementary school, and new intermediate and high schools are under construction.
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