Politics




The United States Census Bureau defines Marble Hill as Census Tract 309 of New York County. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 8,463 on a land area of 0.3065 km2 (0.1183 sq mi, 75.7 acres). Because Marble Hill is legally part of Manhattan, residents who serve on jury duty go to the courthouses at Foley Square in lower Manhattan.

Political representationedit

Politically, Marble Hill is in New York's 13th congressional district. It is in the New York State Senate's 31st district, the New York State Assembly's 72nd district, and the New York City Council's 10th district. Bronx Community Board 8 is the local community board for Marble Hill.

History of political disputeedit

On March 11, 1939, as a publicity stunt, Bronx Borough President James J. Lyons planted the Bronx County flag on the rocky promontory at 225th Street and Jacobus Place. Lyons proclaimed Marble Hill as a part of the Bronx and demanded the subservience of its residents to that borough, saying it was "The Bronx Sudetenland," referring to Hitler's 1938 annexation of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The incident was met with boos and nose-thumbing by 50 residents of Marble Hill, who referred to the effort as similar to an "Anschluss". Since then, more lighthearted "annexations" have occurred.

Residents of the neighborhood wished to remain residents of Manhattan, and petitions and signatures were gathered to be sent to Governor Herbert H. Lehman to ensure that Marble Hill remain part of Manhattan. In 1984, in response to one Marble Hill resident's refusal to serve on jury duty for a murder case in Manhattan that year due to the resident claiming that she was not a resident of New York County and Manhattan, the matter was settled when the New York Legislature passed legislation declaring the neighborhood part of New York County and Manhattan. The confusion was so great that when New York City Councilman Guillermo Linares was elected as Marble Hill's representative in 1991, he originally thought the neighborhood was part of the Bronx.

Servicesedit

Marble Hill residents remain part of a political district that includes the northernmost areas of Manhattan (Washington Heights and Inwood), but city services – for example, the fire and police departments – come from and are in the Bronx for reasons of convenience and safety, since the only road connection to the rest of Manhattan is a lift bridge, the Broadway Bridge. However, medical services are provided from Manhattan Island, and medical vehicles come from Columbia University's Allen Pavilion, also known as the Allen Hospital, a satellite facility of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Marble Hill, along with Spuyten Duyvil and Kingsbridge in the Bronx, is located within ZIP Code 10463. The "104" prefix is used for Bronx localities, while "100" through "102" are reserved for Manhattan addressesa – although mail can be addressed to either "New York, New York" using the USPS designator for Manhattan, or to "Bronx, New York" as long as the ZIP Code is accurate. The United States Postal Service operates the Kingsbridge Station post office at 5517 Broadway.

In 1984, area code 718 was created out of area code 212 for the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island; the Bronx and Marble Hill were added to the 718 area code in 1992. Marble Hill residents unsuccessfully fought to retain the 212 area code, which was considered more prestigious than the 718 area code. Since then, Marble Hill has been in area code 718 (now also served by three overlay codes: 347 and 929 for the outer boroughs, and 917 for the entire city), but residents are listed in both Bronx and Manhattan telephone books.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Education

Image
Schools edit John F. Kennedy High School was built in the former riverbed on the western side of Marble Hill, and was opened in September 1972. Beginning in fall 2002, smaller high schools were established within the campus. Due to poor academic performance in the 2000s, as well as a series of violent crimes at the school (including the murder of a student), the New York City Department of Education made a decision in fall 2010 to close the school, phasing out one grade per year until 2014. It closed down in 2014, and six smaller, specialty high schools now occupy its campus: four public, two charter. Four of these schools were founded in 2002, while the other two were established in 2011 after the decision was made to close John F. Kennedy High School. The nearest public elementary school is PS 7 Milton Fein School in Kingsbridge, serving grades K–5. Nearby private schools include Horace Mann School, Riverdale Country School, and Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Nearby parochial scho...
Read more

Shopping mall

Image
The River Plaza, a shopping mall located on 40 West 225th Street between Broadway and Exterior Street and overlooking the Harlem River, opened in August 2004. It is the commercial center for Marble Hill. It cost $90 million and has a floor area of 235,000 square feet (21,800 m2). The mall, which has an open-air format in which the passageways between stores are outdoors, has a 640-space parking lot on the roof. In 2002, before construction, developers purchased adjacent land from six owners, with the largest building on these lots being a deteriorating, ​ 3   1⁄ 2 -floor, 326,000 square feet (30,300 m2) warehouse owned by NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. Since the building could not be renovated cheaply enough, it was demolished. The mall was built on a foundation of soft soil and a shallow water table, so builders had to place 1,500 concrete-capped steel piles into the soil. The finished building was designed to retain views of landmarks like the George Washington Bridge and the Empire ...
Read more

History

Image
Colonization edit Marble Hill has been occupied since the Dutch colonial period. On August 18, 1646, Governor Willem Kieft, the Dutch Director of New Netherland, signed a land grant to Mattius Jansen van Keulan and Huyck Aertsen which included the whole of the present community. Johannes Verveelen petitioned the Harlem authorities to move his ferry from what is now the East River and 125th Street to Spuyten Duyvil Creek because the creek was shallow enough to wade across, thus providing a means of evading the toll. The ferry charter was granted in 1667. Many settlers circumvented the toll for the ferry by crossing the creek from northern Marble Hill to modern Kingsbridge, Bronx, a point where it was feasible to wade or swim through the waters. In 1669 Verveelen transplanted his ferry to the northern tip of Marble Hill, at today's Broadway and West 231st Street. Bridges edit Two bridges connected Marble Hill with the mainland: the King's Bridge and the Dyckman Free Bridge. In 1...
Read more