Риджвуд, Куинс: История и современность района Нью-Йорка.

Ridgewood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It borders the Queens neighborhoods of Maspeth to the north, Middle Village to the east, and Glendale to the southeast, as well as the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick to the southwest and East Williamsburg to the west. Historically, the neighborhood straddled the Queens Brooklyn boundary. The etymology of Ridgewood's name is disputed, but it may have referred to Ridgewood Reservoir, the local geography, or a road. The British settled Ridgewood in the 17th century, while the Dutch settled nearby Bushwick. The adjacent settlements led to decades of disputes over the boundary, which later became the border between Queens and Brooklyn. Bushwick was developed rapidly in the 19th century, but Ridgewood remained sparsely populated until the early 20th century, when rowhouses were built for its rapidly growing, predominantly German population. Ridgewood has become more ethnically diverse since the mid 20th century. Large parts of the neighborhood are national and city historic districts. Ridgewood is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 104th Precinct.

The origin of the neighborhood's name is disputed. One theory is that it came from the Ridgewood Reservoir in Highland Park, in Brooklyn just south of Ridgewood. The reservoir was on a high ridge in the middle of the Harbor Hill Moraine, a terminal moraine that runs the length of Long Island. Another possible etymology is the forests that covered the area before colonial settlement, and that early English settlers called the moraine the "ridge" of Long Island. Yet another possible etymology is "Ridge Road". Likewise, Ridgewood was part of Newtown, one of the three initial towns in Queens, and was settled by the British. The only known remaining Dutch farmhouse in the neighborhood is the Onderdonk House, which was erected in 1709. Also at the Onderdonk House site is Arbitration Rock, a marker for the disputed boundary between Bushwick and Newtown, and by extension Brooklyn and Queens (see ). The land remained rural through the American Revolutionary War, though there may have been a burial ground in the area. Fresh Pond Road was formerly a Native American trail; the other roads were laid out as plank roads in the early to mid 19th century.

The development of public transportation, starting with horse drawn cars in the mid 19th century and later succeeded by trolleys and elevated trains, helped to spur residential and retail development. The first transit line to arrive in the neighborhood was the Myrtle Avenue horsecar, which was extended to Brooklyn's Broadway in 1855. Following this, the Bay Ridge Branch opened in 1878, connecting to Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, and the Brooklyn shorefront via the Manhattan Beach Railroad. The Myrtle Avenue elevated railroad, running above Myrtle Avenue within Brooklyn, was extended to the Queens border in 1889. An electric trolley line through Ridgewood, running to Lutheran Cemetery, was opened along a private right of way in 1894. Ten years later, the Myrtle Avenue Elevated was extended on a ground level alignment over that trolley line. Simultaneously, northern Brooklyn was seeing an increase in the number of German immigrants. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, German immigrants had moved to other enclaves such as Yorkville, Manhattan; Steinway, Queens; and the north Brooklyn/Ridgewood area. The discovery of freshwater under northern Brooklyn resulted in the development of breweries, where many Germans worked.

Ridgewood remained rural until the unification of New York City's boroughs in 1898, even as Bushwick had become fully developed. Development in Ridgewood in the 19th century consisted mostly of picnicking locations, beer gardens, racetracks, and amusement areas for the residents of Bushwick. By the end of the century, developers had bought these sites and started constructing rowhouses and tenements, usually two to three stories high. The Ridgewood Board of Trade, created in 1902, was organized to develop the streets and utilities, and to improve the transit infrastructure. Much of the housing stock was erected between 1905 and 1915. Most of the houses built before 1905 were wood frame houses; that year, a zoning ordinance was passed, requiring new buildings to be made of masonry. The area was developed more quickly after the Queensboro Bridge opened in 1909, connecting Queens to Manhattan. Two of the more drastic changes to Ridgewood's character in the 1920s were the implementation of a street numbering system across Queens in 1925, followed by the opening of the Canarsie subway on the neighborhood's southern border in 1928.

Ridgewood was among New York City's most quickly developing neighborhoods between at least 1906 and 1911. Much of the new housing was originally settled by Germans, who had mostly moved from other neighborhoods such as Williamsburg. To the German newcomers, the modern and more expansive houses in Ridgewood provided an improvement over the cramped housing stock in their former neighborhoods. Figures from the 1910 United States Census indicated that much of Ridgewood's population was working class and of German or Eastern European descent, and many homes were owner occupied. Ridgewood's German population was so large that the Ridgewood Times' first issue in 1908 was published in both English and German. Other Eastern Europeans came as well. As recorded in the 1920 United States Census, the population of Ridgewood was mostly working class homeowners from Germany, Austria, or Italy, with a smaller population from Hungary, Ireland, Poland, and Sweden. The demographic figures remained relatively unchanged through the 1930 United States Census. Still, in the 1939 WPA Guide to New York City, workers for the Federal Writers' Project described Ridgewood and Bushwick as "old fashioned and respectable", and said that Ridgewood "rivals Manhattan's Yorkville as a German center." By the 1940 United States Census, Southern Europeans were also recorded as having moved into Ridgewood. and Ecuadorians—including a significant population of Quechua speaking Amerindians from the Imbabura and Cañar provinces of Ecuador—had moved to Ridgewood. Other large populations included Yugoslavians, Chinese, Koreans, and Slovenians.

Originally, Ridgewood and Glendale shared ZIP Code 11227 with Bushwick. Following the 1977 blackout, the communities of Ridgewood and Glendale expressed a desire to disassociate themselves from Bushwick.

Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Ridgewood was 69,317, a decrease of 138 (0.2%) from the 69,455 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of
The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 39.8% (27,558) White, 2.0% (1,380) African American, 0.1% (93) Native American, 7.7% (5,331) Asian, 0.0% (19) Pacific Islander, 0.3% (204) from other races, and 1.1% (765) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 49.0% (33,967) of the population. The entirety of Community Board 5, which comprises Maspeth, Ridgewood, Middle Village, and Glendale, had 166,924 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 81.4 years. This is about equal to the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are youth and middle aged adults: 22% are between the ages of 0–17, 31% between 25 and 44, and 26% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college aged and elderly residents was lower, at 8% and 13% respectively. In 2018, an estimated 19% of Ridgewood and Maspeth residents lived in poverty, compared to 19% in all of Queens and 20% in all of New York City. One in seventeen residents (6%) were unemployed, compared to 8% in Queens and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 46% in Ridgewood and Maspeth, lower than the boroughwide and citywide rates of 53% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018, Maspeth, Ridgewood, Middle Village, and Glendale are considered to be high income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying. The majority of the neighborhood covers a large hill, part of the glacial moraine that created Long Island, which starts at Metropolitan Avenue, rises steeply for about two blocks, then slopes down gently. For instance, at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish on 60th Place, the front entrance of the church is almost level with the second floor of the Parish school next door. Part of Ridgewood around the Linden Hill Cemetery, centered around Flushing and Metropolitan Avenues, was once known as Linden Hill, distinct from the neighborhood of Linden Hill in Flushing, Queens. Linden Street is named after this subsection of Ridgewood.

Ridgewood is a densely settled neighborhood, with housing stock ranging from six family buildings near the Brooklyn border to two family and single family row houses deeper into Queens. The neighborhood has been largely untouched by construction since then, leaving many centrally planned blocks of houses and tenements still in the same state as their construction. These blocks include the Mathews Flats (six family cold water tenements), Ring Gibson Houses (two and four family houses with stores), and Stier Houses (curved two family rowhouses). Many of these houses are well kept and retain much of their early 20th century appeal.

There are low density commercial districts along Myrtle, Forest, and Metropolitan Avenues and Fresh Pond Road. The building's exterior is made of limestone and contains an eight foot granite base. The interior has travertine walls and marble floors.

Maspeth, Ridgewood, Middle Village, and Glendale are patrolled by the 104th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 64 02 Catalpa Avenue. The 104th Precinct ranked 21st safest out of 69 patrol areas for per capita crime in 2010. However, the precinct covers a large diamond shaped area, and Maspeth and Middle Village are generally seen as safer than Ridgewood. as of 2018, with a non fatal assault rate of 19 per 100,000 people, Ridgewood and Maspeth's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 235 per 100,000 people is lower than that of the city as a whole.

Ridgewood contains a New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire station, Engine Co. 291/Ladder Co. 140, at 56 07 Metropolitan Avenue.

as of 2018, preterm births and births to teenage mothers are less common in Ridgewood and Maspeth than in other places citywide. In Ridgewood and Maspeth, there were 70 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 17.6 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide). and the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick.

Since at least 1898, when the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens were created as part of the City of Greater New York, Glendale and Ridgewood's postal mail had been routed through the main Brooklyn post office in Williamsburg, rather than the main post office in Flushing, because they are located closer to Williamsburg. When ZIP Codes were assigned in 1963, the neighborhoods were assigned Brooklyn ZIP Codes with the 112 prefix, along with all areas whose mail was routed through a Brooklyn post office. Afterward, the communities of Ridgewood and Glendale expressed a desire to disassociate themselves from Bushwick. Following complaints from residents, Postmaster General William Bolger proposed that the ZIP Codes would be changed if United States Representative Geraldine Ferraro could produce evidence that 70% of residents supported it. After Ferraro's office distributed ballots to residents, 93 percent of the returned ballots voted for the change. The change to ZIP Code 11385 was made effective January 13, 1980.

The Queens Public Library's Ridgewood branch is located at 20 12 Madison Street. The Brooklyn Public Library's Washington Irving branch is located at 360 Irving Avenue near Woodbine Street, just across Ridgewood's border with Bushwick. The Queens and Brooklyn Public Libraries are separate library systems and are not interchangeable.

The New York City Subway's BMT Myrtle Avenue Line runs through the heart of Ridgewood with stops at , , and Additionally, the Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenues station, in the southern portion of Ridgewood, is a transportation hub serving the Myrtle Avenue Line, the BMT Canarsie Line , and several buses. At the end of the Myrtle Avenue Line is the Fresh Pond Yard, a storage yard for the Halsey Street has entrances in both Ridgewood and Bushwick. The Ridgewood Terminal at the Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenues station serves New York City Bus' lines. The bus lines also serve Ridgewood. In addition, the neighborhood is home to the large Fresh Pond Bus Depot, which services many of the buses that run throughout Brooklyn and Queens.

The Ridgewood Park baseball ground, built on land owned by William Wallace, was part of a larger entertainment area bounded by Wyckoff Avenue, Covert Street, Halsey Street, and Irving Avenue. From 1886 to 1889, it was home to the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (later the Brooklyn Dodgers and now the Los Angeles Dodgers) for their Sunday games. The property continued to operate until 1959. Another similarly named site, called Grauer's Ridgewood Park, was located between Myrtle Avenue, Cypress Avenue, Seneca Avenue, and Decatur Street, and was used mainly as a picnic site. Mafera Park, named after former Queens borough president Joseph F. Mafera, is located south of the Fresh Pond Junction, between the Myrtle Avenue elevated line to the west and the Bay Ridge Branch to the east.

Parquet Courts' 2013 song "Stoned and Starving" includes the lyric "I was walking through Ridgewood, Queens".