Congressman Major Owens District information
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The 11th Congressional  District

Congressman Owens and steelpan players

 Steeped in history and tradition, Brooklyn's 11th Congressional District can boast some of the many firsts in the United States, if not the world.  Eastern Parkway spanning the breath of the Crown Heights section in the district, was the first six-lane parkway built in the world.  The underground Brooklyn Children’s Museum is the first and oldest children’s museum in the United States.  Perched on Bergen Street between Buffalo and Rochester Avenues is Weeksville, the landmark buildings of one of the earliest African American communities in Brooklyn dating back to the mid 1800s.  Park Slope with its rows of Brownstones, elegant turn-of-the century architecture, fanciful restaurants and antique shops is the largest landmark district in New York boasting some 1,600 designated buildings.  Erasmus Hall High School on Flatbush Avenue founded by historical notables Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and Aaron Burr in 1786 is the first secondary school chartered in New York and the second oldest public school in the United States.  The West Indian Carnival held every Labor Day is the first of its kind in North America and the largest festival in New York State.  The Panorama competition that compliments the colorful Labor Day Carnival brings to the district the sounds of the only family of acoustic instruments developed in the 20th Century, the steel drum and steel pan. 

Congresman Owens and the Central Brooklyn Martin Luther King Commission

 Indeed, the 11th Congressional District is not only rich in history and tradition; it is a mosaic of ethnicities and cultures.  From “Little Pakistan” is in the southern end, to the worldwide headquarters of the Lubavitch Hasidic Jews and the Haitians "La Saline" in the center; to the Ashkenazi, Sephardic and other southern European Jews, Chinese, and Iranians in the Midwood section, to the East Indians, Poles, Mexicans, Indonesians, Turks, Guyanese, Russians, Dominicans and Jamaicans in Kensington, and the 14 English-speaking populations—Bajans, Trinidadians and Tobagonians, Vincentians, Saint Lucians, Jamaicans, Grenadians, Antiguans—in  East Flatbush and Crown Heights; the district is home to the largest wave of new immigrants to the United States.  As a result much of the constituent work relates to issues concerning immigration.

Congressman Major Owens and residents of Park Slope

 The district also has a sizeable population of African Americans whose history dates back to the mid-1600s. This population resides in various sections of the district including Park Slope, Crown Heights, and Brownsville.

 According to the latest Census, 654, 361 people call the district home. Almost one-fourth are White (24 percent); 57 percent are African American and 12 percent are Hispanic or Latino.