The area originally populated by the Dutch and French Huguenot settlers of 17th and 18th centuries bears the famous names of those families, which include: Van Name Avenue, Van Pelt Avenue, Brabant Street, Lockman Avenue and Mersereau Avenue. The oldest church in the neighborhood is the Summerfield
Methodist Church, founded in 1840. It still stands on Harbor Road and has an active multicultural congregation, reflecting the demographics of the neighborhood. On the corner of Richmond Terrace and Lockman Avenue is the Fellowship Baptist Church, which was founded by community leader Rev. Arthur D. Phillips. The church has a large black congregation and has gained considerable political influence, being visited by New York City mayors
David Dinkins,
Rudolph Giuliani, and
Michael Bloomberg on multiple occasions during their terms of office. Other churches in the area include the Seventh Day Adventist Church and St. Clement-St.Michael's Roman Catholic Church. From the early 1900s to the 1930s, the area became home to many
Italian-Americans, who still comprise a significant percentage of its population. The neighborhood was permanently transformed, however, in 1954, when the
New York City Housing Authority opened the 605-unit Mariners Harbor Houses
public housing project in the heart of the community,. The portion of the neighborhood west of Harbor Road (both north and south of the railroad tracks) eventually became predominantly Black. The area east of Harbor Road remained White longer, but has gradually become more Hispanic. All sections of the neighborhood have a substantial representation of Hispanics, Blacks, and Whites, with the southern portion of the neighborhood having a small Asian population. (Census Tract 231 has a 13% Asian population, a 442% increase from 2000, which was the fastest growth rate in the Asian population of any tract on Staten Island.) The northwest portion of Staten Island (which includes Mariners Harbor) as well as the Far South Shore are the fastest growing areas of Staten Island. For census purposes, the New York City Department of City Planning classifies Mariner's Harbor as part of a larger Neighborhood Tabulation Area called Mariner's Harbor-Arlington-Graniteville SI0107. This designated neighborhood had 33,492 inhabitants based on data from the
2020 United States Census. This was an increase of 2,018 persons (6.4%) from the 31,474 counted in
2010. The neighborhood had a population density of 35.2 inhabitants per acre (14,500/sq mi; 5,600/km2). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 19.8% (6,618)
White (Non-Hispanic), 29.4% (9,853)
Black (Non-Hispanic), 10.9% (3,659)
Asian, and 4.4% (1,452) from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 35.6% (11,910) of the population. According to the
2020 United States Census, this area has many cultural communities of over 1,000 inhabitants. This include residents who identify as
Mexican,
Puerto Rican,
Dominican,
Irish,
Italian,
Chinese, and
African-American. The largest age group was people 5-19 years old, which made up 22.2% of the residents. 74.5% of the households had at least one family present. Out of the 10,640 households, 40.9% had a married couple (18.1% with a child under 18), 5.7% had a cohabiting couple (2.9% with a child under 18), 17.9% had a single male (2.1% with a child under 18), and 35.5% had a single female (10.9% with a child under 18). 41.4% of households had children under 18. In this neighborhood, 70.2% of non-vacant housing units are renter-occupied. ==Police and crime==