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HISTORY: Port Richmond is a neighborhood lying in the south of Kill van Kull in northwestern Staten Island. The area was known for a cemetery of the Dutch Reformed church near the shore on Richmond Avenue and was called the Burial Place in 1700. It was a point of transfer for freight and passengers traveling by boat between New York City (NYC) and New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was also a ferry landing known variously as Ryer’s Landing, Mersereau’s Landing and Decker’s Landing, built as a terminus for a route to Bergen Point (now in Bayonne, NJ). Ferries ran continually until shortly after the Bayonne Bridge was built in 1931. The area also became the site of an important stop on a coach route between NYC and Philadelphia. Irish and Germans settled in the neighborhood in the mid-nineteenth century. Some small industries were established, including the only whaling company on Staten Island in 1838. [1]
The neighborhood was incorporated as Port Richmond in 1866 and was described as a model village in 1883. In the 1880s the Staten Island Railroad built a northern line with a station at Richmond Avenue. By the 1890s, a black church was established and in 1907, a synagogue was built. A public library was built by Andrew Carnegie in 1902. Italians, Poles, Norwegians, and Swedes moved into the neighborhood at the turn of the century. [1 p. 929]
Mariners Harbor: Long associated with maritime businesses, Mariners Harbor is a neighborhood in western Staten Island bounded by Kill van Kull to the north, to the east by the approach to the Bayonne bridge, Forest Avenue to the south, and the Goethals Bridge to the west. Commercial fishing and the harvesting of oysters, which was curtailed in the early 1900s due to pollution of the harbor, and shipbuilding (at its peak during World War II, mostly at Bethlehem Steel Shipyard) as well as boat repair were notable businesses. Today, there are small businesses along Richmond Terrace, the main thoroughfare. Housing in the area mainly consists of one-family old houses, some attached housing and several subsidized housing projects. [1 p. 728]
UHF Neighborhood: AIDS data is reported by zip code and the NYC Department of Health (DOH) reports AIDS statistics using the United Hospital Fund (UHF) zip code clusters. For UHF Port Richmond/Mariners Harbor, the cluster includes zip codes 10302, 10303 and 10310. With 13.3% of the total Staten Island population, these neighborhoods have nineteen percent (19%) of individuals diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. The vast majority (60%) of people with AIDS (PWAs)1 in Port Richmond/Mariners Harbor acquired the virus via intravenous drug use (IDU). Sixteen percent of diagnosed AIDS cases in these UHF neighborhoods were attributed to men having sex with men (MSM), 15% to heterosexual or probable heterosexual transmission, and 9% to other/unknown factors. [2]
 
Total male diagnosed aids cases (left) and total female diagnosed aids cases (right)
 
Source: The NYC Dept. of Health
At the end of December 2001, Port Richmond/Mariners Harbor had 474 PWAs, yielding a cumulative AIDS case rate of 1,976 per 100,000 – 2nd in Staten Island and 26th in NYC. Port Richmond/Mariners Harbor would rank 4th in cumulative AIDS case rate per 100,000 when compared to the 62 NYS Counties. Approximately 62% of the individuals diagnosed with AIDS have already died. UHF Port Richmond/Mariners Harbor has more residents diagnosed with AIDS than seven states, including Alaska. At 176, UHF Port Richmond/Mariners Harbor also has more PLWAs than four states. [2 & 3]
Source: The NYC Dept. of Health
Seroprevalence Data presented on HIV are preliminary and are an underestimate of the total number of persons living with HIV in NYC. Mandatory reporting of HIV diagnoses and selected laboratory tests (Western Blot, detectable HIV viral load, and CD4<500 cells) began in June 2000. However, HIV surveillance data are incomplete because diagnosed 2 people living with HIV (PLWH) are not all reportable under the existing law; undiagnosed3 PLWH are not reportable, and laboratory and provider reporting may be incomplete. [2] The NYC Department of Health reports that there were 77 PLWH in Port Richmond by August 2002. Further relying on the estimate of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that only 2/3 of HIV seropositive persons are aware of their HIV status, Port Richmond has about 105 seropositive individuals. [2]
The Community Needs Index (CNI) was developed by the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute "to assist HIV prevention programs in identifying communities – at the zip code level – that are at increased need for intervention." In the 2000 CNI, two of the six zip codes in CD 1 ranked "moderate need." Zip code 10310 and 10303, at 51.4 and 50.8 percentiles respectively, ranked 3rd and 4th of the12 Staten Island zip codes and 86th and 87th respectively of the 177 zip codes of NYC. Zip code10304, at the 77.4 percentile ranked 1st of 12 in Staten Island and 40th of the 177 zip codes for NYC; 10301 at the 65.5 percentile, ranked 2nd in Staten Island and 61st in NYC; 10302 at the 41.2 percentile ranked 5th in Staten Island and 104th in NYC and 10305 at the 28.8 percentile, ranked 6th in Staten Island and 126th in NYC. [6]The three zip codes, especially 10310, rank fairly high in AIDS frequency when compared to the rest of the Staten Island zip codes. In addition to this indicator, zip codes 10302 and 10303, at 36.4/1000 and 35.7/1,000 respectively rank 2nd and 3rd in Staten Island in the teenage pregnancy rate. At 9.7/100, zip code 10303 also ranks 2nd n rate of low birth weight in Staten Island. In addition, zip code 10310 with 152/100,000, ranks 3rd in Staten Island in total AIDS cases. [6]
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) From 1996 to 2001, the NYC DOH compiled a summary of the incidence of STDs in NYC’s UHF neighborhoods. The summary included case rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia (females only) and primary and secondary syphilis (P&S Syphilis) in these neighborhoods. By the end of 2001, the rates of all STDs had increased in NYC from the 2000 rates: P&S Syphilis by 133%, chlamydia by 11% and gonorrhea by 8%. [7]In 2001, UHF Port Richmond saw an increase in the rate of gonorrhea and P&S Syphilis by 25% (80 – 107/100,000) and 106% (0 – .6/100,000) respectively, while the rate of gonorrhea decreased by 23% (544 – 441/100,000). All STD rates: gonorrhea, chlamydia and P&S Syphilis were highest in SI for 2001 and 23rd, 21st and 25th respectively of the 42 NYC UHF neighborhoods. [7]
Source: The NYC Dept. of Health |
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