FERTILE GROUNDS
January 23, 2006 -- BABY BOOM IN BOROUGH PARK
Borough Park is the baby-boom capital of the Big Apple — a dozen kids are born there every day.
The heavily Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood recorded 4,523 births in 2004 — by far the most in the city.
"Children make our households beautiful," said Faigy Schwarz as she strolled along 13th Avenue with her 2-year-old son, Rifay.
"Let's keep going with God's help!" said Bertha Singer, who was pushing a double stroller carrying her 2-month-old son, Isaac, and 2-year-old nephew, Alex.
The community's birth rate was 24.4 per 1,000 residents — 3 points higher than predominately Hispanic Sunset Park nearby, according to the city Health Department's life-and-death statistics study.
Borough Park produced 1,414 more babies than Williamsburg-Greenpoint, a Jewish and Hispanic neighborhood also known for its high reproduction rate.
Bayside, Queens, had the lowest birth rate — six per 1,000 residents, or 700 total.
Immigrants from the Dominican Republican produced 8,144 newborns — the highest among foreign-born moms. Mexicans placed second with 7,887 births, and Chinese mothers were third with 6,103 births.
Puerto Ricans — for decades recognized as the city's largest Hispanic ethnic group — had only 1,977 births. And births to black women have plummeted 32 percent since 1989.
In other communities, the news was a lot less joyful.
East Harlem suffered the most deaths, 10.9 per 1,000 residents. It also had the most deaths from diabetes.
Throgs Neck in The Bronx had the highest death rate from and cancer and Coney Island was tops for heart disease.
Brownsville had the highest murder rate — 28.1 per 100,000 residents.
Hunts Point had the most drug-use deaths, and Morrisania had the most people perish from AIDS.
Queens Village was healthiest with a death rate of 4.6 per 1,000 residents. Bayside was second at 4.7, and Greenwich Village was third at 5.3.
As for Borough Park, a walk through the neighborhood confirmed it is the city's Baby Belt.
Dozens of children's-clothing, maternity and baby-carriage shops dot 13th Avenue, the main thoroughfare. Even on a cold winter day, the sidewalks look like stroller derbies. There's not a bar, OTB or trendy club in sight.
"The neighborhood is expanding on all four sides. You can't just live without having kids," said Yitzhok Singer, a father of nine who owns the Tiny Town children's store.
Many Jewish parents said they were adhering to the Torah, which encourages families to have many children.
Couples marry younger in Borough Park than most other New Yorkers and have children sooner — and more of them.
Morris Guttman explained the big families by saying, "We're compensating for the 6 million Jews who were burned and killed during World War II."
Borough Park state As semblyman Dov Hikind said his constituents often tease him because he has only three children while the typical family in his area has seven or eight.
"I'm proud to be the guy who represents all the babies," he said.
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