Dyker Heights (New York City, New York)

 neighbourhood, draw only border

Dyker Heights is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, USA. It is sandwiched between Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, and Gravesend Bay (Lower New York Bay). Dyker Heights is bounded to the west by the Gowanus Expressway (I-278), to the north by the Bay Ridge Parkway, to the east by 14th Avenue, and to the south by the Fort Hamilton military reservation area. The Dyker Beach Golf Course extends to the Belt Parkway.

Its population is comprised mostly of Italian-Americans and, most recently, Asian-Americans (largely Chinese). Its main commercial street is 13th Avenue (also known as "Dyker Heights Boulevard"), consisting mainly of gourmet food shops.

The neighborhood is best known for the extravagant Christmas decorations erected by its residents each year. Although not all residents can be labeled wealthy, the neighborhood is markedly well-off. Many of the houses south of Bay Ridge Parkway are mini-mansions or actual mansions, but there is nothing that can be properly termed an estate. The mansions are mostly located on and off 11th Avenue from 86th Street to 79th Street.

The 2001 televised documentary "Dyker Lights" (shown on PBS for its cultural perspective of the community) was produced as an insight into the neighborhood with stories involving the Christmas celebration lights. Many of the more grandiose decorations, which visitors had long thought to be "over-the-top" or "excessive," were actually motivated by long and complicated family stories not usually known to the public. These included several family crises that inspired some people to create the elaborate displays.

Dyker Heights is also home to the once private, now public Dyker Beach Golf Course, the waterfront Dyker Beach Park, and Poly Prep Country Day School.

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