Ocean Breeze, Staten Island
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Ocean Breeze is a name sometimes applied to the southern part of the neighborhood on Staten Island, New York, United States, known as South Beach.
Once referred to as Graham Beach, the area was originally a summer beach colony consisting of many bungalows and tents. Located nearby was Warren Manor, a residential development that was demolished in the 1950s to make way for a proposed new City University campus that ended up never being built (in 1993 the City University system did open a new campus on Staten Island, on the grounds of the former Willowbrook State School). A hospital was later constructed on part of the former Warren Manor property, and Staten Island Hospital was relocated to the site from New Brighton in 1979; in 1989 this hospital merged with Richmond Memorial Hospital in Prince's Bay to form Staten Island University Hospital.
Immediately to the east of Staten Island University Hospital is the South Beach Psychiatric Center, a state institution for the mentally ill which opened shortly after the aforementioned hospital did. Wild Turkeys appeared on and near the grounds of this facility in the 1990s, and have since multiplied and spread to other Staten Island neighborhoods, having been sighted as far away as West Brighton on the island's central North Shore.
Situated in a low-lying coastal area, Ocean Breeze often experiences the worst flood-related damage in all of Staten Island after heavy rain has fallen, and many of the neighborhood's side streets become impassable. Stray dogs, which have been known to attack children, are also a local problem.
