Charleston (Fresh Kills)

Charleston is lush, clean, with plenty of trees lining the streets of the neighborhood. Most the homes in the area are single-family houses: detached colonials, Victorians, ranches, raised ranches and even French mansard homes.

The clay pits that originally attracted Balthazar Kreischer are the basis of a New York state park called Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve, the city's only state park preserve. It is a 260-acre nature preserve with wetlands, sand barrens, streams and woodlands, picnicking and hiking on designated trails, as well as more than five miles of bridle paths.

Outside the park, some residents complain about traffic related problems: narrow streets, speeding tractor trailer trucks and inadequate parking. Employees of businesses in the area often park alongside residents' property because few sidewalks exist, sometimes leaving muddy tire tracks in lawns.

One unusual business is the Colonial Rifle Range, which has existed for 70 years on Arthur Kill Road, one of the community's main thoroughfares even though it is a winding road with just two lanes.

The only school within Charleston was formerly known as P.S. 4 and is now an annex to P.S. 25, a special education school in neighboring Pleasant Plains. The school, which has nine classes for ages 10 to 21 years old, teaches students educational subjects and such daily living activities as cooking, cleaning, shopping and going to the library. Most of the area’s children attend P.S. 56.