You’re driving down Conduit Avenue, right on the border of Queens and Brooklyn, and if you aren’t looking for it, you’ll miss it entirely. But if you peer over the edge of the embankment near 75th Street, you’ll see it. It looks like a glitch in the city’s grid. This is The Hole Queens NY, a literal sunken patch of New York City that sits 30 feet below the surrounding street level. It’s weird. It’s dusty. And honestly, it’s one of the last places in the five boroughs that feels like the Wild West.
There are no sewers here. That’s not a hyperbole or a metaphor for neglect; it is a geographic fact. Because the neighborhood is so low—literally a hole in the ground—the city’s sewage system can't run uphill to meet it. When it rains, it doesn't just puddle. It floods. The intersection of Ruby Street (which is technically in Brooklyn) and 75th Street (Queens) becomes a lake of brackish water and runoff.
People live here anyway. They’ve lived here for generations.
What Actually Happened to The Hole Queens NY?
To understand why The Hole Queens NY looks the way it does, you have to look at how New York was built. Most of the city was leveled and raised during the 19th and 20th centuries. Hills were flattened; marshes were filled with coal ash and trash. But for some reason, the city just... stopped here. The surrounding areas like Ozone Park and East New York were raised to meet the modern grade, leaving this small, five-block radius at the original, natural elevation of the marshland.
It’s a jurisdictional nightmare. Half the neighborhood is in the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn, and the other half is in the 106th Precinct in Queens. This "no man's land" status meant that for decades, basic infrastructure just didn't happen.
The Federici family and other long-term residents have talked for years about the "pumping station" promises that never quite materialized the way they were supposed to. Instead of a modern drainage system, many homes rely on septic tanks. Think about that for a second. In 2026, in the middle of the most expensive real estate market on earth, people are still pumping out septic tanks because the city can't figure out how to defy gravity.
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The Mafia, The Rumors, and the Reality
If you’ve heard of The Hole before, it was probably in a true crime podcast or a Scorsese movie. It’s got a reputation. Back in the 70s and 80s, the Gambino and Bonanno crime families allegedly used the vacant, overgrown lots here as a dumping ground. It made sense. It was isolated, dark, and the police rarely cruised through the flooded streets.
In 2004, the FBI actually showed up with backhoes. They were looking for the remains of "Sonny Red" Indelicato and "Big Phil" Giaccone—mob captains who vanished in the early 80s. They found bodies. They found bones.
But if you talk to the people who live there now, that's just "movie stuff" that overshadows the actual struggle of living in a place that the map seems to have forgotten. Most of the residents aren't wise guys; they're folks who wanted a bit of land, a place to keep horses, or a spot where they wouldn't be bothered by the gentrification sweeping through the rest of the city.
Living Below Sea Level: The Infrastructure Crisis
The flooding is the main character in the story of The Hole Queens NY.
When a major storm hits—like Ida or even a heavy summer thunderstorm—the water has nowhere to go. It sits. It stagnates. Residents have had to become makeshift engineers. You'll see houses built on makeshift stilts or front yards filled with gravel and wooden planks to create a "bridge" to the front door.
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- Septic Failures: When the ground saturates, septic systems back up. It's a health hazard that the city has acknowledged but failed to fix because the cost of "lifting" the neighborhood is astronomical.
- The Fire Department Issue: Imagine a fire truck trying to navigate a street that is currently a three-foot-deep pond. It's a terrifying reality for the families on 78th Street.
- Property Values: You can find "cheap" land here, but you can't get a traditional mortgage on most of it because the flood risk is off the charts. It’s an all-cash world.
It’s not all grim, though. There’s a strange, rugged beauty to it. Because it’s so isolated, it became the home of the Federation of Black Cowboys for a long time. Seeing a man on a horse trotting past a rusted-out Chevy against the backdrop of the A-train tracks is something you just don't see anywhere else in New York.
The Future of the Sunken City
Is the city ever going to "fix" The Hole?
Probably not. At least, not in the way residents hope. The New York Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has done studies. They’ve looked at the cost of installing a massive pumping station and raising the streets. The price tag is in the hundreds of millions. For a neighborhood with only a few dozen homes, the "cost-benefit analysis" usually ends up in a filing cabinet.
Developers have tried to move in. You’ll see a few newer, "fed-style" houses built on raised foundations. They look awkward—like they’re standing on tiptoe to avoid getting their feet wet. But even these developers struggle. You can build a house, but you can't build a street.
Why You Shouldn't Just "Go Visit"
If you're a "dark tourist" or a photographer, be respectful. This isn't a museum. It's a neighborhood where people are trying to raise kids and keep their basements dry. The residents are notoriously wary of outsiders coming in to take "poverty porn" photos of the flooded streets or the stray dogs.
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If you do go, wear boots. Seriously. Even on a sunny day, the low spots stay damp.
Actionable Insights for Navigating NYC Infrastructure Issues
If you are looking at real estate in peripheral Queens or Brooklyn, or if you're just fascinated by how urban planning fails, here is what you need to keep in mind:
- Check the Elevation Maps: Never trust a listing that says "no flood zone" without checking the NYC Flood Hazard Mapper. Places like The Hole Queens NY are extreme examples, but "pocket flooding" exists all over the city due to clogged catch basins.
- Understand Jurisdictional Lines: If a property sits on a borough or precinct border, services can be slower. Always verify which precinct and sanitation district covers the specific block.
- Septic vs. Sewer: If you're buying in older parts of Queens (specifically near the edges of Jamaica Bay), ask for a sewer inspection. Some homes are still on "private sewers" or old septic systems that are ticking time bombs for homeowners.
- Look for the "High Water Mark": When walking a neighborhood, look at the base of the trees and the brickwork on older buildings. Discoloration or moss lines will tell you exactly how high the water gets when the clouds open up.
The Hole is a reminder that New York is a city built on top of a swamp, and sometimes, the swamp tries to take it back. It's a community built on resilience, grit, and a refusal to be paved over, even if that means living in a literal hole in the ground.
Next Steps for Research:
Check the New York City Department of City Planning's "Resilient Neighborhoods" report for the Old Howard Beach and The Hole areas. It provides the most recent technical breakdown of the drainage challenges and the proposed (though often unfunded) zoning changes meant to mitigate the flooding. If you're looking at property in the area, hire a surveyor specifically trained in hydrologic soil analysis to see if the land is even capable of supporting a modern foundation.