Howard Beach is a suburban neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is bordered in the north by the Belt Parkway and South Conduit Avenue, the south by Jamaica Bay, the east by 102nd-104th Streets and the west by 78th Street. Howard Beach borders the neighborhoods of Ozone Park to the north and Broad Channel to the south. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 10.

Howard Beach is home to a strong and close knit Italian community. Irish-Americans, German-Americans and Jewish-Americans also are a large part of the population. The zip code of Howard Beach is 11414.

Howard Beach was established in the 1890s by William J. Howard, a Brooklyn glove manufacturer who operated a 150 acre (0.61 km²) goat farm on meadow land near Aqueduct Racetrack as a source of skins for kid gloves. In 1897, he bought more land and filled it in, and the following year he built 18 cottages and opened a hotel near the water, which he operated until it was destroyed by fire in October 1907. He gradually bought more land, and formed the Howard Estates Development Company in 1909. He dredged and filled the land until he was able to accumulate 500 acres (2 km²) by 1914. He laid out several streets, water mains and gas mains, and built 35 houses that were priced in the $2,500-$5,000 range.

The Long Island Rail Road established a station that was first named Ramblersville in 1913, and a Post Office by the same name opened soon thereafter. A casino, beach and a fishing pier were added in 1915, and the name was changed to Howard Beach on April 6, 1916. Development continued, and the ownership was expanded to a group of investors who sold lots for about $690 each starting in 1922.

Like most Queens neighborhoods, Howard Beach is composed of several smaller neighborhoods — Howard Beach, Old Howard Beach, Hamilton Beach, Ramblersville, Rockwood Park, Lindenwood, and Howard Park. Howard Beach proper is a small peninsula bordered by the Belt Parkway and Conduit Avenue on the north, Jamaica Bay on the south, Hawtree Creek on the east separating it from Hamilton Beach and Shellbank Basin on the west that separates it from Cross Bay Boulevard.

Cross Bay Boulevard is the main commercial strip of Howard Beach and going northward it eventually turns into Woodhaven Boulevard after Ozone Park. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the Boulevard was made up almost exclusively of locally-owned shops and restaurants. However starting in the 1990s, chain stores and restaurants began moving in and now many well-known franchises are on the boulevard. Entertainment venues on Cross Bay Boulevard such as the Kiddie-Park and Cross-Bay Lanes were popular until their demise in the 1970s and 1980s.

Bernard Coleman Memorial Square (colloquially Coleman Square) is the small plaza at the Howard Beach-JFK station on the IND Rockaway Line of the New York City Subway (served by the A train) and the AirTrain JFK station in Howard Beach. There is a memorial to servicemen from Howard Beach who died in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Joseph Addabbo, Jr., the son of former Congressman Joseph P. Addabbo, represents the area as member of the New York State Senate. Congressman Gregory W. Meeks, (D-NY) represents that part of Howard Beach east of Cross Bay Boulevard, while Congressman Anthony D. Weiner, (D-NY) represents the part west of Cross Bay Boulevard. Eric Ulrich is the New York City Councilman for Howard Beach.

The A Train Subway stop in Howard Beach was once a Long Island Rail Road station on the Long Island Rail Road's Rockaway Beach Branch. Frequent fires on the trestle to Broad Channel helped to force the LIRR to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the 1950s which allowed the city to purchase the line from the LIRR in 1956.

The Howard Beach-JFK subway station located at Coleman Square provides a connection to both the A train and AirTrain JFK (and was the terminus of the former JFK Express, known colloquially as the "Train To The Plane," in the late 1970s into the early 1990s). Prior to the AirTrain JFK, the Port Authority provided a free shuttle bus to the terminals at JFK Airport. The Airtrain provides a quick and convenient connection to the terminals of JFK.

For grades 9-12, most residents attend John Adams High School in nearby Ozone Park, Specialty High Schools, such as Beach Channel High School in Rockaway Park or Catholic High Schools, such as Christ the King, St. Francis Prep, or Archbishop Molloy.

Howard Beach gained some national attention on December 20, 1986 when three African-American men were assaulted by local teenagers, resulting in one death.

At approximately midnight on December 20, 1986, three black men, all with criminal records, Michael Griffith, 24, Cedric Sandiford, 36, and Timothy Grimes, 20, entered New Park Pizzeria on Cross Bay Boulevard after their car had broken down in the adjacent neighborhood of Broad Channel, approximately three miles to the South. According to the prosecution's argument, a teen driver in a passing car yelled a racial epithet at the men, and a verbal altercation ensued. Three of these teens later returned with seven to nine friends, aged fifteen to eighteen. The three black men fled, pursued by the teens. Grimes escaped unscathed, while Sandiford was caught and assaulted with baseball bats, tree limbs, and fists. Griffith was killed when a car ran over him on the Belt Parkway where he had run while attempting escape. The autopsy would later reveal that Griffith tested positive for cocaine at the time of his death. Early the next morning, then-Mayor Ed Koch condemned the crime in the media comparing the incident to a lynching. Then-Governor Mario Cuomo appointed a special prosecutor, Charles J. Hynes.

One of the accused youths, Robert D. Riley, the son of a New York City police officer, agreed to cooperate with authorities, in exchange for leniency. Riley fingered Jon L. Lester, Jason Ladone, Scott Kern and Michael Pirone as the ring leaders of the attack. The four teens were charged with manslaughter, second degree murder and first degree assault. After a lengthy trial, Ladone, Kern and Lester were convicted of second degree manslaughter and assault. Ladone was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Kern got up to 18 years. Lester received 10 to 20 years. As part of his plea bargain, Riley received six months in jail and 400 hours of community service.

A second wave of seven teens were accused of lesser charges; William Bollander, James Povinelli, and Thomas Farino were convicted of second degree riot charges after a lengthy appeals process. Salvatore DeSimone and Harry J. Buonocore plead guilty to the same charge. John Saggese was acquitted of the riot charge, and Thomas Gucciardo was acquitted of the charges of attempted murder, assault and riot.

Al Sharpton led several protests in the neighborhood Special prosecutor Hynes has since gone on to become the District Attorney of Brooklyn and has written a book about the incident.

Another incident took place near Howard Beach, in Lindenwood, but is mistaken atrbuted to Howard Beach. on June 29, 2005, when three African-Americans, who were in Howard Beach, tryng to steal a car, when they were attacked with baseball bats. One of them was injured seriously enough to be hospitalized, and two arrests were made in the case. The convicted assailant, Nicholas "Fat Nick" Minucci, had claimed that the victims had attempted to rob him. On June 10, 2006, Minucci, 20, who uttered a racial epithet during the baseball bat attack, was found guilty of the racially motivated assault and robbery of Glenn Moore. On July 17, 2006, Minucci was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Another incident took place on Halloween night 2007, when a confrontation between of African-American youths from Brooklyn and white locals resulted in two injured white teens. What caused the confrontation is not certain, but at 10:00 PM a group of 30 to 40 black and Hispanic males chased four white youths into a McDonald's restaurant and assaulted two of them. Joseph Friedman was struck in the head with a broom handle that broke on contact. Friedman was taken to the hospital, where the wound was tended to with seven staples. Another victim, Sean Camaratta, was punched in the face and experienced minor injuries. Witnesses reported hearing racial slurs during the attack. Five suspects, Patrick Pugh, George Morales, Victor Tossas, Terrance Scott and Talique Jackson, were later arrested and indicted for assault, menacing and criminal possession offenses. A possible bias motive is still under investigation. The Thursday following the attacks, more than 150 Howard Beach residents marched down 157th Avenue calling for the accused to be charged with hate crimes. Prosecution efforts were hindered when a police lineup produced one positive identification of Tossas but nothing else and DNA tests of the defendants came back negative.

As of the 2000 census, there were 28,121 people residing in Howard Beach. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 92.5% White, 2.8% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 1.0% African American, 2.3% from other races, and 1.2% from two or more races. 9.8% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 47.6% of the population claimed Italian ancestry. 13.9% of the population is foreign-born. The estimated median household income as of 2007 is $69,800 where houses range between $650,000 and $2,000,000+.

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