I'm fortunate to have have been in the gang free generation...but the "Avenues" were a street gang that existed before I came of age. Yu heard whispers about them when I was young but they had died down by then.

People avoided getting beaten up, jumped or robbed by hinting that their older brother/uncle was in the Avenues .....NOBODY wanted problems with the Avenues.

Pre-crack era there were some offshoot Moslem groups that controlled drug trade in different parts of Newark....probably splinter 5% nation members just like you alluded to about east coast prisons.

but in my era....it was blocks...and projects that stuck together...Prince Street projects (where boxer Marvin Hagler is from) was probably the most feared area and group.