Author: ISABELLA ARGOTE

For the entirety of my life, I have lived in a west Queens neighborhood by the name of Maspeth. More specifically, I live in the Maspeth Plateau part, which is a border between the Maspeth and its neighboring town Woodside. If I were to describe it in my words, it’s your average American suburban caught in the buzz and hustle of New York City. While many other neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn, and/or Staten Island pride themselves because of their immigrant population and their diversity, I feel as if Maspeth is just stuck in this “American Dream” ideal (image 1). It does make sense, due to most of their residents being senior citizens and Republican. This is seen often in the neighborhood that I currently live in, which is Maurice Avenue, where houses from the Boomer era (circa. the late 1940s to the 1950s) are still around and are kept usually the same. (image 2).  If you go further into Maspeth into the area called Grand Avenue, you get to see this in the old storefronts and diners that are kept around for the neighborhood’s elderly population. It is also the home to Maspeth Federal Savings Bank which is a local bank that has locations all over the west and central Queens and Nassau County. (image 3) Regardless, this aspect didn’t stop immigration from popping up in the city. Maspeth is very well-known for having a large Polish population, but mostly the most prevailing population in Maspeth from I’ve seen is definitely the Irish. The Irish, especially in the area that I live are seen more. If you go north from where I live and then go up the hill (take a left), you’ll find a lot of Irish institutions in this area. Probably the most famous one is O’Neills, which is an Irish restaurant that has been around since the year 1933. It’s a somewhat family-style restaurant and caters to a lot of out-of-town people. (image 5) In the area that I live in, it is usually dominated by them as if you to the upper part of the hill, you’ll also be able to find houses with Irish flags on it. Regardless, I cannot discredit the amount of power that the Polish community has in Maspeth. You can mostly see this in parts like Grand Avenue or Fresh Pond Road (the other side of Maspeth that is separated by the Long Island Expressway.) on Grand Avenue, you can find a Polish deli that sells only food and treats from Poland. (image 5). I think the thing the shows that the police have a huge influence in Maspeth is that they have their own bank branch called the Polish-Slavic Federal Credit Union (image 6). However, Maspeth has been becoming a place where people of Asian and Latino descent are living (In my neighborhood, I’ve seen more Latino people move in the houses since the older people are not moving to states like Florida. Because of this, there has been a huge influx of Latino businesses in Maspeth, especially restaurants and delis. Near the library, there is a deli that specializes in Colombian and Irish products which recently popped up. They completely emphasize this in their storefront sign, showing the famous Juan Valdez (famous Colombian coffee maker) as a sign that they sell Colombian coffee. Regardless of all those booming business, on the outsides of the area that is Frank Principe Park, Maspeth has an industrial area the reminds me of a ghost town because there’s hardly no one there. Maspeth has been the site of trucking units and bottling companies like Coca Cola for the past decades. It even has a railroad crossing when you go more further into the area that has trains that carry goods. Living in Maspeth is like living in the perfect suburbia yet a lot more inreresting due to all the culture you are being introduced to. 

image 8

The setting that I have chosen for my linguistic landscape is the Queens neighborhood of Maspeth. I have lived in Maspeth my entire life and if I were asked about why was this chosen to be my linguistic landscape, I would say because it is just simply home to me.

There are multiple different parts of Maspeth but the ones that I will be focusing on in this blog are Grand Avenue and Maspeth Plateau. Maspeth Plateau is where I have been living for 18 years. Going from the right of Woodside, you will be taken from two-family, modern houses to single-family Tudor houses. If you go further west, you will find Frank Principe Park (known to the locals as Maurice Park.) Maurice Park has everything a normal NYC park would have: two playgrounds, a set of swings, different fields to play other sports and an exercise area. There’s even a set of sprinklers. This park has a significance to me as I used to spend my entire childhood here from a toddler to sometimes even now. If you continue going west, you will find Maspeth’s most iconic landmark: Grand Avenue. Grand Avenue is like a suburban town square you would see in the movies with its own bank branch, restaurants, bars, and etc. It is also where a famous 9/11 monument is located.

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