Category Archives: Neighborhoods

Jackson Heights : General Neighborhood

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After seven years of grocery and shopping experiences in Jackson Heights, I thought I already knew the neighborhood very well. However, I realized the neighborhood has more activities and offers more services when I finally moved into Jackson Heights last year. It can be called the diversity spot as its second name.

Jackson heights is located on the Roosevelt Avenue and 74th Street. The diverse community is the main soul of the neighborhood. Folks are from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, China, Nepal are the major communities of the neighborhood. On 74th Street, there are so many authentic Asian restaurants, groceries, clothes and jewelry stores.  I think there are various topics to write about Jackson Heights, such as people, culture, religion, tradition, friendship and conflicts, food, restaurants and employment.  In addition, travel agency offices are another primary business in Jackson Heights. Mostly Asian people are their main customers. If someone stops by the neighborhood for five minutes, he/she can be amazed to see how many types of activities are happening at the same time. Everyday people are coming from different places to see and grave the essence of the neighborhood.
I like to explore about this neighborhood, because day by day this neighborhood is becoming popular and comfort zone to Asian people. They are opening their own business and helping people with employment, which is a big support for new arrivals, who cannot speak English to get a job in an American store. I also like to write how different countries people are negotiating with each other in the same area.

Battery Park City; Neighborhood Choice

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There isn’t a neighborhood that embodies the revitalized spirit of this post-9/11 New York with more exuberance than Battery Park City. It offers a mixture of elegance and extravagance, without the elitist attitude of Yorkville, the clutter of Chelsea and SoHo, or the opaque atmosphere of the Upper West Side.

Battery Park City is technically Tribeca, but not really, at all. The awkward mixture of seedy shopping areas, bundled office spaces, squalid eateries, and the supercilious air of City Hall vanish when crossing the West Side Highway toward the Hudson River. The buildings, primarily residential, update the view of the New York skyline from New Jersey, effectively disguising the cracks in Old New York’s façade with modern grandeur.

That’s an adequately appropriate description for a strip of land that was constructed with excavated terrain while building the World Trade Center and Twin Towers. Because in Old New York, the manicured lawns where we picnic and the yacht harbor where we learn to sail the Hudson and the restaurants that offer views of Lady Liberty silhouetted against the sunset couldn’t exist. In Old New York, just four decades ago, Battery Park City was dilapidated piers and murky waters.

There was a vision for New York when Battery Park City was built with land where the Twin Towers once stood, and it’s that vision that drives this entire city forward as One World Trade Center ascends into the skyline.

Woodhaven: Neighborhood of Choice

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Woodhaven, Queens is the neighborhood I’m choosing for this assignment. Although it’s not as hectic and overcrowded as other neighborhoods in New York City, Woodhaven holds a small melting pot of about 30, 000 people. The demographic is mainly made up of Latin Americans and Caucasians; as time goes by, other ethnicities slowly trickle in.

I chose Woodhaven because despite it not being a place you hear a lot in local news, it’s a small neighborhood bursting with small businesses and locals striving to get by. While the men in suits make their way to Wall Street, the local 99 cents store owners make their way to open up their shops in the mornings. These small business owners are not only striving for earning, but for space as well.

Woodhaven residents have been dealing with many issues such as noise pollution and illegal conversions. These issues are very prominent along the street near where I live: Jamaica Ave. Small businesses and apartment buildings are crowding up the area under the noisy railroad station. 99 cents stores and salons are slowly taking over, forcing other small, private owned businesses to shut down and overcrowding apartment buildings even further. It’s a silent battle over space for a business to thrive and space for families to rent.

I chose Woodhaven because it is such a far cry from posh areas of New York City. The small businesses that exist in the neighborhood weren’t all built and started by the owners from an original, creative idea such as a clothing store or a vegetarian restaurant. They were built and created through desperation to pay rent and feed a family day by day.

Flushing, Queens : Neighborhood Choice by Patrick Chiang

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The neighborhood I plan on writing about is my hometown Flushing, Queens. Flushing is known as the “China Town” of Queens due to its heavy Asian population. There are plenty of restaurants and stores in the area and it’s also a big transportation hub. Located right under Main Street is the number 7 train which students, tourists, and workers need to take to travel to Manhattan. Aside from the train there are also multiple MTA bus lines running from Flushing, which is why the streets are often crowded.

The people, stores, and cars there stir up quite a commotion leaving Flushing quite noisy. Around the outer edges of the more gentrified zone lie multiple car repair shops, small factories, as well as large warehouses. Recently new malls have sprung up around the area drawing in even more people as well as traffic. Having lived here for my whole life I’ve seen Flushing go through some changes. It still changes every day from the ongoing construction sites to the closed down stores.

But Flushing is not anywhere near perfect. Just this past July, a patrol officer pulled over the Flushing high school principal and spotted a Ziploc bag of meth in plain sight in his car. Even prominent figures in the Asian Flushing community such as John Liu and Grace Meng have had their equal share in conflicts. Overall Flushing is filled with conflict and stories to be told which is why I think it would be a great neighborhood for me to write about.

-Patrick Chiang

Greenport: Neighborhood Choice

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At the spearing tip of Long Island’s North Fork is the fishermen’s village of Greenport. I have been spending my summers here since my grandparents bought their small ranch to escape the summer heat of the city in 1992; essentially all my life. I’ve watched the village grow from a quiet, underdeveloped fisherman’s port to the thriving beach resort haven that it is today. I have seen what was once only jokingly referred to as a town (a small strip of broken down bait shops and affordable delis) turn into an aesthetically pleasing center for wealthy Manhattanites to splurge on tappas dining and international desserts while enjoying the beautiful view of the Long Island Sound. The wealthy are shipped into the town by bus and boat from New York City and the Hamptons, willing and able to  buy and spend on whatever’s offered. Businesses are booming but the local population can’t keep up with a cost of living that rises in respect with the town’s popularity. I’ve held many jobs in and around Greenport town and the nearby wine vineyards that originally put the North Fork on the map. This year I helped launch a frozen yogurt shop in the heart of the town. Exposed to the foot traffic of thousands from a business operator’s point of view, I managed to learn the ins and outs of the town through serving dessert with a smile. The village still shows and respects its nautical roots, but the struggle for local survival amidst an aggressively expanding real estate market and the town’s transition into a premier summer escape for the wealthy are just some of the angles I would like to cover on Greenport.

Elmont: Neighborhood Choice by Sarah Moi-Thuk-Shung

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The neighborhood that I chose to research and write about is Elmont, Long Island. I moved to Elmont from Laurelton, Queens when I was 12 years old in the 7th grade. Prior to moving to Elmont, I had no idea that the town even existed. The reason I chose Elmont is because although I have been living here for eight years, I still don’t know much about the facts and background of this town. My home is in Elmont but since most of my childhood friends still live in Queens, I spend most of my time there. Elmont was made famous for being the home of Belmont Park, a major thoroughbred horse-racing facility that first opened on May 4, 1905 and hosts the Belmont Stakes. Elmont is located on the border of Queens County of New York City and Nassau County, allowing the town to earn the name “The Gateway to Long Island.” According to the 2010 census, the population of Elmont is 33,198.

There are two main roads that run through Elmont, Elmont Road and Hempstead Turnpike. These main roads are lined with businesses both big and small. There are countless mom and pop shops along these two main roads that bring to life the culture of this town. Through my research I hope to find out bout the history of the town of Elmont and meet some of the most influential people that have businesses here or live there. Hopefully by learning more about the town I live in, I will be moved to hand out here more often and be able to introduce my friends to a place outside of Queens.

Neighborhood Choice: Borough Park

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The neighborhood that I’ve chosen is Borough Park, which happens to be one of the largest Jewish communities in New York. I have a personal connection with that place because my mother worked in that area for several years, and I remember going there with her when I was little. I’ve done a bit of research and I realized that this neighborhood has a lot of history and potential. Over 76,600 Jews live in Borough Park, and it is considered to be the “baby boom capital” due to the high birth rate. Another thing that grabbed my attention was the fact that while it consists of mostly Jews, the economic diversity is huge. I discovered that the wealthy, the middle class and the poor dwell in the same areas, attend the same schools and go to the same synagogues. This made me curious about how all residents interact. Does everyone see it as the perfect opportunity to put their status aside, learn from one another and grow together as a community? Or is it awkward for certain people, making it difficult for them to blend in?

What I like about this neighborhood is that it’s a lively place that’s always full of energy. Businesses and local stores are improving because of the huge population, and the public education system is very different. For instance, another interesting fact that I learned was that since most children attend Orthodox Jewish private schools, populations at public schools are so small that principals know almost all of the students by name.

Morris Park; Neighborhood Choice

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Everyday at about 8:00 pm, the street lights turn on, the neighborhood kids abandon the chalk littered sidewalks, and parents attempt to get them settled down for their approaching bedtimes. It seems almost picturesque, with the litter free streets and meticulously manicured lawns. However, just one block over, there is a lively avenue filled with 24-hour delis, a New York City subway station, liquor store, and nightclub all within a block of each other. This among other things, are the reasons as to why I feel my neighborhood would be the best choice for me to discuss this semester.

I have lived on the same street in the Bronx, Morris Park area since I was about 6 years old. So, within these 15 years, I’ve seen the demographic change from the majority being Italian, to the present day majority being no majority at all, just a mix of everything imaginable. I wouldn’t say that it is a neighborhood, where everyone knows everyone, but most of the people seem cordial, especially with their immediate neighbors. People who have been familiar faces to the neighborhood for years run the nearest stores.

Although, I have lived here pretty much my whole life, I have never really taken the opportunity to get involved in any community service within my area. From time to time, you’ll see postings for local garage sales, missing dog reports, and council meetings. In all, my hope is to become more in tune with my own neighborhood; so as to acquire the talent to tell the stories no one knew existed.

Bay Ridge – Neighborhood of Choice by Mayara Guimaraes

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Special Neighborhood Report, Fall 2012:

Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

 

Too Far, But Close Enough.

 

By Mayara Guimaraes

The residents of Bay Ridge, a Brooklyn neighborhood, live in one of the best areas that surround the City. Or at least that is what an article published by This Old House magazine in April 2012, said when the editors chose Bay Ridge as the best neighborhoods to buy a house.

Comprised of Italians, Irish, Greeks, Chinese and Arabic, the neighborhood is a predominately middle class, family oriented area, in which a great part of the population, 20 per cent, according with the latest census, is over 60 years old.

The many bars and restaurants in Bay Ridge illustrate the diversity of the area, offering to its residents a variety of different foods, settings and attractions, all conglomerated on 3rd and 4th Avenues.

Most commuters seem to think that Bay Ridge is too far from Manhattan, therefore choosing other areas of Brooklyn to live. For that reason rents in the area are still affordable, and commerce has grow to support its resident’s need so that they don’t have to commute excessively.

This combination has contributed to create a safe neighborhood, with a population that seems to be happy to be far, but close enough from Manhattan.

However, as any other neighborhood, Bay Ridge has a lot of room for improvement. Recent problems regarding drugs, traffic tickets, and business owners being killed in their store have made residents alert and worried.

An investigation of Bay Ridge success as a neighborhood, as well as the emerging problems in the area will be our focus this Fall on the Special Neighborhoods Report.