Tag Archives: Queens

Positioned in the north western end of Queens, Long Island City is one of the most culturally diverse communities in the world. The tightly condensed ethnic variety leaves little room for prejudice. This is a place where you grab morning coffee from a Korean convience store, order takeout from a Cantonese restaurant, and spend Saturday mornings getting your son’s haircut at a Dominican owned barbershop; all of which are located next door to each other as if the corner of 48^th Street and Broadway is some sort of small business united nations. L.I.C. can be viewed as a melting pot within a melting pot; neighbors who migrated from Greece, Jamaica, Ecuador and many other countries spend their week day mornings waiting to board a train that will have them in the big sister melting pot of Manhattan in less than 4 stops.

The Kaufman Astoria Studios stands with a subtle sense of importance on 34th Avenue as Policemen from the 114^th Precinct patrol the neighborhood. Long Island City is home to the world renowned Steinway & Sons piano company, an array of family run businesses, Jet Blue Airways, and many entrepreneurial endeavors. The subway lines N, R, Q, M, and 7 make it extremely convenient for residents to access the most efficient public transit system in the world. With hundreds of cultural backgrounds represented in this community, it would be impossible to have the same amount of ethnically themed businesses consume it’s main streets; but with a hopeful economic future, there may be room for a wider range of ethnic businesses that will appease a larger percentage of the diverse 191,000 residents.