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Neighborhood Profile: Lemon remains King in Corona, Queens

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The famous ice shop in Corona, Lemon Ice King,  has been around since 1964, a time when the area was pre-dominantly Italian. Pete Benfaremo and his father Nicola were its original owners and Vincent Barbaccia, a teenager, was employed behind the counter, serving customers in a traditional uniform: white tee-shirt draped over white pants and a white apron branded by the ice shop’s logo. Barbaccia assisted Benfaremo for some time before beginning to help manage the business and develop other assistants, most notably Michael Zampino.

“We were selling lemon, pistachio and orange. More typical in an Italian taste” said Barbaccia, co-owner of the shop since buying the business from the Benfaremo family in 1993 with Zampino.

Today in Corona, the population has nearly doubled since the 1960’s and race in the community has changed significantly. The area is recognized for being pre-dominantly Hispanic. Statistics from the 2010 census reveal that approximately 74 percent of the community identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino.

Local residents are no longer playing bocce at William F. Moore park on 108tth Street, across from the ice shop. Summers still host older residents on special occasions, gathering together the older Italian community with games of bocce and heated conversations about the Mets. These nights at park, nicknamed “Spaghetti”, bring peak business production for Lemon Ice King, but around the community, one will find more Colombian bakeries and Dominican diners than they will Italian cuisines.

Lemon Ice King

In the business for over 30 years, Vincent Barbaccia wants to keep the shop authentic to it’s “King” Pete Benfaremo. The gold plate is an original installation, lighting up Corona till 11pm.

The influx of immigrants has translated into a bevy of small businesses in Corona, Queens. Nail salons, wax and thread spas, pizzerias, and barbershops repeated for blocks by different owners yet no business is as specific to a season like that of Mr. Zampino and Mr. Barbaccia. Nonetheless, they offer their authentic Italian desert all year.

For $1.50, customers are granted a scoop of ice, blended with a choice of over 50 flavors, all blended with natural products. Numerous Corona natives admitted to having it as routine as their coffee in the morning.

It has become a landmark in Corona, whether customers are cluttered together after a Mets game on a Sunday evening or parked during the winter months when Barbaccia, Zampino and their team of teenagers dig a trail through the snow for customers to go and make orders at the stand.

Behind the counter, a crop of teenagers no longer dress in traditional apparel, wearing washed-out slim fitting jeans and a t-shirt with the Benfaremo logo, finished off with a baseball cap, sometimes flipped backwards. They still offer service with the same gratitude and are forbidden by the soul of Pete to mix any ice flavors. Nonetheless, customers around the neighborhood love their ices. Adriano Santos, a resident around the neighborhood and a regular at the shop admits that the people working anticipate he is going to order a small lime ice upon arrival. Swearing to Lemon Ice King’s consistent measures to know their clients, Santos said “There is no other place with gourmet ices like this. My grandmother’s flan is the only thing I know that is as good.”

Lemon Ice King is all about maintaining a classic tradition of preparation, routine and delivery; however, they are attuned to the community changes and continue to make different flavors to accommodate them.

Barbaccia and Zampino continue the tradition to hire teens within the community. While there are now a culmination of ethnicities living in the area, these business owners look for respect and good attitude from the teenagers they hire.

Understanding that not all households have parents supportive of the children living in them, Barabaccia likes parents who are actively involved in their child’s work schedule. “You can tell by the respect that these kids have and how they act, the kind of home they are coming from” said Barbaccia. It is a bias he carries from his own experience of being hired at the Lemon Ice King.

Barbaccia admits that the changing community affected his business for a small period of time. According to the city-data statistics, the median household income in Corona is $46,493, putting them below the average household income of New York city. Moreover, these statistics do not take into account the illegal immigrants living in these households. Many residents of the Sherwood apartment complexes know this situation too well. One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, admitted that she has three undocumented people living under her apartment. During bi-annual checkups, she has them stay elsewhere for a week to avoid suspicious activity and keep her rent under control.

Ice carts, often run by Hispanic immigrants who fill the streets of Corona, offer a similar product to Lemon Ice King for a cheaper price. They are famous for carving out ice from their cart and saturating it with concentrated flavors for a lesser price. Many local residents were intrigued by the price for a while.

“We see the change in the past years where they would patronize those carts because they were cheaper but now they realize the quality of our product. For that extra 50 cents or a quarter, they’re getting a choice of 50 flavors. For under 10 dollars you get something for you and the kids,” said Barbaccia.

Christmas King

During the Holiday season, Lemon Ice King stays open, offering their delights and getting into the spirit.

The product is unmatched indeed. All the ices are water-based and made with real fruit. In addition, the business always packs a surplus of ingredients they provide everything on their menu at all times. “We run out of nothing.” says Barbaccia.

In addition, the business continues to increase their menu to accommodate the taste of the community.

“The way the flavor of the neighborhood has changed reflects in the ices that we sell now. We’re selling more tropical flavors. More mango, coconut and piña colada” said Mr. Barbaccia.

Last year, the business introduced an Oreo-cookie and a root beer flavor. Mr. Barbaccia hints that a tropical delight and a tamarind flavored ice are in the works at the request of his customers.

The business has not experienced a drastic change in sales. The bigger challenge the business faces is maintaining the original recipe. Matching a color pigment that has been around for 70 years has proven more difficult for the business than losing any clientele.

The aesthetic of the store strikes the resemblance of the original stand. The pinstripe awning extends itself as shade for customers dripping ice on their hands in the peak of the summer. The gold plate hanging above the storefront is an original installation from when Lemon Ice King first planted themselves in the heart of Corona, shining the number of flavors that increases every couple of years and the Benfaremo logo. Instead of selling themselves short by fixing the crack on the floor or by maximizing their profits by using top line puree over their fruits, the business has stuck to Pete Benfaremo’s script: natural fruit in their ices that are never to be mixed.

“I don’t care if we sell pistachio or chocolate as long as someone is buying it,” said Mr. Barbaccia.

 

Dasani response

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I don’t think that leaving out the last name was detrimental to the quality of the article. Her first name alone was empowering enough and held enough metaphorical value for the writer to really help the reader understand how unique Dasani is in her circumstances. The last name would absolutely have to be included for a news article but for a feature with the amount of research that was done and the time it took, including a last name is not quite as important as her story and its relevance to a more national scale issue.

I disagree with the critique that the story ran too long. The writer dissected on one angle of the bigger issue of homelessness and tied it to the different aspects of Dasani’s life, so every part of the story held a different value to the authors angle and the extended perspective strengthens the article. The information is not repetitive and the main idea of the story continues to be the reoccurring theme of all the parts to the story.

Again, like the last name, I think disclosing the time involved and the months following her is information that makes the story go on a tangent. For a more concrete news article, all statistics around the situation are vital, but for a feature article, it’s not necessary when all the other information points to these conclusions.

Focusing on more politics and policies on how homeless people are treated would have broadened the angle that the writer was pursuing, and I thought it was wise that the writer chose not to include more information. Doing so allowed the writer to focus on their angle with more depth and because the angle was specific, the shift in focus in the articles from Dasani to the issue at hand where all empowering and smooth.

The constant shifts in focus were what kept the entire story so engaging. It kept giving readers something else to gather before they were shifted from Dasani to something related to her circumstance. Fort Greene being a gentrification gem to the Auburn family residence, change in community exemplified through different streets being paved differently on Myrtle, Bloomberg “homelessness more enjoyable” to rats in Dasani’s room. This is a style I see a lot with authors I read like Junot Diaz and Dave Eggers, with the constant shifts holding value in how the reader receives the information.

I think that the article had the potential to be a middle ground for understanding larger and more complex issues. The shift of focus gave the reader perspective on how the larger scale issues and decisions effected the smaller scale issue of Dasani’s life. However I don’t think the article was exaggerated and I think the very specific focus helps exemplify the issues going on.

Sugar Factory

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Does the writer give us more than Robert Shelton’s personal history?

The writer delves into the history of the sugar factory, which I thought was a wise decision because it gave the reader perspective on why the sugar factory’s history is relevant to Shelton’s personal history and adds a visual for the reader when the writer talks about Shelton’s work in the factory. I personally enjoyed reading this piece because it was focused but still provided outside information that adds perspective in other ways than interviewing other people.

Describe the narrative of this profile, the arc of the story.

Robert Shelton returned to the sugar house factory that he once worked at and one can assume he was shocked by the drastic changes. The installation closed down (at the time of the article there was a week left), and it would be the last time Shelton will see the Domino refinery that blue collars once dominated.

What do you think of the lead?

The lead is smooth and somewhat of an anecdotal lead. The lead embarks on Shelton’s experience at back at the Domino refinery which makes readers want to know why he reacted the way he did and then transitions into why it was important on a bigger scale than that of Shelton’s work experience and delves back into the Shelton profile.

Where is the nut graf?

Following the lead, the next couple paragraphs tell the reader the background information behind the lead and what is important. I think the main topical paragraphs that give the nut graf are the second paragraph and the seventh paragraph that starts  with “Mr. Shelton, 66, has returned…”

What about the author’s point-of-view?

The sixth paragraph that starts with “In a borough convulsed by change…”. The reader can assume that the writer believes that the historical context of the area holds no value to the people who treat it as a museum to post their Instagram pictures. It is also one of the first paragraphs where the writer is not the reporting from a point of view of Mr. Shelton.

Neighborhood Pitch

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Reporting on Corona Queens, I will look further into the Italian community that reside around Spaghetti Park. Statistics from city-data exemplify the notion that with Corona growing as a pre-dominantly hispanic neighborhood, the Italian community is becoming smaller. More small markets and shops that are now opening in the neighborhood are run by hispanic owners while places like Corona Pizzeria, and more famously, the Lemon Iced King, remain with Italian owners. I want to interview someone from the Benfaremo family, owners of the famous Italian ice spot about the community and the regular customers that they draw. I would also like to talk about the change they have experienced in the community since the business has been around for over 60 years. In that span, Corona has experienced an evolution as an Italian neighborhood to Latin American community. To gain perspective, I would like to interview some of the employees about working the corner stand with the family and the people that they serve and speak to the regular customers that go there and spaghetti park. While over-development seems to be the bigger issue at hand looking at Corona and the Queens-county, the change in Italian residences is an interesting smaller-scale issue I would like to report on. From what I currently know, it may have an affect on other aspects of the neighborhood other than what smaller businesses are in the community.

Backgrounder

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Demographics

Queens Community District 4

  • Corona, Corona Heights, Elmhurst, Lefrak City

2010 U.S. Census, the total population of Queens

  • 2,230,539 people
    • 28% identify as Latino/Hispanic
    • 26.2% identify as white alone

Corona, Queens

  • 172,598 people in Corona (approximately 8% of Queens population)
  • 78,644 people with assisted income support in Corona(45%)
  • 65% of jobs are white collar (8,564), the rest blue collar (4,789)

Income

  • Highest median income in Corona was 54,162 for for those 45-64.
  • Lowest is $39,741 for those under 25
  • The median income is $46,493, a 33% increase from 2000 but below the median of the state.

Education

A total of 15,420 have no high school education, 30.2% of the population in Corona.

14,117 have completed some sort of degree.

Crime

The total crime risk is above the national average.

Most likely (well above average) to be a murder, personal crime, or robbery risk. Least likely (well below average) to experience larceny or burglary risk.

Transportation

7 Train along 103rd St.

Q58, Q23, Q38, Q29

Community Leaders

Louis Walker is the Board Chairperson

Christian Cassagol is the District Manager

Jullissa Ferreras is city council member of District 21

Corona, Queens

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I would like to report on Corona, Queens because it’s been home for me for the entirety of my life and I have seen drastic changes in the neighborhood over the course of my life, most notably the decline in crimes that have occurred in the neighborhood.

I would like to run a profile on two people/places in particular. I’m torn between the laundromat owner and deli owner in my neighborhood because they both have been around for over 5 years and are the place that most people around the area go to on a daily basis. I believe that they are most familiar with the people in the neighborhood and they would provide insightful information on what goes on during the day and how it compares to the nightlife around the area. The other profile I definitely want to run are the people at the Apple Store that recently opened. With Queens on an uprise, Corona is one of the more accessible places for transportation and I feel that it is changing and gentrifying right before my eyes. I would like to know the reasoning for the Apple opening at the mall in my area and the impact it can cause for people who are looking to move to a place accessible to the city.

While I don’t know a definite conflict that is going on, I would like more into the decline in crime or the growing diversity that goes on in Queens (if I opt for the latter, I will most likely run a profile on Lemon Iced King rather than the Apple Store at the mall). Both of these things are something that matter to me because Queens is home to my parents as well, and I am always in conflict with them about the drastic changes that have been made from the time they were growing up to my time. It’s important to me that Corona receives more recognition for its diversity and secretly amusing places rather than the “danger” tag that it has carried for so long.

Tourists Have Landed in Queens. They’re Staying

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The reporting done for this article was not as good as I had anticipated. Being a Queens native, I expected a lot more from this article, given the rich history of the borough, but the article lacked depth and had poor sourcing. For starters, the feature’s title doesn’t even resonate with the story. While tourists are discovering that Queens is a lot more hip than it was in previous years, they clearly are not here to stay, and some tourists (like the last anecdote in the piece) do not even know what Queens is. Even the feature’s opening story did not do the piece justice. There was a lot of fill-in material that may have been used to hit a word count rather than support a strong thesis in the story. For example, when mentioning that Queens is the No.1 travel destination, the writer then lists other popular cities that are not chosen as the top destination. It is arbitrary, and excess information to early in the piece. The sourcing of information and interviewing was poor. As a Queens native, I instantly knew that the author was referring to the sitcom King of Queens, but he fails to mention that, rather using fill-in words to fluff the article. It seemed as though Rob MacKay was the only person he got the chance to speak to. One instance that bothered me was the quoting of someone else quoting another person. The conversation that was quoted was, again, a fluff to the article.

The writer could have explored more in depth what Queens has to offer to tourists. There were several brief mentions of places, but what makes them so relevant. A cultured Astoria, with museums like P.S.1 deserves far more than a mention in the piece. Corona is one of the more diverse areas in Queens with different cuisines that cost a fraction of the price they would in Manhattan. I was upset to find that Lemon Iced King was not even mentioned but an indirect reference to the sitcom King of Queens was made. Instead, the article was filled with a plethora of adjectives that become agitating to read over and over.

Here is New York

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1. What is your impression of the opening line of White’s book: “New York bestows gifts of loneliness and the gifts of privacy.” Do you agree or disagree with White? If so, why? If not, why not? How effective is the opening? What does it accomplish, if anything?

The opening line of the book is a bold statement by White that establishes the theme for the rest of the book. I agree that New York bestows the gift of loneliness and the gifts of privacy, whether it implies a positive or negative connotation, because in a place clustered with people, everyone is eager to succeed for themselves for a number of reasons and they tend to tune out what does not pertain to them. There are too many people in the city to be able to understand everybody, therefore people do things they want on their leisure time and do not focus on what everybody else is doing, which would be more likely in a smaller city with less people. No matter what time period it is, whether its E.B. White’s New York, or the New York that we live in today, there are so many things going on around the city as White mentions, that may be fascinating in theory, but no one will take the time to go to because there simply is not enough time to be involved in everything. He revisits the concept of loneliness and privacy throughout the text as he continues to list the different things in New York, whether the city is too crowded and tense for people to be integrated with one another or “blending the gift of privacy with participation” so that too many events serves as a blockade to be part of all events. I think the opening is effective because it establishes what the writer will speak about and it is not an abandoned thought, rather something that resonates throughout the entire text. It serves as a direction for the author and allows him to play with the words in different ways to illustrate how hectic New York City is, no matter the time period.

2. How and why does the writer use lists in this book?

The writer uses lists in the book after making a declarative statement in the text. They serve as justifications and visualizations for the reader’s apprehension to sync with the mind of the author. The reader is thrown a piece of knowledge, and then put into the reality of that piece of knowledge, giving the text the same busyness and excess of what is going in New York to better understand the given circumstances. They empower the metaphors that are used throughout the story.