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If so, what good Italian restaurants did u eat at? Pizza joint on Main Street, ya, i know. How about maybe being TRULY diverse here, any have maybe some other races move in. Have some other restaurants besides Chinese (or ANY KIND OF ASIAN). Would it kill a few of them to set up shop in Corona Maybe? Let some other kind of food places to exist.
A LOT of the people you see walking around Main & Roosevelt, especially the ones shopping, do not live in Flushing. For the same reason Manhattan seems more diverse than it really is, that's why downtown Flushing seems less diverse. It's a regional center for Asian people, so you're gonna see a lot of them, I don't know what else to tell you.
The zip code containing the intersection is only 45% Asian by the way. The one just south of it is 55% Asian.
Im sorry, i dont believe that stat on the asians here. The business'es, Apt buildings, people who are just walking around. They start offering free chinese classes to americans so that we could communicate with them better. I think it should be the other way around. This is america, not china!
Another thing Andy, To me, Mannhattan seems real white. Not just white, but white people with $. Alot of preppy looking people. Like they just left a yaht club or something.
Andysocks, working class? Since when did I put down queens for being working class? Have you ever been in Flushing? If so, what good Italian restaurants did u eat at? Pizza joint on Main Street, ya, i know. How about maybe being TRULY diverse here, any have maybe some other races move in. Have some other restaurants besides Chinese (or ANY KIND OF ASIAN). Would it kill a few of them to set up shop in Corona Maybe? Let some other kind of food places to exist.
What are you talking about? Flushing is one tiny part of Queens. I can walk to to some of the best Greek, Italian, Thai, Colombian, Peruvian, Indian, Egyptian places.They are all so close to my apt. Queens def. has some of the BEST FOOD!!! MMM it's extremely diverse. Your post makes no sense.
Asians have been very active in opening businesses that cater to their community. Little Neck is probably only 1/4 Asian--as well as nearby southern Great Neck, but its downtown area on Northern Blvd has enough Korean writing to rival stretches of Northern in Flushing itself--despite the fact that Little Neck's most heavily Asian area is nearly two miles away in the area between 65th and 70th Avenues off Douglaston Pkwy.
Im sorry, i dont believe that stat on the asians here.
Look up zip codes 11355 and 11354.
Koreatown in Manhattan has loads of Korean businesses and restaurants but hardly any Korean residents. same with Little Italy. Or the seemingly Indian section of Jackson Heights. Why is it so hard to believe that many of the Asians seen in Flushing live elsewhere in the region? A Chinese women on my block in Bayside takes her kids all the way to Chinatown simply to go to the doctor. That's the kind of mentality many immigrants have.
Edit: by the way, my original post was to argue against the idea of areas like Flushing being as homogenous as you claim... a lot of hispanics live in Flushing as well as whites.
I haven't got the chance to read all the posts here in this thread (I will try though, considering this New Yorker doesn't know why I must get a grip. I'd like to be enlightened.)
I might be generalizing here and could be wrong since I don't have the statistics on hand, NYC is an expensive city, true, but it's also a city where you get paid generally higher than most U.S cities. (please correct me if I am wrong) I am from the West Coast originally and have been living in NY most of my adult life. I know with what I am paid now in my industry there's a very little chance I would get the same salary should I decide to move back to L.A.
When we visit a city as a tourist, it's very easy and normal to conclude what you feel about a city based on your very random, brief observation and your luck. Some days you happen to meet nice, cordial locals that are really helpful and sweet; some days you happen to meet some rude people who very likely would be rude to the locals. (rude people are rude, they aren't just exclusively rude to you because you don't live here; and they're not just in NY, you find rude people in every city) I remember visiting D.C last summer for only one day, it was humid, hot and just unpleasant, naturally I felt like most locals I came across were quite rude and pissy. I left D.C with an impression that the people weren't very nice, but I wasn't going to write the whole city off just because of that experience, I believe a nation's capitol should present more than just that, it must have more layers that I failed or couldn't get to see. I plan to go back there soon, for longer visit, and see it with a more relaxed, objective manner.
I am not denying that the streets of NY are generally dirty and could get very gritty (oh those rodents, I fear thee), and the tempo here could get very overwhelming for those who just get here. But it's never a city that's known internationally or domestically as a "pleasant" "friendly" "nice" city. If you want those, go live in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland or Geneva (as in Switzerland); If you want challenge, privacy, no-nonsenseness, , independence, more career opportunities, access to culture/art/intellectual stimulation/public activities, diversity and unexpectedly craziness, then NYC is for you. Some of us happen to love hustle & bustle, some of us happen to grow to love the noise, the active air, the unknowness and the non-cookie cutting lifestyle. NYC isn't for everyone, just like Chicago is not for everyone, just like Seatlle is not for everyone. And that's the beauty of this country, the difference in the individuals, including the cities. Thank goodness for that!
I don't know about people on this board, but I do know a fairly big amount of people I know in real life, myself included, love the city of New York for it provides us a very emotionally secure place to be yourself, for those who don't like the conformity that usually exists in small towns or the community ties are so common (and so powerful), NYC is a perfect place to just mind your business, celebrate your individualism while the sense of community could still be in tact. (neighborhood-y sentiments, imo, are still very strong here, especially after 9/11, for those who stayed really have come to share some very precious commaderies.)
Do we New Yorkers need to get a grip? I think some of us already did and thank you for caring. We're doing just fine. Do some of us really care if it's overrated? No, we're too busy making our lives and getting distracted by what's going on in our city to worry about what the rest of the country thinks of us. I'd like to think most New Yorkers are secured enough in our love and passion for the city that we don't feel the need to shout out online or offline about how good it is; my love for New York is already validated and proven by taking up the nitty-gritty subway (if you want beautifully designed, artistically enriched subway stations, don't count on NY, go to Paris where it is an art there), endured the survival camp style commute and even chose to live right by the previous WTC after the tragedy that is 9/11. People from elsewhere can think of it whichever way they want, they're still welcome to come here and hopefully their prejudice won't keep them away from knowing one of the best, most interesting cities in the world. Love it or hate it, U.S.A is not U.S.A without New York, especially the city of Manhattan. Simple as that.
Thanks to this board, I've only very recently realized once again how much I love New York.
Welder - you are correct in your assertion that purely on the basis of quality of housing, you get "more bang for your buck" in Chicago - or really anywhere else in the country.
However, life in NYC isn't based solely on housing, but on all of the other aspects of living here. NYC is truly unique in the world and life here definitely has its pluses and minuses.
For those who choose to stay here, (both natives and transplants) the unique pluses outweigh the minuses. Many of those pluses I would characterize as "intangibles" - the "vibe" the "energy", the archetypes, institutions and history that define the City's uniqueness and its character.
Lots of people choose to live in places where you can get good quality housing at a relatively low cost (i.e. Houston). In fact, many native NY'ers leave the area for this reason, and find themselves missing many of NY's unique lifestyle aspects - the "intangibles" if you will.
Perhaps you don't understand these "intangibles" or you just do not place the same value on them as others. Either way is fine. You are entitled to your opinion, but you are unlikely to change any minds here, nor will you be able to avoid the visceral reactions to your posts.
NYers are a very proud bunch who love their city and will defend it to end. This is one of great aspects of living here and one of those "intangibles" that makes my life here quite enjoyable.
I love your point and truly agree with you.
I love the example of the "intangibles". It's something in the air, it's the aura and the ambiance. And honestly I don't think we are glorifying the city here because I know the rawness of the "survival the fittest" all so well and how sometimes you must be "on" or "on the go" all the time, but then again, you have all the privilege and right to be not buying anyone's bull**** because the living in a city like NY teaches you the skill to see through bull**** with no difficulty.
I moved back to L.A for nine months a couple of years ago for family matter and just suffered greatly for "home sick" (and all my families were in L.A!)---I wasn't used to the extremely quiet upscale suburban house my parents lived in; I got teary when I saw New York Times sold in Malibu's Starbucks, realizing that you can take a girl out of New York but you can never take New York out of the girl. I missed those crazily cold winter snowy days and the puddles on the sidewalk, I missed having four seasons and I missed the smell in the air when the summer was about to end, I missed the crisp, clean and mellow sky in the Central Park in the month of October.
I remember reading somewhere in one of those "Chicago can beat NYC" threads that someone mentioned NYC has a "romantic" feeling about it that Chicago doesn't. How often do you find a city that gives you both such a romantic aura yet demands you to be so tough on the exterior while remaining absolutely no-nonsense? Only in New York.
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