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I am pretty sure the koreans moved in much after the chinese. No one ever heard of a korean neighborhood until the late 90s, and even then still speculative.
totally incorrect.
korean immigrants started moving into flushing in small numbers in the late '60s/early '70s. i should know, as my parents were among them.
at this time there weren't many asian residents in flushing, but those who were there were mostly japanese up through the late '70s/early '80s. the neighborhood was still primarily comprised of irish/italian/jewish/greek residents at the time. when we moved out of our mid-rise apartment building just off of union street in 1980, we were one of maybe 4 or 5 asian families living there, with almost all of our neighbors being white. similarly, the great majority of people you'd see walking or driving along main, union, northern, or roosevelt and shopping in local businesses were white.
the korean population, which had been slowly trickling in during the '70s, really started to pour in by the early-to-mid-'80s, which is when the neighborhood's entrenched white population and small businesses rapidly begun to jump ship. as the decade progressed, main street, union street, and kissena boulevard became filled with korean businesses. at the time, it was kind of assumed by my parents and their korean friends that the main street area/downtown flushing was going to remain a predominantly korean enclave for the foreseeable future since it had clearly become the primary korean hub of nyc.
but in the mid-to-late '80s, just as the koreans were becoming established as the majority ethnic group of downtown flushing, taiwanese immigrants started moving in as well. main street, which had recently turned over from mostly white-owned establishments, now had a few taiwanese businesses sprinkled in alongside the korean-owned ones. at first there were only a handful of taiwanese spots, but during the early '90s the number of taiwanese businesses really mushroomed along main street and the upper portion of kissena boulevard as the korean residents and businesses moved further east. by the late '90s, main street and upper kissena had become overwhelmingly chinese, with a handful of korean businesses hanging on, especially further south along kissena, which didn't become predominantly chinese until the early 2000s. union street remained primarily korean during this entire period, though.
the reason the taiwanese businesses were able to move in so rapidly is because, as was mentioned by an earlier poster, taiwanese/chinese real estate interests acquired a number of buildings in the neighborhood for relatively cheap prices. because koreans owned very few of the buildings in the area, they were at the mercy of the new landlords and consequently decided to decamp to points further east. as union street had already become a major korean commercial strip during the '80s, a number of korean merchants simply moved over from main street. but the neighborhoods to the east - murray hill (a subsection of flushing), auburndale, bayside, and beyond had seen a rapid rise in their korean population starting in the mid-to-late '80s and accelerating in the '90s, so an increasing number of korean businesses followed suit.
that's why the bulk of the korean businesses in the flushing area nowadays are located east of downtown flushing. even union street, which was probably the heart of flushing's korean commercial corridor during the '90s, has slowly but steadily become more chinese over the past 10 years, with the korean holdouts increasingly catering to chinese who have a taste for korean food or to ethnic koreans from northeast china who recently moved to nyc. that's why you're seeing more and more businesses on union street with chinese characters prominently displayed alongside korean lettering.
so yeah, there's this weird ethnic divide in flushing between the korean and chinese communities. the chinese dominate main street, kissena boulevard, and college point boulevard along with the intersecting east-west side streets, while the koreans continue to have a major presence to the east along the northern boulevard and roosevelt avenue corridors. the area of ethnic overlap is along union street south of northern boulevard plus a half block stretch of roosevelt avenue between main and union streets.
Before the businesses can move in, the people have to move in. Slowly the chinese moved into the area, most likely still commuting to old chinatown in Manhattan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133
I am pretty sure the koreans moved in much after the chinese. No one ever heard of a korean neighborhood until the late 90s, and even then still speculative.
I think you got it wrong.
pbergen has got it pretty much spot on. Growing up as a Queens resident, I do remember the Korean community in the late 70s well into the 80s. I also remember the small Taiwanese Chinese coming in the early 90s....then the mainland Chinese in the early 2000s.
Also most Chinese from manhattan Chinatown moved to Brooklyn...specifically the sunset park, Brooklyn. If anyone might notice, the Chinese dialects are far more diverse in Flushing then the Chinatown elsewhere in nyc.
I am pretty sure the koreans moved in much after the chinese. No one ever heard of a korean neighborhood until the late 90s, and even then still speculative.
Definitely wrong about this one. Koreans were in Flushing before Chinese as others have said. I know I lived through it like others have.
The city really needs to expand subway/light rail lines in and around Flushing and eastern Queens. The reliance on buses just isn't cutting it.
I was hoping that given the commercial activity happening in downtown, they could have built better commercial and public structures there like taller, more modern buildings and second level sidewalks so that people can get around by walking. Anyway Main St. already has a subway and LIRR stop. Granted there are height restrictions due to LGA flight paths but the Flushing skyline is still too modest compared with demand for space. I think their strategy now is to build out the Willets Pt. area.
I'm Chinese myself so this is not a racist post. I'm just wondering how did it go from non-chinese to 99% chinese.
anyone know?
thanks
I was in Flushing in the late 80s, it started with one Taiwanese grocery store on Roosevelt Ave near where the Sheraton Hotel and then a Taiwanese restaurant opened next and then followed slowly by others. Most Taiwanese that came to the US at the time are wealthy business people that lived in Bayside or Great Neck and commuting by bus is an option.
Korean dominated most of Flushing in the 80s and 90s but moved out when Koreans started migrating away from Flushing due to high cost of real estate and space.
Eventually Flushing became the main location for Taiwanese businesses and it was the only place you could find Bubble tea in the 90s.
Since Taiwanese can speak Mandarin it made it easier for Chinese business from Mainland China to setup shop in Flushing rather than Chinatown because most Cantonese can't speak Mandarin.
Today, I think most Taiwanese businesses are leaving Flushing and heading to NJ instead. Because most Taiwanese people can't really get along with mainland Chinese. I anticipate that Flushing will be 90% mainland Chinese in a few years.
Totally unrelated, but I'm glad the municipal parking lot is privately run now.
It was impossible to find parking when parking was cheap (and free on Sundays).
Now that its market rate, parking is easy since less cheap bastards are parking there.
Korean dominated most of Flushing in the 80s and 90s but moved out when Koreans started migrating away from Flushing due to high cost of real estate and space.
Few other factors that led to that as well.
1. Koreans failed to cease the opportunity and buy the real estate.
2. Korean immigration started to drop in 90s because of living standard improvement in S.Korea. Less immigrants = less people coming in who want to live near ethnic towns.
3. As part of the move away from Flushing starting in 80s. Parts like Bayside became more Korean heavy. But biggest gains were in NJ in towns like Palisades Park and Fort Lee. Which also meant that lot of new immigrants from Korea would seek those towns out and go straight to NJ instead of NYC which is what they would've done previously.
Totally unrelated, but I'm glad the municipal parking lot is privately run now.
It was impossible to find parking when parking was cheap (and free on Sundays).
Now that its market rate, parking is easy since less cheap bastards are parking there.
I am sort of confused. There were always private lots which didn't cost a lot during the municipal lot verses private lot that was use to be the municipal lot.
bottom line...if you paid before...then you still paid today. nothing has changed.
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