I was prepared for the worst. I had been told that Willets Point was what Mayor Bloomberg called “another euphemism for blight” or what Robert Moses once described as an “eyesore and a disgrace to the borough of Queens.”

But these were understatements of what I saw when I actually paid a visit by car. As I turned onto Willets Point Boulevard from Roosevelt Avenue, I felt like I was entering another world. Willets Point is far and away the worst-looking neighborhood I have seen in the five boroughs.

I initially also found the place menacing, as I was immediately accosted by gangs of men who blocked my travel, at first not realizing that these were efforts by workers to negotiate deals for auto repairs.
I was, however, not in need of repairs but of photos. The Hole, which I wrote about in September 2009, was a pastoral sleepy backwater in comparison.

I pressed onward through the neighborhood – the absolute grit of it all just drew me in, and there was no way to turn around, anyway. The streets are heavily rutted and flooding is common. Even on a sunny day when it had not rained for two days, the potholes were filled with water, making navigation akin to walking a minefield.

There are no sewers or sidewalks. I saw roosters walking the streets. The area is highly polluted with the buildup of years of oil spills, which has also contaminated Flushing Bay and Flushing River.
The neighborhood is dominated by 225 auto parts and repair businesses, many of them operating out of shacks built from corrugated metal or cinder-blocks. There are over 1,200 people employed in those businesses. The area is unique in its concentration of vehicle repair shops, and people travel from afar for parts and/or repairs.

Efforts to revitalize the area have been proposed and thwarted for decades. There is a redevelopment plan for the area, an extensive ten-year project. This will, of course, require relocation of all of the businesses, if suitable places can be found. The most recent plan was also fraught with difficulties and threats by the Bloomberg administration to use eminent domain, if necessary, to remove the businesses. Things appear to be on track now for the project. “After a century of blight and neglect, this neighborhood’s future is very bright indeed,” Mr. Bloomberg has said.

The area has only one resident, Joseph Ardizzone, who has lived in the area since his birth in 1932. He is opposed to the new plan. I sympathize with Joseph Ardizzone’s nostalgic feelings of his youth growing up in the area, but his claims that blight is not the correct word puzzle me a little. I guess he must be using a different dictionary…

Note about the areas location: Willets Point is part of Corona, Queens, and is sometimes known as the Iron Triangle. It is bounded on the north by Northern Boulevard, to the west by 126th Street and Citi Field, to the south by Roosevelt Avenue and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, and to the east by the Flushing River.

Today is Black Friday, the start of that period which most retailers have waited for all year.
However, dealing with the constant onslaught of customers can be wearing. The vast majority of people are decent human beings, but there is a percentage that can be unreasonable, and that number can test the nerves of even the most patient.

I had a close friend who was a New York City native and had been in retailing for all of his adult life. His father had also been a businessman. He was a nice person, but, as is typical of many New Yorkers, he was a no-nonsense person who will only tolerate so much. That limit is easily met any day in retail. His conclusive statement to stories of others or his own about the horrors of the business was a sarcastic “Welcome to retail.”

One thing you learn quickly in business is the sense behind scheduled breaks and lunch. If you don’t take them at preappointed times, you will most likely find yourself eating lunch on the run at 4:30 in the afternoon.

On a morning sometime in the 1970s, said friend was eating his croissant fifteen minutes prior to the store’s opening in the morning at the health food store he was managing in Queens. Being the seasoned retailer that he was, he had established a firm rule of eating before opening. On this occasion, a woman with an unusual sense of urgency appeared banging at the door, insisting that she be let in before the official opening hour. I don’t recall the specific reason, but she added fuel to her plea with the statement, “But I came all the way from Bayside, Queens.” This refrain was repeated ad nauseum emphasizing the words “all the way from Bayside, Queens.” My friend’s response was, “I don’t care where you come from, lady, I am finishing my croissant and I am not opening this door before 9 AM.” The war across the pane of glass continued and, as you might expect, the door was not open until 9 AM.

Since that time, I have had the nagging need to visit Bayside and achieve closure. It has been only a small nagging need, however, so it was not until one week ago that on my visit to Flushing, I decided to go all the way to Bayside, Queens, and see what the neighborhood was like.

I really had no expectations, but I was completely astounded at how beautiful much of this neighborhood was. Bayside is in the extreme eastern section of Queens, abutting Little Neck Bay and Nassau County, Long Island. This accounts for the more suburban feel – there are many unattached homes, porches, and yards. Although Bayside is not that familiar to the outsider, it is one of the most expensive housing markets in the United States and is considered one of the most desirable communities to live in New York City, with great schools and a very low crime rate. The main shopping district along Bell Boulevard has a charming ambiance. At one time, many celebrities lived in Bayside and strolled Bell Boulevard. From the New York Times:

Houses with water views, although separated from Little Neck Bay by the Cross Island Parkway, are likewise one of a kind.One of these is said to have belonged to W. C. Fields, who, like Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino and Norma Talmadge, lived in the area when Astoria Studios was in its heyday. Miss Swanson is said to have once walked down Bell Boulevard with a pig on a leash.

So, if you have a car and you are interested in exploring the outer reaches of New York City, perhaps after a harrowing visit to the Hole or Willets Point, try going All the Way to Bayside, Queens 🙂

Related Posts: I can not so much as hear “Bayside, Queens,” without this incident coming to mind, much like hearing “Kissena Boulevard” or “comin’ up.”

If you look at the census figures for a place like Flushing, Queens, you will find that, like many areas of New York, this is more of a small city or town than a neighborhood. Flushing has a population of 173,826 and a demographic makeup that is 43% Asian, 19% Hispanic, 6% black, and 39% white. The range of services is broad enough that you could easily never leave the neighborhood, and I imagine that many who live and work in Flushing do not leave often.

Flushing now rivals Manhattan’s Chinatown as a center for Chinese community, making it the largest (or second largest) in the United States and outside Asia. Flushing, however, unlike a typical Chinatown, has more Asian diversity, both in its residents and businesses/services, with many Asian groups including Korean, Taiwanese, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese.

Flushing has become a model for religious pluralism in America, according to R. Scott Hanson, a visiting assistant professor of history at the State University of New York at Binghamton and an affiliate of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. There are over 200 places of worship in a neighborhood of only 2.5 square miles.

On my recent excursion, I explored the area by foot and by car and was amazed by the diversity of people, commerce, architecture, and residential enclaves that I found. I was particularly impressed with North Flushing’s absolutely exquisite single family homes, just a short way from the hustle and bustle of Main Street, Roosevelt Avenue, and Northern Boulevard. You can see, for example, the Fitzgerald-Ginsberg Mansion in the upper right of the photo collage.

There is a botanical garden, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (site of the 1964 World’s Fair), the Queens Museum of Art, art galleries, tea shops, herbalists, dumpling stands, Queens College, the Old Quaker Meeting House, and the historic Flushing Town Hall (headquarters of the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution). Flushing is home to the Queens Borough Public Library – the Flushing branch is the busiest branch of the highest circulation system in the country.

I would recommend a visit to Flushing (along with Jackson Heights), both for the New Yorker and the out-of-town visitor. Here, you will get a slice of ethnic life in New York City in a real working neighborhood which caters to its residents and not so heavily to tourists, as in Manhattan’s Chinatown. And there are plenty of restaurants to satisfy and shops to peruse.There’s a vibrant feeling in this place. Flushing is a city on the move…

Note about the name: From the New York Times: “Flushing’s early settlers were mainly English families who came via Vlissingen, a port city in the Netherlands. In 1645, these folks named their community Vlissingen. The area remained known as Vlissingen until about 1663 when the name was changed to New-Warke or Newark, according to documents from the Queens Historical Society. In 1665, however, the name Flushing, an English version of Vlissingen, was adopted and stuck.”