This audio slideshow and accompanying story about folk arts in Queens is published on Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism's website, City of Change.
From her seventeenth floor apartment in LeFrak City, Gulchekhra Alimova runs Vatan Asia, a grassroots immigrant association that helps the growing number of Central Asian immigrants assimilate into American life.
Between the bodegas, Latin restaurants, markets, and food carts selling tacos and empanadas, it’s hard to walk down the street in Corona these days without hearing mothers speaking Spanish to their young children or the sounds of Latin beats emanating from the music stores along Roosevelt Avenue.
But in recent decades, the face of Corona has changed dramatically as Hispanic immigrants have settled in the neighborhood in increasing numbers, while white and African-American members of the community have moved out.
Koreans in western Queens not only look out for each other, but they support neighboring ethnic groups, according to leaders of the Korean American community.
My go-to spot for an inexpensive and fresh lunch is Lao Bei Fang Dumpling House on Whitney Avenue in Elmhurst. For $2.25, I order fresh pork and chives friend dumplings and a wonton soup.
Teenagers come on their way home from school or after hanging out at Broadway Park to eat along the wrap-around bar or the single communal table. Mothers stop by with young children and take orders to-go. I have never seen the shop empty, and during peak times, there is a line out the door. The items on the menu are limited to dumplings, buns and soup.
There is an understated beauty to the graffiti along the Long Island Railroad as it cuts through Corona and Elmhurst, Queens, along 45th Avenue and 94th Street. The pedestrian walkway over the tracks, across from the construction site of the Corona Park High Schools, is nearly covered in graffiti markings. But here, as in other parts of town, it gives buildings a derelict, untended air.
precinct. He mobilizes area residents, including young people, to clean up graffiti in Corona and Elmhurst, preserving the neighborhood through community action.
In response to the potentially toxic soil underneath the construction site of the Corona Park High Schools, located at 45-10 94th Street, I ventured over and received a hard-hat tour of the four story building by George Mantis of M.A. Angeliades, the contractor for the project.
A project of this enormity takes up to two to three years to complete, but union workers are logging double and triple shifts to make the deadline, according to Mantis. Approximately 250 construction workers were on the site working on various levels and sections of the former leather factory. The project began in July 2007 and faces a staggering completion date of August 2008.
Tai Chi seems to be growing in popularity for young and old, thin and overweight, and sufferers of disease or abuse. Different various ethnic and age groups find the practice appealing.
Joe Neufeld runs the funeral parlor his father opened in 1940. The Neufeld family has been rooted in Elmhurst since 1900. Though he now lives on Long Island, Neufeld said he would return to Elmhurst tomorrow if his wife, Claire, allowed it. But, he also said he sees problems in the community he loves.
Corona residents were enjoying All-Hallows' Eve even before it got dark Wednesday. Adults and children alike roamed the streets dressed as dinosaurs, bumble bees, superheroes, and kittens. Best to enjoy the Halloween spirit before nightfall though, as 110th precinct officers warn that Halloween is one of their busiest nights of the year!
leaves were still green and the warm sunshine had Linden Park buzzing with the shouts of delighted children and attentive parents.
together eight leagues from four boroughs and is scheduled to finish in the beginning of November. Parents and coaches alike value the quality time spent with the children and emphasize the positive experience of learning to play a competitive sport.
Since January, Jehovah’s Witnesses from across the United States have come to New York and volunteered their time to help renovate Corona’s Kingdom Hall, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ house of worship. The hall is set to open by late November, at 42-06 National St.
The honking horns, the shadowy overpass, the pungent smell of the fish market, and the competing strains of Latin music emanating from nearby record stores at the 103rd Street stop of the seven train can overwhelm the unaccustomed visitor to Corona. A sightseer descending from the elevated subway station onto Roosevelt Avenue below asks for directions, but receives only blank stares.
The final funeral service for Spec. Chirasak Vidhyarkorn, 32, of Bayside, took place at Gerard J. Neufeld Funeral Home in Elmhurst today at 12:30 p.m.
"It really brought to the forefront what these [soldiers] do for you," said Raymond Neufeld of Neufeld Funeral Home. "You don't see the full effect until you see something like this. It is a wake up to the reality of it all."
In the shadow of the space shuttle replicas at the New York Hall of Science, in Corona, Queens, produce vendors from across the New York area have come every Sunday since July to sell their goods.
Corona is a big name in the Dominican Republic.
It's hard to know exactly how many Coronas live in Corona, but there are so many of them Coronas themselves can't keep track. Nicholas Corona, 42, of the Corona Brothers Hardware store on National Street, didn't know about Felix Corona, 56, who lives a few blocks north. Nicholas Corona said there are at least 50 Coronas in the neighborhood.
"Real skaters don't walk with their skateboards, they ride them," said Sean Ewing, manager of the sneaker and skateboard store, Format, on Queens Boulevard.
Wedged in a quiet alley, workers constructed a wooden frame with a latticed roof that stretched across back of the building.
Clement Clarke Moore, author of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1882), spent most of his childhood at his family's Newtown (now Elmhurst) estate. P.S. 13 Clement Clarke Moore School on 55-01 94th Street and CC Moore Homestead Park on 83rd and Broadway in Elmhurst are named after the author.
Other Famous Residents include:
Overbuilding and over-development run rife in Elmhurst, NY. The map illustrates two lists of buildings in transition.
