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[Cotuit]

Flushing Plans For Extreme Makeover
By Christa Weber

More than 100 business owners and community members congregated at Flushing Town Hall last week to catch an early glimpse at the proposed Flushing makeover as presented by Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff. The plan focuses on three key areas: Downtown Flushing, the Flushing River waterfront and Willets Point. Months of study went into the plan, which grew out of proposals that premiered a year ago at a two-day workshop also held at Flushing Town Hall.

"We’re looking to remake Flushing into a destination of choice for all people throughout the region to come to shop, to eat, to conduct business, to gain employment, for everything," said Councilman John Liu.

Ideas for renovations include sprucing up the Main Street Long Island Rail Road Station, adding a waterfront promenade on the Flushing River, making Main Street one-way and adding a station entrance at Prince Street. Flushing, a community with a rich history and a thriving business district, hopes to become a bigger dot on the map once the changes have taken place. To that end, the revitalization of the Flushing River area would create an open community space and possible recreational area, thus attracting visitors.

"For a couple of decades Flushing has grown tremendously to the point where we are bursting at the seams," Liu said. "To go to the next step we have to raise some standards and this coordination and support from City Hall is exactly what we need.

Any renovations eventually scheduled to take place at Willets Point, which was a landfill area in the 19th century, would require an extra influx of capital. Approximately 83 businesses reside on the 55-acre plot of land, 85% of which is overflowing with auto body shops and junkyards. The study showed that at least $130 million would be needed to relocate the businesses in order to allow the property to be razed. To facilitate that component of the project, the city plans to issue a call for ideas from developers some time next year.

Though nothing has been set in stone, it’s doubtful that the community would raise objections to a waterfront promenade or a prettier rail road station. But for the owners and employees of the 83 businesses in Willets Point, the future is far more uncertain. Nonetheless, it seems the entirety of Flushing, not just downtown, is finally going to get its chance to shine.

"City hall is finally paying attention to the dynamic and bustling town that we have here in Flushing with an eye toward unlocking the huge potential that we have, not only for local people but for the city as a whole," Liu said.

From The Queens Courier

[Cotuit]

[Scott]

Interesting article, I would suppose Flushing must have been an actual town for years before NYC annexed all of Queens County.

[Cotuit]

Yup, a lot of the neighbourhoods in Queens were originally towns of Queens County before annexation. Flushing is one of the older towns. Being that it is so old, it is still quite distinct that it was once it's own town, much like it is quite clear that Brooklyn was once an independent city. Until recently it was a predominately Irish area, now it is predominately Chinese, and becoming more and more so as rents skyrocket in Manhattan's Chinatown. A lot of the Chinese in Boston who regularly visit NYCs Chinatown, now skip it and head straight to Flushing.

Flushing is the home to The Mets Shea Stadium (and Bill Bukner's famous between the legs act), Arthur Ashe Stadium (home of the US Open), and it was the host of NYCs two Worlds Fairs. Flushing is famous for being home of TVs 'The Nanny' and the Simpons World Trade Centre episode where Homer sees a 'Flushing Meadows' bus and fantasizes of a field of toilets (he had to pee at the time).

I lived in Flushing before I moved to Providence, and I'd put downtown Flushing in a tie with Jamaica, for skankiest place in Queens. The place is a cesspool, the sidewalks are literally sticky, and during the summer it smells like a dump (the condition of the Flushing River does not help either). The place is desperate for an extreme makeover. Fortunately it has really good bones. It's a transportation nexus, with LIRR, the 7 subway line, and buses from Nassau County all converging smack in the middle of it. So it has massive foot traffic, but it's such a mess that people simply rush from where they came from to where they are going to. If they make it over right, it could become a destination in itself.

[G W North]

It's disappointing to hear that it's a "cesspool". It looks so incredibly urban. Are there any other parts of Queens as "downtownish" as Flushing.

[Cotuit]

Jamaica has a very distinct downtown, but like Flushing, it's a cesspool. The city and state are very eager to improve Jamaica however. It is a transportation nexus for buses in Queens, the LIRR, and Nassau County buses making connections to the LIRR and the subway (if you look at a Queens bus map, you'll see Jamaica and Flushing as the 2 main hubs).

Kennedy Airports new AirTrain terminates in downtown Jamaica to make connections to the subway and LIRR. This in effect makes Jamaica a Gateway to NYC itself. That being so, it's important to the city and state to clean the place up. Of course this means gentrification and pricing out long time residents.

Jamaica and Flushing are the two areas that really have a small city feel. Though there are other hubs in Queens that have a sense of place much like a downtown. Woodside is actually a quite nice area. Astoria is becoming quite hot as people are priced out of areas of Brooklyn such as Park Slope and DUMBO.

A lot of Queens is developed linearly. There are a lot of main roads crossing the borough that are lines of urbaninty going from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, with more resdiential areas away from the main road.

[Cotuit]

Is That English? Flushing Pols Will Find Out
By James Fanelli

    With its myriad Asian restaurants and its equally diverse vendors and merchants, the bustling business section of Flushing along Northern Boulevard can be a shoppers’ paradise: fresh fruit, bakeries, cellphones and even Hello Kitty.

    But, some native-English-speaking residents — and would-be customers — say the exterior store signs, often dizzyingly arrayed on top and adjacent to one another, colorfully written in Chinese or Korean, exclude those who do not speak the immigrant merchants’ language, because there are no accompanying translations.

    For those who only speak English, searching the signs’ characters for meaning may not elicit the old saying "It’s all Greek to me," but a similar phrase like "It’s all Korean (Chinese or some other Southeast Asian language) to me," may accompany a quizzical shrug.

    Councilman John Liu with State Senator Toby Stavisky, Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik and Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, whose districts all encompass some part of this area, want to know if this perception of Flushing is true. And to do this, they are having their staff members hit the streets with surveys in hand.

    Largely spurred by complaints over a mammoth-sized billboard on Northern Boulevard and 162nd Street that stood a few months ago and which advertised a Korean livery service without any English, Liu, his fellow pols and civic leaders have joined forces to create a Signage Language Taskforce.

    The group, said Liu, will study and address whether the perception that many Flushing merchant signs are written solely in non-English languages is true or exaggerated.

    "If you ask different people, they will tell you a lot of different answers on how they perceive the problem to be," said Liu at a new conference on Monday. "Some people think there is enough English. There is a disparity of opinions."

    The politicians gathered at the conference said the Signage Language Taskforce will take a scientific approach to the problem.

    "We are trying to tackle this in a very calm, sober and forthright manner," said Grodenchik.

    Over the next four weeks, staff members of the Flushing politicos will ply Northern Boulevard, from Main Street to 162nd Street, documenting each business, its address, and whether its signs contain enough descriptive English for all customers. After a month, the taskforce will reconvene and discuss their findings.

    "Whether at a large or small extent, our hope is to help businesses here get English on their signs," said Liu.

    Aside from Flushing politicians, the taskforce includes native-English speakers — members of the East Flushing Civic Association and the Broadway Flushing Homeowners Association — as well as Asian groups, like the Korean American Association of Flushing.

    Though a state law created in 1905 requires all merchant signs to provide an English description, it is never enforced, partly because politicians are unsure what agency is in charge of handling the matter.

    The Flushing politicians all stressed that they are taking a community approach to the perceived problem rather than drafting legislation with stricter fines and more enforcement, as Councilman Tony Avella suggested after the Korean billboard incident.

    Members of the taskforce agreed that a community-style approach, rather than penalties, will yield more compliance. They agreed it was a matter of creating a dialogue and educating merchants about the law.

    "We can capture most people with a carrot," said Grodenchik, assured that merchants lacking English translations will voluntarily comply. "I don’t think we need a stick."

    Asian members of the taskforce said that most store owners are unaware of the rules.

    "They have no intention of isolating people," said Chang Y. Han, head of the Korean American Association of Flushing, adding that most would comply once they were notified. Liu followed this up by saying past findings show that the longer merchants have been in the country, the more likely they are to have English.

    This is not the first language study in Flushing. Three years ago, a similar study was conducted on Flushing streets running near Northern Boulevard. The findings showed that 90% of businesses had signs with descriptive English. The 10% that did not, Liu said, conformed and added English.

    The councilman also said the perception of language exclusion is not solely confined to Flushing. He cited other areas, like Coney Island, where Russian businesses’ signage is largely written in the immigrant language. However, this study will only address the perceived problems in Flushing.

    "Legislation creates enmity and antagonism," said Marjorie Ferrigno, president of the Broadway Flushing Homeowners Association and a 49-year resident of Flushing, lauding the taskforce approach. "We are trying to create a community. We say we welcome you, but we want you to welcome us."

From The Queens Courier