54-46, that's my number: the Queens thread

Promised by who? It's not going to. The "hipsters" who I've known who moved there are all young families. I know they live there but I've never once run into them.

I dunno, by the hipster tipsters maybe? In any case, you are exactly right about the situation.

"less slope" maybe but "more park" is a big stretch.

Tell me about it. We just narrowly squeaked by in the Battle of the Garden School Tarmac.

Never actually had contact with the guy that came up with that ad campaign.

2 or so years ago we were looking into buying a place and a lot of the options were in Jackson Heights. What became clear real quick is that those beautiful old garden apt buildings with the green courtyards are NOT much more affordable than various decent areas in Brooklyn or whereever. We looked at some nice buildings (and some really shitty ones) but proximity to a nice building with a beautiful PRIVATE green space does not beat out easy access to Prospect Park!

So yeah we visited Forest Hills yesterday and got a little tour from a family friend. We're kind of leaning toward it in terms of (1) commute, (2) cost-to-quality-of-life ratio and (3) my theory that it's probably more insulated from rental market craziness because it's not *up-and-coming* or trendy. We're a bit traumatized by our 20% rent increase and we really don't want to have to keep moving every year or two.

I guess I was disappointed that it didn't have more idk character or something, and Queens Blvd is kind of miserable not to mention scary to cross with a stroller. But Austin St. is not bad if you don't mind chain stores and we had really good falafel. And holy shit, the gardens section is just mind-blowingly nice, like I had no idea there were houses that nice within city limits.

Gardens are beautiful, but have a pretty disturbing history regarding exclusivity/restriction and whatnot. There's some good stuff out there. Kew Gardens Cinema. Eddie's Sweet Shop. Nick's Pizza. Ben's Best. Bukharan jewish places I've never tried. Otherwise it's like Brooklyn heights/montague. Not the great ethnic diversity/eats you'd find in Sunnyside/Woodside/Jackson Heights. And it's further out and I think more expensive than over here.

2 or so years ago we were looking into buying a place and a lot of the options were in Jackson Heights. What became clear real quick is that those beautiful old garden apt buildings with the green courtyards are NOT much more affordable than various decent areas in Brooklyn or whereever. We looked at some nice buildings (and some really shitty ones) but proximity to a nice building with a beautiful PRIVATE green space does not beat out easy access to Prospect Park!

― dan selzer, Thursday, June 7, 2012 10:05 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've been looking to buy an apartment mainly in ditmas park and a little in jackson heights, and i think JH is a lot more affordable now than most parts of park adjacent Brooklyn. Prospect Lefferts Gardens still has affordable places, but there seems to be a lot more available in Jackson Heights.

xp yeah I definitely have a sense that Sunnyside/Woodside/JH would offer more in the way of eats, which is a big thing for us, but otoh we have a kid now and Forest Hills appears to offer more in the way of, e.g., daycare. Of course anyone who feels otherwise would be welcome to challenge that notion, because honestly without a kid I'd choose Sunnyside in a second over FH.

I mean there is something about Forest Hills that sort of scares me in a way, a certain, IDK, heaviness, like it feels like the kind of place you can move to and be forgotten about. That's probably in my head though.

I guess one other question -- does anyone have any thoughts on the area north of Queens Blvd vs. the area around Forest Park/Metropolitan Ave.?

there is not much of note north of qb in that area.. otoh the further south you go, the further you get from subwayland. the biggest benefit of fh is the express stop so if you live further than a 5 min walk from it, there's really no point anymore. could also look at kew gardens...a little sleepy but still on the express and nicer than much of forest hills. a fairly short walk to Austin or forest park.

Hurting, I would also look at Jackson heights. I imagine there's some infrastructure there for transplanted Brooklyn families.

Are you referring to kew gardens, north of queens boulevard? It's a nice area. I would recommend Jackson heights though if you want something in between lack of child services sunny and woodsides and established forest hills/kew gardens.

I'm not sure sunnyside is that cheap at the moment. I've been looking at the listings preparing for a move and it seems $1300 is on the lower end for a no-frills one bedroom.

I think sunnyside would be a great place to bring up kids, though. There's lots of little playgrounds, always teeming with families. If you want bilingual kids, you should move to corona.

I don't know about services for children...but Sunnyside is getting yuppie enough that there has to be stuff. And the farmer's market has gotten relatively big.

We have neighbors in our building who send their kid to some kind of progressive green school in LIC. Other neighbors have kids at St. Sebastien, the huge catholic school a block away, that I think is well regarded, but of course there's always that whole "catholic" thing.

I've never seen most neighborhoods with cheap 1 bedrooms. My theory was always that there just aren't that many and that most of them had enough space to be turned into shitty 2 bedrooms. Our place has gone up in rent, we're now paying a little over 1600, for a pretty huge (by brooklyn standards) 2 bedrooms in a really pleasant area across the street from a park. Most of woodside isn't this nice looking though.

This is called Woodside because Sunnyside south of QB is official Woodside for some strange reason:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/abo/3070844459.html

Search 1 bedrooms in Woodside and there are a lot of cheapish places that we technically think of as sunnyside, the more hispanic area south of QB where De Mole and the Library are.

this apt is down the hall from mine. It's much smaller though:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/reb/3037971980.html

lol u live near a lounge called saints and sinners

Yeah. And I ate there once. It was terrible. They have karaoke and a live band called "Sax Appeal".

Cuckoo's Nest however, a few blocks away, is totally awesome. Great fish and chips and irish breakfast. Sunday "trad" session, the whole deal.

j/k

We were told by someone in the know that we could get a fairly large 1BR (like 750-900 sqf) in a co-opish building near the subway in Forest Hills for like $1600-1800. We're thinking we may suck it up and do a 1BR for a couple years, especially if we can get in-building laundry/dishwasher/elevator for stroller purposes. So it doesn't seem massively more expensive than Sunnyside/Woodside/JH.

Ok, tell me this though. Just say I wanted to do a quick, driving/walking tour of sunnyside and woodside to get the flavor of the area, where would you recommend going?

coming from brooklyn, take greenpoint avenue into queens, you'll see the south side of sunnyside, greenpoint is the main strip and there's lots of housing off of it. You'll cross QB when Greenpoint Ave turns into Roosevelt and gets a bit crappy under the train, but you'll pass La Flor, a nice little brunch spot. Take a left on 55th street then the next left on Skillman ave, that's the start of skillman, take that all the way down to 42nd or so street and that's the north side of Sunnyside. zig zag around there, drive on 47th or 46th or other streets through the gardens. Know you will not live there, but it is beautiful. Drive up to 39th Ave, all very pleasant. 43rd Ave and Queens Blvd have more food and whatnot.

For Woodside get back to Roosevelt and keep driving to 61st st where the LIRR and the express 7 stop is. That's my little downtown woodside, where my bank is, my dry cleaners etc. Beyond that woodside is really big and block by block, some of it's really ugly and not very nice, some is decent. Over where I live near Doughboy Plaza is really the border of Sunnyside and is pretty great. Because it's not "technically" Sunnyside Gardens, it's cheaper, but it's just a few blocks away, yet is closer to the trains.

Woodside also streteches north, the other side of Northern Blvd where you're near the M and R trains and start to border Astoria. I wouldn't necessarily want to live up there, but it's good that I can walk to those trains if the 7 doesn't suit me. I actually take the LIRR to work because they don't take my ticket so it's free most of the time and way faster way to get to the west side.

I second most of that except for the driving part. also qb is sorta the main drag more than skillman or greenpoint and sunnyside is the only part of queens where it's a (half) decent place to walk.

Agreed

Yeah, make sure your driving tour includes skillman avenue around 39 to 43--there is a big playground/ballcourt there, and thats where the farmers market is on weekends.

Where I live there is a little playground around 42nd and greenpoint, where you can also find the sunnyside library.

Also, what are your transportation needs? If you want something other than the 7, Jackson heigts, forest hills or kew gardens
have more options.

I can deal with the 7 to Grand Central (10 block walk to work from there or take the 6). The E is great for me which is another benefit to forest hills.

btw thanks all

Of course. Sunnyside (especially around Skillman in the low 40s) always feels like Sesame Street to me, so I highly recommend it for children.

Ok, nutha question. What's the deal with Flushing Meadows/Corona Park, specifically the part of it abutting forest hills? Is there an actual park there that can be accessed from Forest Hills or is it just kind of marshlands on the other side of a highway?

Do you mean forest park? I know there's parts of flushing meadows down there and maybe that's what you mean, but it does hit forest park which is closer to forest hills. Big park with some old growth and a vintage carousel. Only walked through once.

I mean flushing meadows corona, I think, which is on the north side of Queens Blvd, as opposed to forest park which is to the south.

I mean it looks on the map like there's this southern peninsula of that park with a giant lake in it.

it's not as close as you might think, cause the freeway is a barrier and there aren't many pleasant ways to get across. its not really park-y down there, just some pleasant lakes. I've jogged around there a few times and it was fine for that. and again, that part of forest hills is really just apt buildings and nothing else.

and yeah forest park is nice

ah ok, that's kind of what I thought. My gut kind of says it would be nicer to live south of Queens Blvd so as to not have to cross it as often to get to stuff. IDK.

def

I would look into the area between forest hills and kew gardens. don't rule out kew gardens.

do rule out rego park

yeah that's p much what a co-worker who lives in kew gardens told me.

thx btw

np

What's the deal with edible QUEENS?

edible
QUEENS

I mean, I like the look of it, but I wonder it deserves a more thorough reading than the casual flipthrough I give it

nah

it's a national magazine, there's also an edible brooklyn, edible long island, edible wherever. it's just casual reading / ads for places to eat and not really 'an institution' or anything

I was just down by the border of Ridgewood and Bushwick today (Jefferson L area) and it was kind of nicer than I thought it would be, although I don't think we'll move to Ridgewood b/c (1) bad commute and (2) probably same problem as other areas mentioned earlier in terms of childcare options. But it's funny how rents get like 20% cheaper once you cross into Queens even where it feels like the same neighborhood.

We also drove around various parts of Astoria recently just to get a feel and didn't really think it seemed worth current rents, other than maybe the area around the park.

Whelp, put in an application on a large 1BR near the 71st Ave stop in Forest Hills. Market was crazy and everything was going before we could even see it, so we just felt like we had to take the first thing we liked. Price was more like what I was hoping for a lower-end 2BR, but it's the size of our 2BR now. We had a cheaper place available but only near the M/R and not as close to the good part of Austin St and whatnot, so we payed more for location mainly. Seems pretty alright. You cross the street and walk a block and you're in the beautiful part of FH, which is pretty nice to walk around. Right now we pay a lot more money per month and there's nowhere nice to walk around for a mile in any direction.

well, welcome to queens (presumably)

nick's pizza is really good

Kew Gardens Cinema is a gem.

haha I was trying to think of other recs in the area and that was the only thing coming up

used to be a porno theater?

Yeah, there's not a whole lot that's super exciting, I know. There seem to be some uzbek kebab restaurants. Honestly I'm at a point in my life at the moment when I'm happy to just have an express train that goes right to my office, some parks and playgrounds nearby, a safe area, conveniences, decent daycare/preschool options and the ability to save some money. I live in Williamsburg and I basically pay extra for a bunch of stuff I don't use now -- bars, trendy restaurants, music venues, stylish boutiques, single 20-somethings etc. Hell, even a Barnes & Noble is a bookstore -- I've spent plenty of happy afternoons in my life in Barnes & Nobles. I do wish there was one decent coffee place. One day maybe I'll open one there.

the two starbucks are always packed. the one near kew gardens is pretty big though.

but yeah you can get to more-interesting jackson heights in about 4 minutes on the train, fwiw. or lots of places. forest hills seems like a fine place to live.