News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
 8.4K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 39K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 4.7K     0 

wyliepoon

Senior Member
Member Bio
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
2,011
Reaction score
3
From the Transit Museum in Brooklyn, I took the 'G' subway train, then changed to the famous '7' train to get to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The '7' train, a.k.a. the "International Express", runs through the ethnically diverse neighbourhoods of Queens. I got first hand experience of this when a mariachi duet made an appearance on my train...

2762001602_82e7c2a776_b.jpg


I wanted to go see the Panorama, the huge New York City model in the Queens Museum of Art at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Unfortunately the museum closed just before I arrived. Fortunately there were other attractions in the park... the Unisphere and the New York State Pavilion.

2761158623_5dfb94cfa6_b.jpg


2762007216_88d265c2af_b.jpg


2762007506_d740b9e877_b.jpg


2762008664_a106bb458a_b.jpg


2762008938_c066e1a4e7_b.jpg


2762009148_615bc2fee8_b.jpg


2762009492_f508723fd2_b.jpg


2762009880_28930cfaf1_b.jpg


2761161823_9f56c8e6b2_b.jpg


2761162377_07c965a36f_b.jpg


2761162881_4a25ae2ea1_b.jpg


Between the park and Willets Point-Shea Stadium subway station is Corona Yard, where the '7' subway trains are stored. The last of the famous "Redbird" trains can be seen here. Great views of the trains from the pedestrian bridge over the yard.

2762014236_2e7e165181_b.jpg


2762015324_fe659d7635_b.jpg


2761167081_1445f41342_b.jpg


Views of Shea Stadium, the current home of MLB's New York Mets, and Citi Field, the home of the Mets next season. The stadiums are located in a sea of parking. Although Citi Field borders a street in the outfield, on the other side of the street is a strip of car repair shops.

2761176241_c2c60d4e19_b.jpg


2762024838_c70c983314_b.jpg


2762025006_4fcf33cde7_b.jpg


2761176949_e80ceefd39_b.jpg


2762027392_6956812c95_b.jpg


2761179067_d3db96b4ca_b.jpg


2762026796_0373200b84_b.jpg


The eastern end of the '7' subway line is Flushing-Main Street, which is in the middle of what apparently is New York City's largest Chinatown, even bigger than the more familiar one in Manhattan. It certainly looks very busy, just like the one in Toronto, but with narrower sidewalks, the density of pedestrians is higher than Dundas and Spadina.

2761179607_f5e8010959_b.jpg


2761179967_0b6a87de5f_b.jpg


2761180153_410e78e278_b.jpg


2762029562_ee1e947ecf_b.jpg


2761181045_58a6272771_b.jpg


2762029950_8b75b4bfb3_b.jpg


2761181429_76e9ea2986_b.jpg


2761181701_878d97bc99_b.jpg


2762030596_6b9a8ac654_b.jpg


2762030750_fdd298b7c5_b.jpg


2762030956_2930b22a90_b.jpg


2762031414_c1134085f6_b.jpg


2762032118_0a081488c5_b.jpg


2762032432_d3b6c537b6_b.jpg


2762032668_e4898ab3cb_b.jpg


2762033056_efa73c0518_b.jpg


2761184663_c60cd80ef8_b.jpg


2761184893_b0ff778dd4_b.jpg

In the days after the opening of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, almost all the TV screens in Flushing showed replays of the Opening Ceremonies. Pirated DVDs of the Opening Ceremonies were the hottest items on sale while I was there.

2762033920_214f702951_b.jpg


2761185489_b934f71775_b.jpg


Some shots of Manhattan's version of Chinatown, and Little Italy right next to it, in the Lower East Side.

2761186057_b73abfc062_b.jpg


2762034798_da3f7b56a5_b.jpg


2761186399_e269c8edc0_b.jpg


2761186615_a2b7806ccd_b.jpg


2761186979_798fe62d0b_b.jpg


2761187159_e59af65766_b.jpg


2762036234_8d155f2e5d_b.jpg


2762037268_15f3a7e29c_b.jpg


2762037818_785e8c9551_b.jpg


2762038012_989343a420_b.jpg


2762038210_bb16771b83_b.jpg


2761189713_8cca44a10d_b.jpg


2762038524_639dae75de_b.jpg


2762039048_e7e8e56655_b.jpg


2762039416_517b240337_b.jpg


2761191701_998074cb43_b.jpg


2761191869_014ee15229_b.jpg


2761192709_373c51f9ac_b.jpg


2762041906_7c1f69ba69_b.jpg


2762062646_2d7ab2f253_b.jpg


2761214071_790c691c19_b.jpg


2762063150_99da92620d_b.jpg
 
imagine something like this on richmond or king street...

Yeah, TO's really gotta step it up with the terraces and patios... very weak in that domain. Eating outside, watching the people walk by, smelling the fresh air... one of summer's fun activities.

Great pics, wyile. Gotta visit Flushing next time.
 
We do have similar but much more spread out, so not one street with as many as can be seen in that pic.

Also the chinatown in Queens looks like the real deal (similar to what we have in Toronto) the one in Manhattan looks like a flaky tourist attraction ... that's what I recall from my last trip (never saw the ones in Queens though).

I'm not really sure I saw more pedestrians then what we have here ... then again it looked kinda cloudy so we probably wouldn't get as much in similar conditions here.
 
little italy and chinatown side by side. marco polo could only dream. :)
 
Fantastic pictures wylie. I haven't been to NY since I was a kid, and I would really love to go back. The heavy clutter of the signs in Flushing reminds me of pictures of Hong Kong I've seen. From what I understand, NY tends to get Chinese from different places than us (I think they get less from HK and more from Taiwan?).
 
^ I didn't spend too much time interacting with the locals in Flushing, but I think you are correct in that Hong Kong immigrants make up less of the Chinese population in New York. On the streets, the Cantonese dialect is widely heard (which isn't really an indication that the person is from Hong Kong, since most old-timer Chinese-Americans also speak Cantonese). However, when I went to grab a snack from a Chinese bakery in Flushing I was surprised that the cashier did not understand my Cantonese, and I had to communicate in English. This almost never happens to me in Toronto.

I've read that many of the Chinese immigrants to New York are illegal immigrants from Fujian province, which is close to Taiwan.
 
I don't think I'm even stretching it when I say that New York City has an urban intensity that is equal to all the other American cities combined. Thanks for reminding us of this with your photothreads, wylie.
 
Man, a lot of those shots look exactly like a street in Toronto (minus the vibrant streetlife, lol).
 
Queens is the Toronto of America. They are majority minority, with no minority being a majority (if you know what I mean). They don't bury hydro wires. They rely on 2 subway lines that are packed beyond capacity (the 7 train and the Yonge line south of Eglinton at rush hour are a similar experience).

Then there's the opening sequence of "All in the Family" which looks like it could've taken place on, like, Symington Avenue or Dovercourt.
 
Yeah, I know this thread is almost a decade old...but I don't have any photos.

Having just come back from NYC and staying with a friend in Queens and having done this trip several times, I've done a lot of exploring and I do find Toronto and Queens are similar in many ways. Queens covers a large land area (178 sq. miles) and it ranges from almost Manhattan type areas in the west to postwar suburbia in the east.

Some points of similarity:

- Diversity. Just the sheer mix of nationalities and no group really dominates. And lots of groups you don't really see elsewhere.

- Urban form. Queens has lots of SFHs and high rise apartments spread throughout the borough, ad often Queens also has a pretty similar density to pre-1945 Toronto.

- Developed largely around the same time. Queens didn't really take off until the 20th century and Victorian Toronto was pretty small (population 200,000 in 1901). Both Queens and Toronto doubled in population between 1930 and 1970.
 

Back
Top