Welcome to Bayside – written by Kevin Vu

Appropriately named, Bayside resides in the northeastern corner of Queens next to Little Neck Bay. It is enclosed by 26th Avenue in the north to the Long Island Expressway in the south, and from Francis Lewis Boulevard to the Cross Island Expressway, west to east. The neighborhood has four zip codes: 11359 (Fort Totten), 11360, 11361, and 11364. Bayside shares 11364 with Oakland Gardens, which can be confusing because of the overlap.

There has been a rezoning in 2005 for the shift of Bayside’s borders.¹ However, I would suggest another change that would more appropriate for Bayside. First is the issue of the zip code 11364. It is trivial and unsettling to overlap borders with another neighborhood. The southern border should stop at Northern Boulevard, and allow Oakland Garden the border rights. This is because that area is not really considered, or thought to be, part of Bayside. It is only the address that tells us so. Another change would come from the western border along Francis Lewis Boulevard. It should be moved to Utopia Parkway, effectively taking over part of Auburndale. The neighborhood of Auburndale is also an issue of its own, but it is essential an outdated neighborhood that was developed because of the construction of the Long Island Rail Road station.

 

Facts and Figures

Regardless, the total population, including zip code 11364, comes out to 82,045 people.² Fort Totten does not have any residents, and the highest populated zip code is in fact 11364. Table 1 shows the ethnic breakdown of all four zip codes, and then sums up each category for a percentage.

Table 1 – Ethnic breakdown of population

	White	Black or African American	American Indian or Alaskan Native	Asian	Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	Some Other Race	Two or More Race[1]
11359	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11360	13,408	289	12	4,458	1	424	292
11361	15,570	1,117	23	10,120	7	817	637
11364	15,963	786	25	16,258	7	1,132	699
Total	44,941	2,192	60	30,836	15	2,373	1,628
Percent	54.8%	2.7%	~0%[2]	37.6%	~0%[2]	2.9%	2.0%

*Collected data from four most commonly reported multi-race combinations in Census 2000. White-American Indian and Alaska Native, white-asian, white-black or African Americans, white-some other race

**Percentage is too small to round up to a decimal place*Collected data from four most commonly reported multi-race combinations in Census 2000. White-American Indian and Alaska Native, white-asian, white-black or African Americans, white-some other race

Source: US Census Bureau (2010)

 

Bayside is regarded as one of Queens’s wealthiest neighborhood. In fact, the mean income for 32,876 households in Bayside is $89,108.⁴ This would put Bayside in the range of upper-middle class, according to the government definition of middle class. Table 2 gives the employment figures for the “Baysiders.” Below that is Table 3 which is an occupation figure.

 

Table 2 – Employment

	Population of 16+ years	Civilian labor force/Armed Forces	Employed	Unemployed	Not in labor force
11359	0	0	0	0	0
11360	18,073	10,585	9,751	796	7,488
11361	23,870	15,301	14,138	1,163	8,569
11364	28,693	18,243	16,929	1,314	10,450
Total	70,636	44,129	40,818	3,273	26,507
Percent	100%	62.5%	92.5%	7.4%	37.5%

Source: US Census Bureau (2010)

 

Table 3 – Occupation

	Employed population of 16+ years	Management, business, arts, and science	Sales and office	Service	Natural resources, construction, and maintenance	Production, transportation, and material moving
11359	0	0	0	0	0	0
11360	9,751	5,033	2,949	745	544	480
11361	14,138	6,086	3,561	2,176	1,054	1,261
11364	16,929	7,552	5,303	2,314	786	974
Total	40,818	18,671	11,813	5,235	2,384	2,715
Percent	100%	45.7%	28.9%	12.8%	5.8%	6.7%

Source: US Census Bureau (2010)

 

Narrative on Class Status and Housing

Bayside, like many other New York City neighborhoods, is a great place to raise a family, live comfortably, and have access to the transit system that gets you anywhere in city. A large factor that puts Bayside in good standing comes from the people in it. A majority of residents are here with family, either previously or presently. 66.4% of 32,690 households are family households, which speaks to the abundance of one-family houses.⁴ They are, what is classified as, upper middle class people. It is really hard to say whether Bayside is truly upper middle class, since classification is relative.

District 26 is revered to be the best NYC public district based on ranking.⁵ The reputation has attracted the more educated immigrants to settle here, which would impose a positive feedback into the system; a vicious cycle that helps to sustain the community. From personal observation, a greater influx of South and East Asians decided to start or move into Bayside, which explains why Asians are the second-most populous group, shown in Table 1 below. Accordingly, the types of occupation reflect the middle class status of Bayside. Table 3 illustrates how a majority is in the “management, business, arts, and science” and “sales and office” sectors, which are considered middle-to-high income employment.

An obvious and universal indicator of class status is housing. If the exterior is any sign of the interior space, then housing seems to be extremely pricey, and in fact it is. The most common type of housing is the one-family house (semi- and non-attached), with prices over $500k.⁶ There are McMansions that pop up along the eastern coastline border, whose prices are well over $2 million. Relatively few apartment complexes exist in Bayside, considering the dense population of NYC, and those that do go for about $1,000 per month, depending on amount of bedrooms. The quantity of 32,690 households cited above is listed under occupied housing unit, which is split into owner-occupied and renter-occupied. There are 21,868 owner-occupied units, which come out to a population of 54,945 living in those units. For renter-occupied, the numbers are 10,822 and 26,546, respectively.⁷ These figures are surprising for a suburban-like neighborhood in the city, yet expected for one that is wealthy.

 

 

 

Culture of Bayside

There are three main commercial streets in Bayside: Bell Boulevard, Northern Boulevard, and Francis Lewis Boulevard. A majority of the action, however, all rest along Bell Boulevard. Restaurants of all type clutter along Bell  Italian, Thai, sushi, Korean, steakhouses, Mexican, diners, etc. This popular strip has something for everyone, and so it’s quite lively day and night. Some people would compare it to Manhattan without the traffic, noise, and green-less scene, but perhaps that is just pride for the neighborhood.

Bayside is home to some of the best schools, especially public schools. District #26 is a high achieving district, well known for its quality teachers and institutions. In the district, there are 20 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, 5 high schools including Bayside High School, and Benjamin N. Cardozo High School which are all overcrowded but well-received.⁸ In Bayside there is also Queens Community College, which is part of CUNY system. Several parochial schools are also in Bayside, such as Lutheran School of Flushing & Bayside, Our Lady of Blessed Sacrament, and Sacred Heart School. Many of these parochial schools are part of the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO), which offers a variety of organized sports after school. Since Bayside is a diverse community, different churches are brought up to serve the religious makeup. Some of such are Bayside Jewish Center, The Grace Korean Presbyterian Church, North Shore Baptist Church, St. Josaphat’s Roman Catholic Church.

Regarding cultural institutions, the only well known sites are Fort Totten, and its Bayside Historical Society. Fort Totten itself is a historical landmark. It is a former US Army installation designed to protect the East River route to the NY Harbor during the American Civil War. Now the city owns the piece of land, and declared it a NYC public park, whose main feature is a public swimming pool. The Bayside Historical Society in Fort Totten is an exhibit that preserves information on the history of Bayside, and its surrounding neighbors. About the politics, there is Community board No. 11 that speaks for Bayside and its other constituents. Elected officials representing Bayside can be found in the following website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/qnscb11/html/profile/officials.shtml.

 

Citations

¹see NYC Department of City Planning

²see U.S. Census Bureau (2010)

³Ibid.

⁴Ibid.

⁵Duke, Nathan. (2012) Retrieved from http://bayside.patch.com/groups/schools/p/district-26-ranked-highest-in-city-schools-report-card

⁶see Roleke, John

⁷see U.S. Census Bureau (2010)

⁸New York Schools. Retrieved from http://www.newyorkschools.com/districts/nyc-district-26.html

 

General References

NYC Department of City Planning. Bayside Rezoning. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bayside/index.shtml

Community Board No. 11. Queens, New York City. Zoning & Maps. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/qnscb11/html/zoning/zoning.shtml

Roleke, John. Bayside – Queens Neighborhood Profile. Retrieved from http://queens.about.com/od/neighborhoods/p/bayside.htm

U.S. Census Bureau. (2010) American FactFinder. Retrieved from http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml. (query search: 11360, 11361, 11364)

Bloch, M., Carter, S., McLean, A. (2005-2009) Mapping America: Every City, Every Block. New York Times. Retrieved from http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer