Flushing, My Second Home
E.B. White has written that NYC is a city within a city, within a city. In other words, each neighborhood has its own square, its own main street, its own supermarkets, cafes, and bakeries. The development of each neighborhood depends on the people who choose to reside there. The neighborhood becomes a reflection of the people. Some neighborhoods can be viewed as melting pots consisting of people from all ethnicities. However, there are certain regions of this wondrous city that contains mostly people of a certain ethnicity, making the appearance of these neighborhoods a bit different from those around it. One of these neighborhoods is Flushing, located in Queens NY.
Flushing is a neighborhood in which the people who reside there are of Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean descent. Take the 7 train all the way to the last stop and you will enter the heart of Flushing, Main Street. Walking up from the train platform, you will feel as though you are not in NYC anymore. The only hints you have are the Burger King, the huge AT&T sign and the Duane Read. Besides that, everything else is different. The signs are in a foreign language, the streets are crowded, people are quickly walking to their destination, some are waiting for one of the many buses that stop there.
Main Street is one of the busiest streets in Flushing (besides Kissena Blvd). This area is known to be the entertainment center of this neighborhood. People here do mostly three things: play pool, go karoaking, and eat. There are many places to play pool and it’s a typical hang out spot for high school students as well as college students. Sometimes even pros come to play. One of my friends spent two hours versing Taiwan’s best 9-ball player at his game. Pool does not cost much, roughly $8 an hour before 7pm during the weekdays and $12 after that. It is a great place to practice your skill and catch up with friends. The places can vary from being extremely lit to being dark with only 2 lamps shining brightly at the table. Drinks and food can be ordered at these places since people usually spend roughly 2 or more hours playing.
Besides pool, people go to sing. Ten or more friends gather together and sing their hearts out. There are songs available in Chinese, Korean and English. Those people who are not singing can take the dice and cards (offered by the KTV, karaoke place) and play games. The rooms are usually colorful and designed to create a party atmosphere. Lights change colors and speakers surround the room. One bad thing about these places is that the rooms are not the most soundproof, but people do not really mind if they sing badly. People go there to have fun and to blow off stress. It is also a great place to meet other people and create memories.
Flushing is also known for its food. Because this is a neighborhood that mostly consists of people of Korean and Chinese descent, Asian restaurants are everywhere. Within a 3 block you can find either a restaurant or a bakery. Bakeries in flushing are different compared to the ones in other neighborhoods. There, besides buying coffee, people can also buy buns. Buns are yeast-raised rolls that are usually stuffed with some substance inside. Sometimes it is a type of meat (such as pork or beef) while other times it can be something sweet such as red beans. They do have vegetarian buns, such as sweet potato bun. The elderly sit in bakeries and have long discussions while eating their buns. Besides the large amount of bakeries, Flushing consists of many restaurants. Most of these restaurants are either Chinese or Korean but there are Vietnamese restaurants along with some Thai restaurants. There are not that many Japanese restaurants and there are very few places to get sushi. On Union Street and along Northern Blvd (from around 150 street to 210 street) there are numerous Korean restaurants. Some of these restaurants are designed like typical American restaurants, but there are a couple of Korean restaurants that look as though they belong in South Korea. This offers people who have never been in Korea to learn of how their restaurants look like and how people are served. For example in the Korean restaurants that preserved their traditions, appetizers are free and brought to you while you wait for your order. In addition, you serve yourself water and tea without being charged for it. The same applies in Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants; you are seated and while you look at the menu, you have a small porcelain cup that you can fill up with the tea brought to your table. Restaurants are not the only place to get food; there are also the food courts. In all the malls, there is a place dedicated to getting food. Usually there is a wide array of food to choose from, but there are no major fast food chains present in those food courts. This shows how this neighborhood is unlike others for in Queens Center Mall, it is mostly fast food chains.
Besides eating in the food courts, people go to malls to shop. Malls in Flushing are not the same as those present everywhere else in America. They are small places that sell cute stuff. There is usually no Macy’s, JCPenny, or any of the major department stores. The stores are small and sell clothing that is imported from either Korea of China. Since the fashion for girls there is to cover up the upper body (their shoulders and chest) and to expose as much leg as possible, the skirts are very short and the shirts are mostly mid-length or long sleeved and these clothes are not usually designed for tall people or people of big frames. Besides clothing, most of these stores sell shoes and hats. However, you won’t find a pair of shoes there if you are larger than a size 8.5. While some of these stores sell clothing, there are stores that sell merchandise that are either for cellphones (such as cellphone straps or covers) or for a girl’s hair (such as headbands, and clips). Also those stores usually sell jewelry that give off a very cutesy style.
It is obvious to see that the effect that the ethnicity of the population has on the way the neighborhood looks like. From the tiny malls that most people don’t even consider malls to the signs in Mandarin and/or Korean, it is obvious to see that the people of East Asian descent run most of the businesses there…for they are the people that have the most influence in the shaping of Flushing.
