Remiss
We drove over the Whitestone Bridge after an hour journey coming from our house located in upstate New York. As we approached 14th Avenue, the woman in the car began to recall her childhood memories. “I remember growing up in Queens,” she told me, “going to a little amusement park and playing softball with my dad and sisters right here.” Where she was pointing to was now converted into a multipurpose center with commercial businesses now occupying the lots. “A lot of these place didn’t even have roads, back in my day. [long pause] It’s amazing how much stuff is here now.”
We continued driving along the perimeter of the former “whitbread” neighborhood that is College Point, Queens, both reliving past memories and analyzing the current state of the neighborhood. The woman driving us around showed me where she used to live in queens with her parents and two sisters through the 60’s, 70’s, and a bit of the 80’s. “I remember being able to play with my friends in the street and picking tomatoes from our backyard. But’ there are so many cars and so many houses here now, I doubt you could ever relive that now. I remember Joanne and I would meet up on that corner over there and walk to Saint Agnes. I bet even the school has changed quite a bit since I’ve been here too.”
Not too long after stopping by the house, we went towards College Point Boulevard to stop into one of the oldest businesses in the borough. There, we saw a sign that lie above a building reading “Empire Market – The Family Butchers.” We walked in only to be greeted by a man with outrageous charisma towards his job and towards his customers. “Karen! Is that you?” he asked right as we walked into the storefront. She replied back, “Hey John! Long time no see.” The man who greeted us is John Lepine, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1957. The woman that he was so excited to see is named Karen Hika-Borrello, though I personally call her Mom.
The two adults beside me were catching up and shooting the breeze while I surveyed the scene. I recalled being in this market as a young child, buying homemade sausages and clean cut meats. I especially remember buying penny candy from the charismatic John over a decade ago. For old times sake, I asked John if they still had the penny candies. Sure enough, he guided me back towards the edge of the counter and showed me the selection of over fifty types of specialty candy, just as if I were sent in a time machine back to the 40’s, when my grandpa would buy penny candies from the local shops in New York. I had to ask John how it was still possible that the penny candy scene never changed. To which he replied “This is about the only thing around town that hasn’t changed.”
He told me, back when he and my mom were growing up in the neighborhood, everything was run by small business owners of mostly German and Southern European descent. “There was never a sign that was not in English,” he said. “But now look around! A rush of Asians and Hispanics hit the town over the years. It’s really taken over everything.”
The last bit took me aback. Did he mean this with negative connotation? Diversity within the neighborhood should really be a positive aspect of life. I followed up John’s statement by asking him to elaborate of his former claim. “I’m not against change! I’m changing this business every day from since my dad handed it down to me and I know he changed it a bunch since his dad handed it down. But if you look around, no one is keeping their property clean. All the buildings are getting run down.”
John was definitely correct here. I walked up and down College Point Boulevard, noticing how run down and desolate all of the old and new buildings looked. The avenues did not look any better. Walking down 14th Avenue, I expected to see quaint suburban scene with houses keeping a mowed lawn and fresh paint job. However, I saw peeling paint, overgrown gardens, cracked pavement, and general garbage in the streets. My mom was upset at seeing what had become of her old neighborhood.
We continued to walk and drive around College Point, stopping where parks used to be and where factories used to be up and running. Now, the parks were replaced by construction lots and the factories were all shut down or in a state of disrepair. Hardly a whitbread neighborhood anymore. My mom told me when we were kids, we would come play in some of these parks. Now in the remaining parks, there was not a sole.
Around 3pm, we drove to a restaurant called Coppola’s for a stop to eat. The owner came to our tablet and greeted us with another “Karen! Is that you?” The owner of this little Italian restaurant is named Marcelo. He knew my grandpa back in the 60’s when the restaurant had just started. Without hesitation, we gave Macelo our order and began to ask him about the neighborhood. Once our food came to us, Marcelo pulled up a chair and began talking about all the changes he has noticed.
“First of all,” he said, “the people moving in are all nasty. They don’t keep the place looking nice, they throw their garbage around, they’re not very friendly, it’s not a nice place.” This seemed to align with what John was telling us before, so I played along and kept listening. “The people coming into this place, they’re just spilling over.” Now I became curious. I asked Marcelo where they were coming from. “Flushing, Forest Hills, a little of Jackson Heights, and everywhere around here. But mostly, it’s the people coming from Flushing.”
“They’re mostly Asians and some Hispanics coming into the neighborhood and leaving it trashy.” I felt slightly offended that two people made a correlation between neighborhood diversity and trashy neighborhoods in the same day. Nevertheless, I asked Marcelo to elaborate his point. He told me “There are some nice people coming in. There really are. My neighbors are new to the place. Both Asians. The one of them is a nice guy. The other guy, though, is a real nasty guy. He’s not keeping his house nice, he makes a racket, he smokes all the time around kids, it’s like he’s from the streets. But the thing is, I complain to the town about this guy and they can’t do anything about it. He bought the property in cash, made it his own for whatever, and now he doesn’t keep everything looking nice. Me? I’d sooner move from the neighborhood than deal with this guy.”
Marcelo made a good point in his rant. I was understanding something about the general flow of the Queens population. The largest flux in diversity is definitely in Flushing, but the flux is so great that property in Flushing is becoming more expensive quickly. This is causing many of the people that are around the neighborhood to move where it’s cheaper. Enter: College Point. This quaint, family neighborhood has been slowly dying since factories started moving out of the city. With the neighborhood getting older and quieter, a lot of property went up for grabs at cheap price. It can be generalized that the people now moving into College Point are barely making ends meet, fiscally that is, which leaves their property in a state of disrepair. This changing dynamic can only be described as a sort of reverse gentrification, where the neighborhood is becoming less valuable and the state of the infrastructure is deteriorating. Unfortunately, the direction the neighborhood dynamic is going is not positive.
After talking with Marcelo, my Mom and I continued to drive around the neighborhood, getting our last good looks around. She showed me the church where her and my dad were married. She showed me where one of the oldest buildings once stood, only to find a new apartment, already in shambles, in its place. She showed me the funeral home that took care of my grandma and aunt’s funeral arrangements. The entire parlor had changed hands and become an Asian-centric funeral parlor. What John and Marcelo had told us was visible as daylight. The population of the neighborhood really switched. The once German run neighborhood had become an Asian-centric neighborhood with various minorities making the run down neighborhood their new home.
It’s upsetting to see what the neighborhood looks like with new eyes like mine. I cannot hold any one group of people to blame for its current state of disrepair, nor should there be blame put on anyone for the state of the neighborhood. Though what is apparent is the neighborhood needs revitalization. More small, independent businesses need to run College Point. The Empire Market and Coppola’s are two great examples of small independent business that bring life into the neighborhood. The Empire Market has been thriving for over three generations. People build relationships and bonds with one another when there are small businesses in the town. I come from Beacon, a small urban center from upstate New York, where independent business owners run the town. College Point used to be run like this as well. It’s a mystery why this aspect of the neighborhood changed and turned into commercial businesses.
In the car heading back upstate, my Mom kept reliving old memories with a couple of “Oh my goodness”s here and a few “I can’t believe it”s there. To someone that used to live in this neighborhood during its prime, I can understand why she was so upset with the direction the place has turned. There is a sort of reverse gentrification happening in the neighborhood, where the property is cheap enough to house those being displaced by normal gentrification. However, the people cannot maintain their property and uphold the neighborhood as it used to be run with mass factories and small businesses. Perhaps this is but a sign that is calling for a revitalization. More small business owners need to take advantage of the lower property costs and open up show again. It is a start, but anything seems better than leaving the neighborhood as it is in its current state.
The last few things John said to us that day really resounded with me. They went something along the lines of, “I’m not going anywhere. This is my passion and I love this neighborhood. I grew up here! Your mom grew up here! We know what this place used to look like. It would be a shame if no one cared about making this place look good again. It doesn’t matter if it’s White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Jewish, Indian, whatever! No one here has pride in the neighborhood anymore. I really hope that we can change that.”
