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Contents 1 A “REal GOod place to live" 1.1 Praise in the 1980's[1] 1.1.1 Testimonials of Residents in the 1980's 1.1.2 Housing 1.2 Praised Today[5] 1.2.1 The Commute 1.3 Good Education System 1.4 References

A “REal GOod place to live"

Rego Park derived its name as part of an advertising slogan by its developers who called it a “REal GOod place to live”. Although it just started out as a catchy slogan, the motto proved to be very true, especially after the 1980’s.

Praise in the 1980's^[1]

Rego Park was hailed as a great place to live in the New York Times in 1985. In Diana Shaman's article of "If You're Thinking of Living in Rego Park", she writes about the many factors that make Rego Park so great. Among them, she writes about the Rego Park Jewish Center, the Rego Park library with the largest foreign language collection in the city, and Lost Battalion Hall. Anthony H. Atlas, the chairman of the Community Board of Rego Park at the time said, "Good housing, very good public transportation, good schools, good stores, a good place to live." Here is a closer look at some of the many great elements of Rego Park discussed in this article:

Testimonials of Residents in the 1980's

Helen Downing: "If you offered a great many of us any amount of money for our homes, what good would it do, because we don't want to move to another spot."

Domenick Uzzi, principal of the Stephen A. Halsey Junior High School on 102d Street: "We are a United Nations!" He was referring to the polyethnic mix of students in the school.

Residents frequently quote the line coined by a Queens apartment-house developer, "If you lived here, you would be home by now".

Housing

Shaman also goes into the details of the types and quality of housing in Rego Park. She explains that the most common type of house is a three-bedroom frame colonial. There are many attached one-family and two-family brick town houses. There are also larger houses located on the crescent streets, and apartment buildings to the North of Queens Blvd. In the 1980's, a smaller house cost around $180,000 with $800 in taxes, while more sizable Tudor's and brick colonials cost around $300,000 with $1,500 in taxes. This was considered expensive for the 1980's, however there were also co-op apartments, which were a bit cheaper. This range in size and cost of housing allowed for many people to move to Rego Park, and to find a residence that both fit their family size and budget. Although the prices have gone up today, there is still a large range in prices and size.

Praised Today^[5]

Recently, in 2007, Rego Park was once again praised by the New York Times, in Jennifer Bleyer's article, "Yes, There Is a Place Named 'Real Good'". She writes about more factors that make Rego Park a great place to live, with a focus on what the Bukharan community has done for the area. Bukharan's tend to flock to the area so that they can be involved in the tight-knot Bukharan community, and also because the area is safe, with low crime rates. She explains that Rego Park has become a destination for upwardly mobile Bukharan immigrants, who have stabilized the neighborhood. Igor Rafailov, a Bukharan resident has said, "Russian immigrants are buying houses in Rego Park, renovating them in European styles, modernizing them and increasing their property values as well as the neighborhood’s value." Bleyer explains that the Bukharan residents have lessened the difference between Rego Park and its wealthier neighborhood "sister" of Forest Hills. She too, like Bleyer also writes about the range in size and cost of houses and apartments in the area. She also writes about commerce along 63rd Drive. Rego Park Center is located on 63rd Drive and is an enclosed mall, with stores like Marshall's, Circuit City, and Old Navy.

The Commute

Bleyer also writes about the good transportation system in Rego Park and the neighborhood's proximity to Manhattan. She says that some residents consider transportation to be one of Rego Park's best qualities. Subway lines R, V, and G all stop at 63rd Drive Rego Park and at 67th Ave stations. The Subway Lines E and F also stop nearby at the Forest Hills station, which also has 15 minute Long Island Rail Road connections into the city. The Long Island Expressway, Van Wyck Expressway, and Grand Central Parkway, all make the drive into the city an easy one. In general, the transportation system is reliable and fast.

Good Education System

There are a number of good public and private schools in Rego Park, making it an attractive place to live for families with children. In the 1980's, PS 139, an elementary school located at 93-06 63rd Drive, was ranked 33rd out of 621 elementary schools in the city, with 84.1% of students reading at or above grade level, and 90% doing at or above grade level in math!! At this time, students in all 4 elementray schools of Rego Park scored well on city-wide exams. At this time, Forest Hills HS also had a 90% graduation rate!^[8]

One school in particular continues to stand out. That school is PS 139. The principal of the school is Monica Powers-Meade, who was appointed in 2007. PS 139 received a very good rating in its New York City Department of Education Quality Review Report in June 2008. The lead reviewer, Helen Donnellan, didn’t really have anything negative to say about the school. Her overall evaluation was that the school is well developed. In her report, she wrote that the principal is a caring and strong leader, who has improved the systems in gathering data to plan and set goal for students. The students at the school understand what is expected of them, and what they need to do to live up to those expectations. Donnellan quotes a student who said; “The principal tells us we’re the best but teachers talk to us about what we need to do so that we can be.” The teachers at the school are also encouraged to create fun and imaginative curriculums, to stimulate learning. Donnellan also writes about how the staff is devoted to improving their work. The school also performed well in her School quality Criteria Summary. Donnellan examined the school in 5 general areas, each divided into 7 questions, which in total is 35 questions. The possible scores that the school could have received is 1)Underdeveloped, 2)Underdeveloped with proficient features, 3)Proficient, 4)Well Developed, and 5)Outstanding. The school never scored below “Proficient”. From the 35 questions, PS 139 scored “Well Developed” on 26 of them and “Proficient” on 9 of them, giving them the overall score of “Well Developed”^[9].

Click here to see the full report. (Click on Quality Review Report 2007-2008)

The New York City Department of Education is not the only people whoa are satisfied with PS139. The school also scored well in The New York City Department of Education Learning Environment Survey Report of 2007-2008. This report is not based on evaluations from officials from the New York City Department of Education, but rather from the teachers, students, and parents of students from the school. The survey tests four basic areas. They are academic expectations, communication, engagement, and safety and respect. In regard to parent's evaluations of the four areas, if you look at the report you can see that around 50% are very satisfied with the school, and about 50% are satisfied. Only between 1-5% of parents are unsatisfied in any of the four areas, and no parent is very unsatisfied. In regard to teacher's evaluations, 43% strongly agree, and 48% agree that the school makes it a priority to help students find the best ways to achieve their learning goals. Also 45% of teachers agree and 50% strongly agree in regard to communication that they know what the school administration expects of them. In regards to student's evaluations of the school, 23% of students strongly agree and 59% agree that that school helps them to develop challenging academic goals. 39% of students also strongly agree and 48% agree that their teachers inspire them to learn. This survey basically shows that the parents are overall extremely satisfied with the school and that the teachers and students are more than satisfied^[10].

Click here to see the full report. (Click on the first link which is the Learning and Environment Survey Report for 2007-2008).

Performing at or Above Grade Level - 2007

	NYC	Queens	CD6
Math	67%	76%	86%
English	52%	61%	72%

^[12]

CD6 stands for Community District 6 which includes Forest Hills and Rego Park. This chart shows that the students of Rego Park and Forest Hills Public Schools are performing at or above grade levels for math and english, at higher percents than NYC or Queens generally.

References

1. ↑ Shaman, Diana. "If You're Thinking of Living in Rego Park". The New York Times. December 29, 1985. <http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/29/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-rego-park.html?&pagewanted=1>
2. ↑ <http://www.queenslibrary.org/img/branch/400x300/rego_park1.jpg>
3. ↑ Wilkinson, Christina. "Forgotten NY neighborhoods: Crescent City, Rego Park." March 19, 2006. <http://www.forgotten-ny.com/NEIGHBORHOODS/regopark/regopark.html>.
4. ↑ Wilkinson, Christina. "Forgotten NY neighborhoods: Crescent City, Rego Park." March 19, 2006. <http://www.forgotten-ny.com/NEIGHBORHOODS/regopark/regopark.html>.
5. ↑ Bleyer, Jennifer. "Yes, There Is a Place Named 'Real Good'". The New York Times. July 22, 2007. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/realestate/22livi.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print>
6. ↑ <http://www.city-data.com/zips/11374.html>
7. ↑ <http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/5135CAF9-CE42-46F5-ACFF-491B7FB738B9/49297/RPSF5.JPG>
8. ↑ Shaman, Diana. "If You're Thinking of Living in Rego Park". The New York Times. December 29, 1985. <http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/29/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-rego-park.html?&pagewanted=1>
9. ↑ New York City Department of Education Quality Review Report 2007-2008. <http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/28/Q139/AboutUs/Statistics/default.htm>
10. ↑ New York City Department of Education Learning and Environment Survey Report 2007-2008. <http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/28/Q139/AboutUs/Statistics/default.htm>
11. ↑ <http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/5135CAF9-CE42-46F5-ACFF-491B7FB738B9/49345/Mosaic2E.JPG>
12. ↑ Community Snapshot 2007 CD6: Rego Park, Forest Hills. <www.nyc.gov/html/acs/downloads/pdf/cd_snapshots/queens_cd6_regopark_foresthills.pdf>