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| Jackson Heights: The New York neighborhood that is the most diverse place in the world |
Tourists usually head to Central Park or Times Square to see New York City, but there's no better place to feel the spirit of the city and understand how it began than Jackson Heights.
A few months after moving to New York City, I struck up a conversation with a woman from the Borough of Queens. He asked me, 'Where are you from?' I was mentally prepared that I would now have to chat with someone from this area during this trip, 'Okay, It's a bit complicated.'
"I'm half Colombian and half Indian."
He stopped me and said, 'Oh, so you're from Jackson Heights?'
I don't belong there, but I didn't find it weird to say that because it wasn't a bad idea. I soon learned that Jackson Heights, a neighborhood in the northwest corner of Queens, is known for being one of the most diverse places in the world because of its people of different races and nationalities. In one part of it, there's an area called Little Columbia that connects directly to an area called Little India, so this lady had an educated opinion of me and the culture of that part of town. There was also an initial introduction.
Exact numbers are difficult to estimate, but Jackson Heights is believed to be home to approximately 180,000 people who speak at least 160 languages.
On the southern edge of Jackson Heights is Roosevelt Avenue, a major thoroughfare running through the center of Queens. Here, the conversation between passengers does not stop but gets louder, when seven trains pass overhead at one point in this area.
Tibetan phone repair shops, and Latin American bakeries where 'al-mokhawana' or 'al-mujabannah' (a Colombian cheese-filled bread with historical roots in Arab culture) and crispy kachoris are being prepared.
When I visited the area recently, she squealed with delight as she smelled the hot steam from the Latin 'tamales' (an ancient American wide pastry) stove in cold weather. Nearby was a man selling stolen electrical goods, who had the knack of disappearing in sight of any police officer. This scene scares us at first. So many languages, and so many items for sale. But the maddening noise of this place engulfs the visitors.
Like New York City itself, Roosevelt Avenue appears to be a crossroads of intoxicating bustle, cross-cultural mingling, and commerce. The area is usually dirty and not always pretty, but if you know where to look for an item, you'll fall for its charm. In other words, it's an area that embodies the spirit of New York City: a bustling, capitalistic environment that attracts people from all over the world who come here to try to improve their lives and the lives of their children. are
So while tourists may be more likely to see the 'Big Apple', to see Central Park or the Statue of Liberty, to feel the DNA of the city and understand how the neighborhood has evolved. There is no better place to start and what the future of this city could be, than in Jackson Heights.
"I feel like Jackson Heights is the epitome of New York City culture, the city should be the way it is," says Esthi Zipori, who is originally from Israel and moved to the neighborhood seven years ago. '
When she's not teaching urban planning courses to university students, she helps her husband run 'Sandwich Therapy,' which specializes in preparing Israeli-Georgian cuisine inspired by the neighborhood's surroundings.
There's no better place to feel the city's DNA than in Jackson Heights
Zipori has lived in different parts of the city, but in Jackson Heights, she fell in love with her future husband at first sight. "We have such a close-knit community here that consists of immigrants," he said. We feel like we belong here. When I see tourists here, it's usually people who have been to New York before and did the sightseeing, but now they want to see (the real city)."
She's not the only person I've met who feels this way and is proud of Jackson Heights' multiculturalism. “What I love about Jackson Heights is that every street has its own identity,” says Oscar Zamora Flores, a graduate student at Queens College who grew up in Jackson Heights. Some streets or alleys are really cozy with beautiful architecture, and then you get to Roosevelt Avenue, which is just a few blocks away, and these streets and alleys are so winding and winding. Sometimes they are so crowded that you can't even walk.'
I met Zamora Flores in 'Ciba Ciba'. , 'Ciba Ciba' is one of a few dozen Colombian restaurants and bakeries in the area. He said that when I used to live here as a kid, so I used to think about Manhattan getting killed.
'But there was no reason to leave, everything I needed was here.'
From Diversity Plaza, walk east with the crowd to Jackson Heights. There are pedestrian areas near the Roosevelt Avenue subway entrance, and Little India (somewhat of a misnomer because it's home to Tibetans, Nepalese, and Bangla). (an area with equal numbers of natives, Pakistanis, and other groups) further into Little Colombia (an area with immigrants from Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, and Uruguay). And then it blends into the active area of Queens' LGBTQ community, the area around Friends' Tavern, Queens' oldest gay bar.'
"Unlike gay bars in other parts of the city, every night here is Latin night," Zamora Flores said.
It's a natural justice of sorts with Jackson Heights that it can boast a diverse area of people of different ethnicities. According to Jason Antos, executive director of the Queens Historical Society, before the First World War, the area was an uninhabited swampy area called 'Train's Meadow' where people hunted foxes and swans. The land was purchased in 1914 by the Queensboro Corporation of one Edward A. MacDougall. Because the area is close to the city's central business district, Manhattan, the site was purchased with the idea of creating a community where middle- and upper-middle-class white Americans could live in English-style apartments with beautiful courtyards. It was also a nominally 'restricted community', where people of different ethnicities, Jews, and other disadvantaged groups were not allowed to buy property.
White people moved into the neighborhood in large numbers, especially when the IRT subway line (now called the 7 train) was extended into downtown Jackson Heights in the final months of World War I. But MacDougall's concept did not last. After years of resisting and protesting the racially discriminatory laws of the era, New Yorkers were finally able to open up the neighborhood to people of all races after World War II, eventually making it the Jackson Heights of today. Shaped.
Today, visitors to Jackson Heights flock to a seemingly impoverished neighborhood, and its reputation as one of the city's cheap eateries makes sense. Residents here talk about the food streets, stalls, and restaurants with a certain passion that you'll never hear in downtown New York, Manhattan's sports bars, and the Chinese restaurant district. Bridget Bartolini is an oral historian and founder of the Five Borough Story Project, which aims to strengthen community connections through storytelling events. She is originally from elsewhere in Queens but moved to Jackson Heights in 2016. On the street below 34th Avenue, which has been turned into an 'open street' pedestrian zone since Covid-19. I asked her if she ever accepted the neighborhood's diversity as a constraint.
When we went in search of a restaurant serving her favorite Kashmiri tea (Al-Namat Suites and Restaurant), Bridget Bartolini replied: “Absolutely not. That's one of the reasons I love it. This morning I went to a Lebanese restaurant for brunch. There are Bangladeshi food stalls on my street corner and Tibetan momos a few steps away. And it's all very good because actually, people from these countries are making these foods for people from those countries.''
For professional chef Esneider Arvelo, Jackson Heights is a bustling hub of street food vendors and restaurants where he sees the hustle and bustle of cooking more visible than the relatively quiet streets or alleys of the city. will He moved from Columbia to Jackson Heights 34 years ago to support his mother in her retirement. His mother, who gained fame in the neighborhood as the Arpa Lady, started her business as an unlicensed food stands with bricks and cement and then turned it into a restaurant.
"My goal with the foodie tours is to present the diversity of languages, cultures, and religions through different cuisines," Arvelo said. Walking becomes a hobby because of how many cultures we see in a day.
Walking down Roosevelt Avenue I saw stalls representing a dozen different countries. Walk a little farther in any direction, and you'll find dozens more. "When people say New York is the capital of the world, they're talking about this part of New York," Arvelo said.
The fact is that I can ask three different residents of Jackson Heights for food recommendations and eat three different foods. This shows how many types of food are available on these streets. For example, for Mexican food, Zamora Flores told me about Juguelia on 83rd Street., but Orello advised me to go to La Espiga, an area adjacent to the Corona-affected area. Bartolini likes Samudra for South Indian cuisine, while Arvelo likes Fiuska House for Bangladeshi snacks.
When it comes to Colombian food, apart from his family business, Arvelo highly praises the restaurant Mr. Cangrejo, especially for its dishes from Pacific countries.
Yet this area is not just an epitome of New York City because of the cultural diversity of its cuisine, it also reflects New York's rapidly changing lifestyle. In a city that has historically presented itself as a global neighborhood model for people from around the world, rising rent pressures are threatening New York's character. In December 2022, the city was named the world's most expensive city for the first time by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and rapid economic growth and demographic change have led some to fear that it is the 'world's most expensive city'. As the largest 'gated community' (community living inside closed gates) is becoming, areas such as Jackson Heights fear that the recent influx of immigrants will lose its unique multicultural character.
"Every time you step outside you feel the incredible diversity of this neighborhood, and that's why people are losing it now," Bartolini said, pointing to plans for a new 'affordable' housing development. are very concerned because of.'
With dollar signs in his eyes, McDougal once envisioned a perfect community. However, what has now become quite different from his ideal? A multicultural and multi-ethnic specimen of a living, breathing world, an area made up of people from different parts of the world who settled themselves in a haphazard strip of concrete, metal, and brick. Arviello was right that 'this is a glimpse of what the future could be'.
I walk past paths on my routine trip down Roosevelt Avenue, paths I don't know where they will lead me. I feel like with every trip I learn something more about the world and my place in it. I hit wave after wave of scents. Some scents I recognize, and some are not so appealing. I may not belong in this neighborhood, but these scents are what I need sometimes to remind myself why I decided to call New York my city.