Talk:Flushing, Queens

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[edit] larger than mahattan's chinatown

Yes it's larger than manhattan's chinatown.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16885790&BRD=2731&PAG=461&dept_id=574902&rfi=6

quote from ny State Comptroller

"Hevesi added that the Chinese population of Flushing now exceeds that of Manhattan’s Chinatown"

[edit] Naming

Why is Flushing at Flushing, New York and Jamaica at Jamaica, Queens? john k 00:36, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The Queens neighborhood entries seem rather inconsistent that way. Someone better versed with moving stuff should probably fix this. I'd vote for all Foo, Queens. --Elijah 23:25, 2004 Dec 8 (UTC)

Along the lines of the previous comment, should this article be merged with Fresh Meadows Queens New York? - Jtalledo 19:32, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I wouldn't suggest merging them. Traditionally Fresh Meadows would fall under the Flushing post office branch (see under Queens), but it legitimately a different neighborhood with a different character. --Elijah 23:25, 2004 Dec 8 (UTC)

I too vote against merging the above-mentioned articles. Flushing, Jamaica, Corona, Fresh Meadows, etc. are indubitably distinct.

Since town names have more significance in Queens, primarily due to the fact that all Queens neighborhoods were infact independent towns for the majority of their existence. People in Nassau county don't refer to Great Neck, North Hempstead, they refer to Great Neck, NY. The idea is exactly the same to list Flushing, NY as Flushing, Queens. --24.215.137.129 10:09, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Chinese population

l find it very difficult to believe that Flushing has the largest Chinese population in the U.S. Lets look at...

San Francisco, California - 19.6% (152,620)

Honolulu, Hawaii - 10.7% (39,600)

Oakland, California - 8.0% (31,834)

Daly City, California

Monterey Park, California - 41.2% (24,758)

San Marino, California - 40.6% (5,260)

Alhambra, California - 33.1% (28,437)

  • This is not about the city with the largest Chinese population, this is about the largest Chinatown. Flushing's Chinatown is larger than Lower Manhattan's, which is larger than San Francisco's.--Pharos 13:15, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)


[edit] largest chinatown eh?

what evidence do you have that flushing is the largest chinatown? i have here 2 documents that will disprove your statement. read this. http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/VancouvCan;_ylt=Al4BtEICR04aqtg0BPW9gM5Vt8wF according to this article, flushing doesnt even make the top two, let alone the largest chinatown position. this next article also disproves your statement, meaning that flushing wouldnt even make the top 3. http://www.ameinfo.com/23403.html in any case, im positive that there are other chinatowns that will be larger than flushing, especially in places like viet nam, cambodia, indonesia, malaysia, cambodia, laos, burma, philipines.

[edit] Flushing is the largest.

First, this is not about which city has the most chinese people dispursed throughout. New York's population is significantly larger than San Francisco in that category with 361,500 Chinese residents as of 2000, http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/census/mapsf16.pdf. Second, since Flushing is not a popular tourist destination like Chinatown Manhattan or San Francisco, many people do not know about it and have never visited it, including most non-Chinese New Yorkers. Flushing is much larger geographically than Chinatown, and it contains more Chinese residents. Here is a breakdown of the Chinese population by county for the 2000 Census. http://www.aafny.org/cic/briefs/chinese.pdf. Not included in any data is the amount of undocumented immigrants living in these neighborhoods. It's estimated that Flushing has many more undocumented immigrants than Manhattan. I don't know the estimates on San Francisco, however a person can work in Flushing without speaking any English at all. This is not the case for Manhattan Chinatown or San Francisco, which rely heavily on tourism for revenue. Flushing is filled with markets, restaurants, and stores aimed at the Chinese-American and Korean-American. There is also a line between the Korean section and Chinese section. Having lived in Flushing as a non-Chinese, there were many occasions where I had to have friends translate what I wanted from menus, as many places had no English language menus.

In addition, nowhere does the article say anything at all about Canada or North America or the United States, even (though it is the largest in the United States), only that it is larger than Chinatown in Manhattan, so where is the dispute?


"dont make a claim if you know nothing about san fran or any other chinatown such as vancouver. leave it for people who have actual facts to back up what theyre saying. so far, youve showed a worthless stat listing the breakdown of the 5 boros of new york, showing nothing specific about flushing or flushing's chinese population. thats great that you have queens' chinese population but queens does not equal flushing. you are making a claim about flushing, dont show us queens stats. i dont know what the point of you bringing up undocumented chinese was. you think new york is the only place with undocumented chinese? you really need to get out of new york at least once in your life."

Please post a new reply, instead of editing mine. If you read the second paragraph before starting a fight, you would have your answer. San Fran was only brought up to address the previous posters. Who cares about Vancouver? Certainly not the article that is "disputed" here? If we're talking about world cities, the largest is certainly some city in China. The article doesn't even talk about San Fran, so there really should be no dispute unless you're arguing for chinatown manhattan. "The Chinese community in Flushing is in fact now the largest in the New York metropolitan area, having surpassed Manhattan Chinatown several years ago." This is the disputed sentence, yet not one argument disputes it. They all raise San Fran, other Cali towns, and Vancouver arguments. If those are in the NY Metro area then the Metro area is a lot bigger than it used to be.

BTW, i was born in Mississippi, raised in Texas, and lived in Mexico and Venezuela prior to moving to NY, so i've hardly been in NY all my life. Go back to Vancouver. This thread doesn't concern canadians. See how we can make generalizations about where people are from? Nobody said New York is the only place with undocumented Chinese. I only said Flushing has more than Chinatown Manhattan. Incidentally, I worked for the Census 2000 in New York and that was a larger issue in Flushing than Chinatown as Flushing is geographically much larger than Chinatown Manhattan. The only way to make an argument for Manhattan over Flushing is by narrowing what is Flushing to just downtown Flushing, though there may be more Chinese in downtown Flushing alone than Chinatown Manhattan. Buildings that carry a Flushing address take up an area about 2/3 the size of all of Manhattan. Do you care to make an argument for Chinatown Manhattan, or perhaps Brooklyn or are we in agreement that Flushing is bigger?

[edit] Really?

The Chinese community in Flushing is in fact now the largest in the New York metropolitan area, having surpassed Manhattan Chinatown several years ago(disputed — see talk page).

Have there actually been studies done to quantify and qualify the largest Chinatown in the United States or was this sentence subjectively written by some overproud New Yorkers?

Actually, the claim made was that Flushing is the largest Chinatown in the New York metro area.

[edit] Re: Really?

There is no such thing as an "overproud" New Yorker.

Why so skeptic? None of you seems to be comparing the same thing. You can't compare San Francisco City with the neiborhood of Flushing. One is a city, the other is part of county which is part of a city. You should consider that there are 3 Chinatowns in NY City. How many are there in SF City?

Do you have a problem with Flushing being the largest 'Chinatown' in NYC or United States? Also Flushing Chinatown is not just Flushing. Many Chinese living in Whitestone, Bayside, College Point and other surrounding areas also consider themselves part of the Flushing Chinatown community. Oh yea, Flushing also serves the Long Island residents.

"youve showed a worthless stat listing the breakdown of the 5 boros of new york" If you mention Chinatown and you think of Manhattan, then when Flushing is mentioned, you need to think of Queens so that stat is perfectly valid. Read a Chinese news paper, check out where business are located. Maybe you'll get an idea how big Flushing Chinatown really is.
Chinatown is for tourists. Flushing is for the Chinese.

[edit] Flushing HS and dispute

There's nothing to be disputed. It's designated as a historic site by NYC. It even says so on one of the facades of the Northern Blvd. entrances. Obviously, someone here doesn't live in Flushing.


[edit] General

I don't like the way this article comes together. Statements like "This is due to the necessary clean up of several impoverished areas in the neighborhood", "There are also Hispanic American, African American, Southeast Asian and Filipino American communities in the surrounding buildings and public housing establishments around the downtown Flushing area.", and "This violence mostly occurs in the public housing projects (Bland Houses) or in section 8 housing throughout the neighborhood" seem a bit prejudicial and could be reworded or condensed to get the same point across, which I think can be summarized by the word "diversity". Similarly, the sentence "It's also called Little China/Korea/India/Philippines by residents in south Flushing (after the Long Island Expressway/Horace Harding Expressway to Main Street and Queens Boulevard" seems out-of-place and unnecessary. This part here "Downtown Flushing is affectionately called "Blade Runner meets Charles Dickens" due to the dense crowding and neon lights around Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue" is ridiculous.. I've never heard that and while I'm sure it's spoken, it seems like an "insider" type of comment and unnecessary in this context.

Agreed.

[edit] Parks and memorials

It would be nice to see a listing of parks and memorials. --evrik 21:09, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Local Politicians

For some reason, people put two current local politicans under the "people of note" who live in Flushing section. I took issue with that and revised the page to exclude them. Minor politicans who may or may not have any lasting impact on the town should be left off. I have a feeling partisans and/or the politicians staff are the ones responsible for putting those names in.

[edit] Claims of violence?

There has been some street violence in the area recently, including several gang-related stabbings, as well as shootings in the Downtown Flushing area. This violence mostly occurs in the public housing projects (Bland Houses) or in section 8 housing[citation needed] throughout the neighborhood as well as areas near by. In 2000, five workers were shot to death after closing in a Wendy's restaurant on Main Street.

I recall the Wendy's incident, but what of the other claims? It's funny to read when you consider this sentence comes after it:

The crime rate in Flushing has dropped significantly since the 1990's, mirroring the city-wide decrease in crime.

And the next sentence:

Immigrants from El Salvador have found homes and apartments along Northern Boulevard from 147st on the east to 153rd st on the west. They have found work mostly in Construction. The gang known as Ms13 is also a big problem in the community, rivaling with other gangs such as the Zulu Nation, Bloods, Crips, Folk nation, Latin kings and other street gangs in the area.

I can agree with the rise of immigrants, but where's the indication that most of them are Honduran? What about the gang-crime claims? If unverified information is posted on Wikipedia, shouldn't it be taken down before it can?

[edit] wtf

Flushing is a major transportation hub with major air, rail, and bus links located within a half-mile (800 m) radius of downtown.

see underline --Voidvector 14:27, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Flushing is a major transportation hub with major air, rail and bus links within a half-mile of downtown _____________? The Q 48 on roosevelt avenue takes you to La Guardia airport. Maybe someone can rephrase or make this unobscure.

[edit] Flushing's nicknames

Im from Flushing and I refer to Flushing either as Flushing, Flushing City, Flushtown or where I live Flushing Heights, but I have never heard anyone say Forbidden city. Can any one verify "Forbidden City?

[edit] Building projects in Flushing

Building projects in Flushing:

[edit] My Changes

I have made a number major changes to this article within the past month.

  • Sort bullets in History section into sentences
  • Split crime part of the History section into its own section
  • Divide history section into 3 major periods/subsections
  • Merge some of the Interesting Facts into History sections
  • Split the intro paragraph and created the Demographics section from it.

If any of you see any of above changes as unfit, feel free to voice your concerns. --Voidvector 22:03, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Boundaries

Flushing is bounded by willets point boulevard on the north jewel avenue to the south francis lewis boulevard to the east and shea stadium to the west.

[edit] Population

"while the total population has increased to 54,488". If the boundaries above are correct then flushing population has to be well above 100,000 if not 150,000. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.202.106.183 (talk • contribs)

I wrote that whole paragraph based on this research paper, no clue what its boundaries are. --Voidvector 21:42, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
Like the four other original townships of Queens County, Town of Flushing contained a village of the same name. As in the case of Hempstead, Jamaica etc, population figures are meaningless if you don't know whether they refer to the village, the township, or some more modern designated territory. Jim.henderson 10:11, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
If you downloaded the research paper, you can find the numbers in Table 1 on page 6 of the PDF (page 63 of the journal). It says in the footnote, "Source: Census of Population and Housing: Census Tracts, 1970, 1980, 1990." Census Tracts is a geographic unit used by the US Census, in Queens they each contain about a few thousand residents. The paper failed to mention the selection of tracts used. Here is author's bio page, if you want to email him and ask. --Voidvector 17:46, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wendy's massacre

Since the crime section has been removed, I have reinstated Wendy's massacre in the history. There has been some concern over its noteworthiness, so I am going to bring it up here. It is something that stands out from most other crimes that happened in Flushing. It received national media coverage that day. Lots of TV news vans came to Flushing lined up alone Main St. If this is not mentioned, I believe the sentence about British Pavilion bomb at World's Fair should also be removed. --Voidvector 09:14, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

If you can write it up in a way that emphasizes that it was unusual for Flushing (with references), that's fine with me.--Gilabrand 09:18, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Residents

Regarding edits by Gilabrand, It says "Notable current and former residents", not someone who was born in Flushing. Example: Lewis Latimer lived in Flushing [5]. Note sure about all the other ones you removed, but this one I know off my head. Also Flushing is not called a "city" since it is part of "New York City". --Voidvector 11:45, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

I grew up in Flushing, and I know that it's a city. You can check it on any official Flushing site. It was incorporated as a village in 1877 and declared a city in 1964. So yes, it's a city in New York City! Before removing these names from the list of Flushing residents, I checked their bios. If you have no source to show they live in Flushing, they don't belong on the list. This list is inflated way beyond acceptable proportions, and hence aroused my suspicion. It is highly unlikely that many of the people who are still on the list actually lived there. I left a few who had some connection with Queens - but Queens is not necessarily Flushing. Anyway, this is an encyclopedia - so if you can prove it, OK. Otherwise, it will be deleted. --Gilabrand 12:40, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
Not sure what official site you talking about that refers to flushing as "city". --Voidvector 02:11, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
Have a look at the website of the Flushing City Council http://www.flushingcity.com/City_Council.html--Gilabrand 04:39, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
Sorry about that. I guess I didn't look closely enough. My Enyclopedia Britannica (1977), vol. IV, p. 200, has an entry on Flushing that reads: Flushing, zoned city, northern section of the borough of Queens, New York City. When I lived in Flushing from 1960-1971, it was always referred to as the "city of Flushing," and my father was on the city council. Maybe things have changed. I guess it's been a while.--Gilabrand 06:29, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Violence

WENDYS MASSACRE IS NOT GANG RELATED. It was a boched robbery. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.23.241.208 (talk) 20:51, 10 April 2008 (UTC)


[edit] 1970's - present

When did flushing become a major urban area for Queens? What race / ethnicity lived there and just any modern history anyone can add? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.202.86.91 (talk) 22:35, 1 June 2008 (UTC)