Flushing Avenue is an approximately five mile street running through northern Brooklyn and west central Queens beginning at the termination of Nassau Street, on the northern fringe of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and ending where it merges with Grand Avenue, in Maspeth. It divides the neighborhood of Southside Williamsburg from Clinton Hill and East Williamsburg from Bushwick. After crossing the Queens border, the avenue serves as the dividing line between Ridgewood, Queens and West Maspeth, and terminates in Maspeth. Despite its name, the avenue does not extend to Flushing.
Flushing Avenue has seen considerable decline since its heyday in the early and mid-20th century. Some sections began to regrow, to varying degrees, at the turn of the 21st century. In 2004, the city began a project to upgrade the water and sewer infrastructure on the western part of the road, and to repave it. The project was completed in 2008. Perhaps this rebuilding will help to speed renewal in those parts that have already been affected, and to bring it about in those that have not.
The B57 bus runs the entire length of the Avenue. There are two New York City Subway stations along Flushing Avenue. The G train stops at Flushing Avenue and Union Avenue. The J and M trains stop at Flushing Avenue and Broadway. The L train also stops nearby at the Jefferson Street station.
The avenue is primarily an industrial thoroughfare, especially on its extreme western end, where, on its northside, it serves the Brooklyn Navy Yard Industrial Park. The industrial park rents to over 200 tenants, primarily distributorships and light manufacturing concerns, though they also rent to a few artists. Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a redevelopment of the yard that would put retail space in the yard's west side and television and film studios the yard's east side. In this district, the south side of Flushing Avenue contains many abandoned business that were supported by sailors and ship workers before the government closed the yard.
Continuing eastward, Flushing Avenue crosses the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE). Here, many motorists hoping to avoid congestion exit the BQE and continue westward to the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. This section of Flushing Avenue, between the BQE and Brooklyn's Broadway, has seen considerable redevelopment over recent years by Williamsburg's Hasidic population, as young urban professionals displace them in the northern end of Williamsburg. The north side of Flushing Avenue in this section is primarily newly constructed residential, whereas the south side is primarily industrial, the most notable exception being the Marcy Houses project. The Flushing Avenue (IND Crosstown Line) subway station is here, at Flushing and Marcy Avenues.
Flushing Avenue forms the south side of the so-called "Broadway Triangle", bounded on the northeast by Broadway and on the west by Union Avenue, whose factories were largely abandoned shortly after the turn of the 21st century. The Triangle was rezoned as "residential" in December, 2009.[1]
The commercial heart of Flushing Avenue is the intersection with Broadway and Graham Avenue, in the extreme southern end of East Williamsburg. This business improvement district is serviced by the JMZ line's Flushing Avenue stop. Here, one can find cheap retail shopping, branches of fast-food chains, and authentic Boricua food. This primarily Puerto Rican and Hasidic area is becoming increasingly populated with students and young professionals looking for cheap rent, cheap shopping, and proximity to lower Manhattan and Northside Williamsburg's nightlife.
Near the intersection with Bushwick Avenue, Flushing Avenue becomes somewhat grittier. To the south is residential Bushwick, and on the north are the massive Bushwick Houses. Where the L Train approaches Flushing Avenue, at Morgan and at Wyckoff Avenue, a community of artists and young professionals has moved into the low-rise lofts that were once abandoned. An effect of this gentrification was the opening of two bar-restaurants, Life Cafe and the Wreck Room, on an adjacent section of Flushing Avenue.
Continuing past Wyckoff Avenue, the avenue crosses into Queens, passes the historic Vander Ende-Onderdonk House Site (formerly in Brooklyn, now Queens), and becomes actively industrial on both sides. Upon entering Maspeth, it is a residential street.
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