Another possibility arose in a nice walk-up building on 35th Street. Two one-bedrooms were available on the top floor. One, for $1,700, was small and dark. The other, for $1,900, was big and bright, with a pretty tree outside the living-room window.A Touch of Europe in Astoria, Queens
“I was kind of sold the moment I walked in” to the bigger apartment, Ms. Slattery said. The landlady “told me all about the best delis and the best bakeries, and we hit it off instantly. She was very kind and friendly, and I was very relieved she didn’t want a lot of the things I heard every landlord in New York asks for.” (She was prepared with tax returns in Czech and bank statements in Hebrew, but “I looked at this stack of stuff and thought nobody was going to take us seriously,” she said.)
By now, Ms. Slattery had discovered the Bedbug Registry (bedbugregistry.com), a privately run site that tracks infestations. She went there to check out the address. It came up clean.
She even got a bonus — organ music from the nearby Church of the Most Precious Blood. “They play actual melodies,” Ms. Slattery said. “The first time I heard it, I was so caught off guard by these chimes playing ‘Ave Maria’ that I almost cried. On the weekends there is a whole spectacular chime show. It is very much like living in Europe.”
10 comments:
Some might milign Astoria, but there is still life in the old girl!
Speaks hebrew.Bought furniture from Ikea in Redhook and trucked it all the way back to Astoria.Must real poor.Why dont you buy furniture in Manhattan and bring it to Hunters point.Oh yeah, self absorbed yuppies probably do that.Maybe that extra bloomie million population will come sooner than we thought.Make it as crowded as Brazil because they have plenty of gangs,pollution, and lovely overcrowding.
Quit your friggin crying and go back to Europe. Dopey women.
Enjoy Precious Blood while you can. With Father Latona gone, a rare voice against development, they are going to build in that parking lot soon and with the school losing population, fun stuff in line there, too.
With the rapidly growing hispanic population, the parish is making a big drive for them.
Which is making everyone else (and their donar base) move.
Ten fifteen years they will we a tweeder facility with all sorts of speccial needs poeple milling around.
See Astoria Presbyterian on other threads to get the picture of churches in western Queens.
A touch of Europe, but this aint the 80s: its bascially Arab and Latino (with an aging Greek, Croat, and Italian population).
Wait till she has to deal with the shady Broadway clubs around the corner.
And her landlad joins hords of others and becomes absentee.
Then the fun begins.
WTF
There are tons of furniture stores around the corner on Steinway Street.
Right next to the newest local shopping sensation, El Mundo Discount, which screams SLUM right out of the subway entrance.
So you don't want to decorate in South Bronx Revival, or Latino Bordello?
Can't beat the freight, tho.
"Quit your friggin crying and go back to Europe. Dopey women."
She wasnt complaining.... She was talking about how great the neighborhood was.
I might be making the move from Astoria to Prague soon
Even I like Precious Blood's "Ave Maria".
But, how long before the Islamic muezzin's call wafting through the Queens ether?
Astoria is not what it was 20 or 15 years ago. the majority id now the hispanic, arab, and indian population. 1993, 1994 we used to enjoy Cafe Omonia or Uncle George and it was still a pleasant shopping experience on Steinway St. Hate what Astoria and Sunnyside Queens have become and decided to do like many before me and scoot out.
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