"My ancestor first came to Queens in the early 1600's as an indentured servant, hoping for a better life. Generations have worked its soil on small farms. Family members have left to go to war from Queens, some never to return. Others have survived circumstances like the Great Depression. One was the sheriff of a small Queens town before there was an NYPD, and others were volunteer firemen before there was a FDNY. Still other family members have served the city well as bus drivers and token clerks. All have been homeowners and proud to be living here. But we have always been middle class, and because of that we can no longer afford to live in Queens. It seems vultures have tightened their circle over my house. The city tow truck driver visits my block in the wee hours of the morning hoping to find an expired registration sticker. Every day two traffic agent cars wait two blocks away for the clock to strike eleven and race to give tickets to those unfortunate to have forgotten to move their cars for alternate side of the street parking. The sanitation police make their rounds waiting for a piece of garbage to blow within fifteen feet of my property. The cops wait on the train station for people to spit so they can give out a ticket. And the patrol cars go up and down Northern Blvd., stopping cars to give out tickets. Middle class, a blessing and a curse? Too well off to humbly ask for assistance, too poor to be able to weather this storm and pay higher prices and taxes. Where did we go wrong? Maybe we should have divided up our house and rented it illegally like most of the other houses have done on my block. That seems to be the only thing you can get away with these days. Like my ancestors, I too have taken pride in working the soil. I have enjoyed working in my small garden for over forty years. I like to feel the soil in my hands, and reap its harvest. But it is this garden that I must now leave because I can no longer afford to live here in Queens. A very sad farewell.
Denise
35 comments:
I hope she comes down to Kentucky.
So you are moving out of Queens because you are afraid to get a ticket for violating one of the city's many laws and ordinances, that are meant to improve the quality of life here - moving cars so streets can be cleaned, not spitting in public.
Seems like a crappy reason to me.
Denise,
Your story is so sad and so common.
If you could please just wait a few more months until we can dump this Commissar whose only happiness is in causing grief to others.
The longest you have to wait is 5 months - November 3.
If we all work hard, we will be rid of this sociopath on September 15, just 3 months.
Then we will all start taking back control over our lives, the welfare of our family, our property, job, neighborhood and the City.
If we don't vote this crazed predator out of our lives, we can kiss off any control of our own lives.
Denise, just wait a little while - please?
Oh cry me a river. There are plenty of neighborhoods in Queens that are affordable for middle class incomes. Especially now that real estate prices have come down! To say otherwise is an insult to those neighborhoods.
Sounds like she is trying to blame others for her problems.
Taxpayer - where is your comment about the Bob Holden article glorifying McMansions?
- A Bigger Taxpayer
Oh cry me a river. There are plenty of neighborhoods in Queens that are affordable for middle class incomes. Especially now that real estate prices have come down! To say otherwise is an insult to those neighborhoods.
Sounds like she is trying to blame others for her problems.
DITTO!
If your family came her in the 1600s, then you are the scion of tough kickass plain spoken types who could either debate issues, or create things, with the best of them.
NYC, especially in this time, should bring out these latent genes in force.
Could not think of a better place.
The stuff you talk about is pettyass. Crap that would have been beneath their radar.
I hear you, Denise! I have lived here over 30 years and life here in Queens has gotten crazy. You are right about the vicious ticketing - by nypd, traffic, sanitation, etc. It seems that if you are not a friend of the mayor, you are in fear of the city cracking down on hardworking people during bad economic times.
Seems to me as if there is a certain constituent of these web pages that would like to avoid paying for public services while at the same time expecting that things would be like they were "before" -- Nostalgia for bygone eras typically allows one to pick and choose. Well, you can't. Good luck & godspeed...
Well, right here on the yupper est side a block from central park (low 80s) the brownies (now w/blue unis) the garbage police and tow operators -all- do the same things. All that has happened is that your nabe has caught up with the rest of this Shylock-ed city.
As for the subdivided homes...please..people like you would be crying "property rights!!!" -if they were too heavily cracked down upon.
We -all- live under the same laws. You want the wild west..go to Montana.
Lino
Taxes pay for services. When we count on revenue from ticket blitzes to pay for them it means we are in deep crap.
Ha! Parking tickets! Get rid of your car. A car is super luxurious in Queens.
I don't blame anyone for leaving but I hope those who stay actually fight the good fight for what we have. Lets vote out the useless Politicians we have and vote for ones that actually work for the middle class and not for the developers!
First Palin, then Denise.
When the going gets tough...
Ouch! Talk about being crapped on! Go ahead, I can take it. It's my letter, so I can :cry me a river" if I want to.
Denise
Good choice Denise...
Left 35 years ago and have no regrets. Everything I've read here and followed in the news of NYC tells me I made a good choice.
The city I left is not the NYC of today. And you know what, the grass really is greener sometimes.
I was astonished by the number of rules and regulations in Queens when I moved here 3 years ago. The garbage thing is a racket. People who want to dump something questionable can just walk it down the street and let someone else get the ticket. I don't have a car, but if I had to move it four days a week, sheesh. Queens is not user-friendly. Some readers have apparently gotten used to it, but it is a shock to someone from out of town.
This winter, they plowed the street and the snow froze. People could not move their the next day. Then they came by and handed out tickets.
Answers:
ANON #1 I am moving to North Carolina.
ANON#2 No, I am not moving out of Queens because I am afraid of violating the city's ordinances. I guess I feel that the city is in need of money and will keep finding ways to get it at the citizens expense, whether it be by way of increased taxes, more tickets or violations. I am moving out because with the price of everything going up, I simply can't afford to live here anymore.
ANON #3. I live in Flushing, and yes there are other neighborhoods I could move to. But if I am going to sell my house and pack up 55 years worth of stuff, just to move to another Queens neighborhood, that I still might not be able to afford, is not worth it. Even if it does mean staying in Queens.
To HELL GATE KID: You are right, I should be made of stronger stuff, and not worry about petty things. I guess I am old and tired of struggling.
ANNON #10 Ok now being lumped together with Palin, now that really does hurt!
Anyone else care to comment?
Denise
Smaller Taxpayer said:
"Taxpayer - where is your comment about the Bob Holden article glorifying McMansions?"
- - -
You just cannot get that attention span thing under control, eh?
The post is only about a woman who is saturated in cheesy tickets and fines, and is planning to leave the city.
She said nothing about Bob Holden or no-neck Como's house of violations.
Denise-
Hate to see you leave but I wish you and your family luck in NC. It is a beautiful state and less stressful than Flushing has become. Many people from this area have moved there already. The shame of it is that I have been in the same coop apartment since the early 1950's and the new neighbors could care less about those who came before them. It is one thing to live as a community but now it seems as though the divisions are causing racial tensions. I have not discriminated against anyone but boy do I feel like a stranger in a strange land. Once again, good luck and godspeed. Sorry to see you go.
Many of Queens' colonial families left long ago. The Rapelyes took a ride, the Brinkerhoffs booted themselves, and now Denise is done with Queens.
Quitter!
Denise,
You are looking for 1965.
You will not find it.
Even NC has some serious problems.
Wow Crappy, did you ever think by posting my letter it would get so much feed back!
lived in queens all my 53 years - never got a sanitation ticket or anything other than parking tickets for - well - parking illegally!
She's not quitting, just attacking in another direction. Just pass the basket ball and please leave the court already. Stop 'pulling a Palin' on us already.
how is she quiting?
I dont see her saying she leaving cause of the tickets, she is being taxed out of living here, property tax, water tax and all the other bills that go into owning a house, and to see the people around her build houses that will hold more famlies then the area is zoned for and the building being build around loop holes.
The city is looking for money, and they look atthe middle class to get it. Bus fairs going up, bridge toils, food.
it is sad around
Denise the Diva,
I saw a "no whining zone" sign last time I drove into NYC.
I guess this is a way of culling the weak from the herd.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
"She's not quitting, just attacking in another direction. Just pass the basket ball and please leave the court already. Stop 'pulling a Palin' on us already."
Why are you attacking Denise? She's not the problem and has found a solution that was not an easy one for her to choose. Moving is a HUGE hassle. I think a more important perspective is to realize that her story is one of many of people getting so fed up with what this city is becoming and they are all getting out when the getting is good. Another 4 years of Bloomturd and the floodgates will open even wider. I must admit that I too have thought of being part of the exodus while my home still has some value. Before you put Denise down, think about what lessons are to be learned from her missive. If it's not the ticketing, it is the higher property assesments that yield higher taxes, the increase in the sales tax, the higher utility bills, increased housing costs and on and on...
I call bullshit to your claim that there are plenty of affordable places to live in Queens. On what planet? Or do you think middle class begins with 6 figure incomes?
I have managed to hold on in spite of ceilings flying at my head, no heat, no electricity, memorizing arcane agency names and numbers and becoming personally known to my Assemblyman.
Plenty of humble people cannot scrape up $1,300/month rents for studio apartments while earning salaries that have essentially been unchanged since the 80's.
Do you think this great affordability is why foreclosures are flying through the roof or why the president is tinkering with the value of the American dollar by throwing money at extended unemployment benefits, mortgage rescue plans and buyer tax credits.
Your story is heart rending. God speed and good luck from someone who has been there.
wah, wah, I want everything easy, wah wah, I own my home outright but I still don't want to have to work, wah wah, I hate having to move my car for alternate side of the street parking, wah wah . . .
If you want some cheaper life, fine, but don't blame your environment. There is good and bad with every place. It isn't Queens' fault that you are not happy.
And please stop with this myth that the middle class can't afford a nice life here. I have plenty of friends with middle class incomes that are living very happily in great middle class neighborhoods in Queens. Stop trying to blame your problems on others.
Maybe you folks should define what you think "middle class" is before you start throwing around insults and using childish "wah, wah, wah" comments like you are in 3rd grade. There is such a thing as upper middle class and lower middle class. So it is comprehensible that one could be considered "middle class" but not be able to afford to live here. On a lower middle class salary, many would probably not be able to afford to send their kids to college and would not qualify for financial aid. Not all employers offer health insurance. Salaries have also not kept up with cost of living.
Just because you have it good doesn't mean your next door neighbor does.
For me it is not just economic issues. My neighborhood has become one giant spitoon and stores shutter the doors that face the main street and customers (who come from outside of the area) are encouraged to enter the stores from the parking lot side. English-speaking customers are made to feel like they are more of an annoyance than an asset to the business (supermarket).
Cooking smells in the hallways can be overwhelming and nauseating at times. Neighbors no longer communicate with each other as once was the case. These conditions and others are also to be taken into account when speaking of the exodus from Queens. Before you jump all over the preceding comments, these are the facts of life in my neighborhood and not coming from a racist point of view. If anything, I feel like I have become the victim of racism!
Will the last American-born Caucasian in Queens please turn off the lights?
All these comments are really about Caucasians vs non caucasians, immigrant versus american born, unbelievable since its 2009 people!!! People want to leave Queens because a different color person moved on to the block!! Thats pathetic! God forbid somoeone speak a language other than English, lets pack up and move, some of you should be embarrassed.
Actually, "all these comments" are not really about Caucasian vs. non-Caucasian. Most of them mention the high cost of living and the annoyances that come with more people crowding into what was a comfortable neighborhood. Maybe you need reading comprehension lessons.
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