From the Times Ledger:State Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) has taken the first step toward addressing an issue that has faced the Flushing community for many years: signage.
Anyone who has walked through the neighborhood’s bustling commercial district can attest to the fact that there are a number of different languages heavily represented on businesses’ signs, awnings and other written postings.
From the Korean-owned shops on Union Street to the Chinese-owned corridors of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue, signs are often written only in the native language of the store owner or with the English translation insufficiently sized or oddly placed.
So Meng is in the process of recruiting members for an advisory board to look into ways to fix this problem without placing a large financial burden on small business owners.
“We want to achieve results in a way that doesn’t hurt our small businesses,” she said. “For a business that is struggling — to take down an awning, that’s thousands of dollars. But we also don’t want them to just put a paper sign up. We want to find a compromise.”
Meng said she understands those business owners’ concerns but sympathizes with all concerned parties.
She also feels the pain of Flushing residents who cannot read signs in other languages.
I see awnings with patches containing revised info on them all the time.
47 comments:
Engrish?
Smoke and mirrors.. do we really think she gives a shit or does she really just care about the non-asian vote here?
Lets be realistic.. politicians don't do anything unless there is self benefit in it.
She's probably planning to run against Koo next time around.
Que Ingles?
Welcome to Flooshing. May I see your passport please?
Ever hear of the Tower of Babel?
Yes, by all means, let's turn ourselves into Québec.
'Ridgewoodian said...
Yes, by all means, let's turn ourselves into Québec."
Exactly. That whole Francophone movement of the seventies is responsive for killing off Montreal as the cultural capitol and handing that title to Toronto.
Anyone who remembers Chinatown or some parts of Brooklyn as far back as the sixties knows that signage was always an issue in those strongly ethnic neighborhoods.
This can be fixed with simple regulations requiring a certain percentage of sign area be in English.
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Make English the only language - we speak English as the official language, compliance will quickly follow.
New York had neighborhoods that only spoke Italian, Hebrew, German, etc. These neighborhoods are dominantly english now. And Asian children are learning English and kicking American born kids asses in schools.
We're talking about store signs, not what language is spoken by the residents.
who cares what the signs say?
if the owner doesnt want to address the english speaking audience that is their issue
Sure it will; after full assimilation occurs decades now. Recall the photographs of the lower east side in the 1900s with all of the signs in hebrew. Once the resident ethnic group makes money and moves to burbs, the next group moves in!
It's also a safety issue.
We are involved in doing a 'Then and Now' book where you take a picture from say, 100 years ago and compare it to today.
It goes without saying that even tenements then had more style then 'luxury' housing today, and landscapes are more cluttered with hulking SUVS, mounds of dead couches, wires and signs (bad) and trees (good) but the thing that struck us was signage.
Up until WWII stores looked sleek with either neon signs or simple roll down canvas awnings.
Today, the clutter of signage, from happy colors, to awnings, stupid intrusive flags and pennants, to lettering that is screaming in your face is a visual nightmare. Funny you don't see much of this in Manhattan.
Rather than wasting time trying to prettify development, the Arts Commission should look into this.
Its low class. Its third world. It makes Queens look like a shithole.
The previous poster's refreshing take is like a breath of fresh air.
It is amazing what you can do or say if you are not involved in tweeding.
Sure it will; after full assimilation occurs decades now. Recall the photographs of the lower east side in the 1900s with all of the signs in hebrew. Once the resident ethnic group makes money and moves to burbs, the next group moves in!
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Sure, lets stay in one place or even go back in time while the rest of the world marches forward.
Must be one of those old Democrats from eastern Queens that still gets all teary eyed thinking of mama and papa back in the Lower East Side everytime they see a 8 members of a Mexican family slowly stroll down a sidewalk, or an East Asian making odd snorting noises before spitting on a sidewalk, or smelling Indian cooking three buildings away in the middle of winter, or a batch of Reggea punks blasting their, um, music as you walk by them on the way to work.
Grace is full of crap!
Both she and her father, Jimmy Meng, had YEARS to address this problem!
Why the sudden concern?
Are the "Occidentals" shunning "Oriental" businesses?
Can't these Asian emporiums make it on their own based solely on the trade of their people?
H-m-m-m...we guess not.
During the past 10 years or so, many community civic groups and organizations offered to help Asian businesses with signage problems but were told to mind their own business.
"You're anti Asian" was the epithets hurled at these good Samaritans!
So f--k you Grace!
Now these businesses, who are obviously losing money, can go bankrupt on their own.
Who cares now? Not I!
I've taken my trade elsewhere years ago.
Yes, this unsafe & divisive signage problem should have been corrected years ago, before it became so out of control... BUT better late than never! And Grace Meng may have better traction resolving this issue, since she is an American born Asian, so past allegations of racism will not apply. I think this is an encouraging development. I too have taken my business elsewhere in the last few years, but I would embrace being able to shop at more welcoming establishments closer to my home.
but I would embrace being able to shop at more welcoming establishments closer to my home.
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Don't count on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Grace Meng is hot!
Remeber Julia Harrison? She tried to get the people to make the signs in English, as well as in Korean and she was labeled a racist. When immigrants come here, they do whatever they want. This is a free country. They get everything for free and they do as they want. Interesting how they come from poor countries, yet have the money to open a business.
Julia Harrison supported Grace Meng in the last election, so this might be the way that Grace is paying her back.
How is this in any way a "safety issue"?
Emergency services respond to street addresses
How is this in any way a "safety issue"?
It also helps to know the type of business.
Immigrants don't have to post signs in English. If we don't know how to read their languages,that's too bad for us. Our government translates all government forms, at taxpayer expense, in their language,even at the election polls, so there is no need for them to speak or learn English or post their signs in English. How about saving a ton of money by stopping this translation and making them learn our language? After all, they are in OUR COUNTRY.
Asiatic signage indicates..."Round eyes need not shop here".
SO WE'RE NOT!
Who needs crappy Asiatic goods (Chinese lead painted childs' toys, etc).
BUY AMERICAN WHEN YOU CAN!
FYI:
Did you know that Mc Donald's kiddies' apple juice (boxes) is made from frozen concentrate...some of which come from China?
Start reading labels folks!
Check out where your seafood comes from too.
I found that a lot of Tilapia fish comes from...you guessed it...China!
After all, they are in OUR COUNTRY.
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That means nothing. Afterall, YOU voted the tweeders into office. They run the country to benefit themselves, not you. And if it means taking your taxes from your family and using it to benefit people that do not help you, its your problem, not theirs.
And as you handed government to them on a silver platter there is not a hell of a lot you can do about it.
So go back to American Idol and stop complaining.
Dipshit....
i go to classes down on main street and i cannot read any signs and have no clue what the hell they sell or what their service is. we are in America people, so learn English and post signs in English.. i remember when Main street was a nice place to shop now it smells of fish and the funny thing is the store is a fruit store..?? go figure that one out.
it smells of fish and the funny thing is the store is a fruit store..??
Are you sure the smell is fish? Maybe Claire was in there right before you entered!!?!!?!!?!
Are you sure the smell is fish? Maybe Claire was in there right before you entered!!?!!?!!?!
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why oh why do we have to personally attack people here? there is enough of their record to throw in their face.
i know, democracy is a messy affair.
The motive here is to somehow encourage store owners to put signs in English. Then white hipsters will move into Flushing and start gentrification.
Interesting how they come from poor countries, yet have the money to open a business.--------
SBA loan, money laundering, coercing unpaid labor from every member of the family from age 6 to 90.
why oh why do we have to personally attack people here? there is enough of their record to throw in their face.
Don't like it? Go elsewhere! We need to De-Claire Flushing! They're throwing her a benefit to pay for fines she accrued illegally. She's fair game. The only flaw in the comment that I see is that she smells more like shit than fish!
The ballots are written in 20 different languages. THAT figures.
lol @ white rage
I love racism couched in the guise of "safety hazards."
lol @ white rage, indeed.
Stinky fish head smells?
Who left the windows in the Chinese whore house open?
Who left the windows in the Chinese whore house open?
I told Mom to be more careful!
White rage? Next to Asians, the biggest ethnic group is blacks.
In downtown Flushing, that is. Robert Moses tried to get them out, so did Donald Manes. They're still there.
English signs? That's about as current or as rational as a movement to keep the Jets football team in Queens. This is 2010, not 1980.
It's not current or rational to have signs in English so as not to discriminate against the people who were born and raised in this country? If I have to pay to have everything translated into their languages, they can show me the same courtesy.
People have created the look of a lower-class slummy shopping district just like they knew in China because (a) they want to, (b) it was relatively cheap to do, and (c) they think it's good for their business. After 30 or 40 years of looking like crap, only people over 50 have a living memory of what Flushing once looked like. The current shop owners and residents don't give a crap for the nostalgia the old white folks have for the Flushing of their childhood. Get a grip on reality, people.
Has nothing to do with nostalgia. It has to do with having a shopping district in an accessible transportation hub that only caters to a certain segment of society instead of everyone. Also has to do with the fact that operating 10 businesses out of one address, with no signs in English is going to end in a fatality sooner or later.
Get a grip on reality, people.
You mean like the overcrowded streets with people pushing and shoving you all over the place? Or the slimy spit that you can't help but step in? Or seeing people (men, women, and children) peeing and defacating on the street? Or the nasty smells coming out of restaurants...and I use that term loosely? Or being ignored and treated as a nonperson in most Main Street establishments? Yeah, you're right. Why think about the past? We've been sold down the river. And speaking of rivers, have ya had a sniff of the Flushing River lately? At least some things don't change.
If they don't want more business by being more inclusive why give it to them? Let them keep their chinese/koreans signs. Give your money to people that actually care!!! Why bother...
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