Flushing (toilets), Queens

Flushing, Queens in 1930 vs. June 9th 2010 at the Main Street & Roosevelt intersection. See the same white and tan building with the watertower?

The one instantly recognizable building is the Bank of Manhattan building in the center of the photo. According to Wikipedia, the Bank of Manhattan merged with Chase National Bank in 1955 to create Chase Manhattan Bank...

The detail in this photo is incredible....the electric trolley, the policeman on horseback, the wonderful autos...fantastic!

I can only the imagine the shock and horror that the people in the photo might experience if they were magically transported to the present and could see Flushing today. In 1930, after all, the Chinese Exclusion Act was still in force (not repealed for another 13 years), and the idea that Flushing would become a predominantly Asian community would have been unthinkable to the folks in this picture, who no doubt were firmly convinced of the superiority of the Caucasian race. The images in this picture may be charming, but who can deny that some things have changed for the better in the last 77 years?

Flushing has been the core community for many waves of (mostly Asian) immigrants in New York for several decades. When people ask me where in New York I grew up in, I say Flushing even though technically I lived in Fresh Meadows. I just think it's easier for people to conceptualize my background using this identity, an ABC who wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but had everything she needed thanks to her hard-working parents.

I haven't been back in Flushing consistently since high school, so each time I go visit there's always something new, yet tacky/shoddily built. I'm going to be honest and say that Main Street, Flushing is disgusting. I don't like going there now because there's usually piles of garbage on the sidewalk curb, people openly spitting on the streets, pools of what seems to be sewage drainage... I wouldn't be surprised if we had major SARS/swine flu/elephantitis outbreak one of these days. New buildings are all tall and narrow because construction companies build 7 floor apartments on a single house plot. Roads are cracked like angry tectonic plates. Garbage cans overflowing with personal refuse. The Beijing couple who sat next to me on the plane to New York confessed to me, "Don't be offended, but Flushing seems to be very po lan (破爛)." It's true -- immigrants today probably now find that they aren't leaving their home country to a land paved with gold, but crumbling grey sidewalks dotted with decade-old gum. I suggested that they should consider buying a house in Bayside instead.

I asked my mom whether Flushing was always this gross and she said, "Yep, just about." Regardless, Flushing is still the nucleus that we revolve around, where we buy all our groceries (like bok choy, soy sauce, and all sorts of live-tank marine creepy crawlies), see our pediatric dentist for 20+ years, have Little Fat Lamb Mongolian Hotpot with friends. Ghetto fabulous, I guess...