A Tour of Jackson Heights, Queens, One of NYC's Most Diverse Neighborhoods!

If space is still available, I will provide a spot for new members and first timers who land on the waiting list. Email me at hankorenstein@gmail.com to request a spot.

OVERVIEW

April is Celebrate Diversity Month and Jackson Heights is one of NYC's and America's most diverse communities where over 160 languages are spoken!

This tour is free with a voluntary donation to your organizer/guide.

Remember to bring: Snacks, water to drink. Estimated walking distance: 3.5 miles. Be sure to check your travel route in advance due to weekend subway changes.

Restrooms before the tour (Come early please so we can start on time).
The Starbucks by our meeting place has restrooms as well as the nearby public library at 35-51 81st Street (2 restrooms). Many restaurants and cafes on 37th Avenue such as Caffe Bene at 80-25 37th Avenue, Jahn's diner at 81-04 37th Avenue if you would like to have a bite before the tour. For a quicker bite, next to Jahn's is a Columbian Bakery and Restaurant, La Casa De Los Antojitos. Very popular is Expresso 77 at 35-57 77th Street. If exiting the #7 train at 82nd Street there's another Starbucks at 40-23 82nd Street.

OVERVIEW
This walking tour of Jackson Heights, one of New York's most international and distinctive neighborhoods where over 160 languages are spoken! On the housing front it is believed to be the first garden community built in the United States as part of the international garden city movement. By 1925 Jackson Heights was the largest community in the world of cooperatively owned garden apartment homes under a single management.

During our tour you will come away with ideas for returning on your own to enjoy the food culture and also learn about the varied housing opportunities which are very affordable compared to Manhattan and much of Brooklyn.

Back in 2015, the documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman released "In Jackson Heights," a 190-minute film about the neighborhood which was described as follows by The Film Forum:

"Today's Jackson Heights "is one New York’s most diverse neighborhoods, with immigrants from Peru, Colombia, Mexico, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, to name a few (167 languages are spoken) -- as well as elderly residents of Jewish, Irish and Italian extraction. Under the elevated train, a hodge-podge of stores sell whole baby goats, saris, and Bollywood DVDs; Tibetan food, and classes for would-be cabbies. Jackson Heights is home to an activist LGBT community, to recent survivors of terrifying border crossings, students of the Quran, and small shop-owners who mobilize against the Williamsburg-ization of the neighborhood. Wiseman embraces a community that revels in still being affordable, 20 minutes from “the city,” and resolutely unhip."

Pictured above is the Patel Brothers food store, which they claim to be the "largest South Asian store in the world."

Cheers from Hank
646-596-3005
hankorenstein@gmail.com