Queens, New York: The Most Ethnically Diverse Place in the World
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มิ.ย. 2024
- Overview of the New York City borough of Queens. I examine various neighborhoods and ethnic enclaves of the borough, which has more languages spoken than any other city on Earth.
If you would like to purchase a pin for the viewer wall map or just to support the channel, please visit patreon.com/geographyking
0:00 Intro
2:25 Astoria
2:46 Corona
2:57 Elmhurst
3:23 Flushing
4:00 Forest Hills
4:24 Jackson Heights
4:59 Jamaica
5:25 Laurelton
5:43 Maspeth
6:05 Rego Park
6:31 Richmond Hill/Little Guyana
7:21 Rockaway Beach
7:41 Woodside
Album displayed:
Heart - "Little Queen" (1977)
I love Queens. I really think it's a shame that so many people go to New York and only see Manhattan or perhaps the Brooklyn Bridge.
True too and I heard that Queens is the least segregated part of the city. Note I remember that its neighbors like Nassau and suffolk counties are more segregated than Queens.
I honestly think thats a good thing cause once the secret goes out then gentrification happens and it's unfortunately happening to many parts of Queens 😐
So true
Queens is a dump.
I saw little India but that is the only part I saw (in 2005 or 2006).
Nice to see Queens get some love. It's not as glamorous as manhattan, and not as hip as Brooklyn, but it probably has the best food of any of the boroughs. And what could be more important than that?
I would love to be stuck in Queens for a few days and just go on a " eating foods from countries I've barely even heard of" expedition
@@SlackActionBumble There's lots of great food- Chinese, Greek, Italian, Indian, Colombian, Czech, Japanese, Mexican, Thai, Argentine... the restaurant scene is bottomless.
Queens is a manifestation of why I love the United States. Great place
Wow, as a subscriber, I'm so proud you did this....and that you were just here! "Little Earth"! I love it! Hey... I LOVE living in Queens! It is the one place on Earth where I never feel like a minority or a majority! And you see what's great about America here, at work, the immigrant experience, the melting pot, the great mosaic of culture, kids going to school, of all kinds , it's incredible and beautiful and inspiring and actually makes one feel patriotic......and it really bums me out how so many in this country don't get that. I also love the architecture here, some gorgeous houses. And the food!
It is truly a shining light of the American dream. Conservatives don’t get it. It’s about altruism. Most immigrants are fleeing for noble reasons. And they’re lucky there are sanctuaries like this where they can be free and carve out their little slice of life. Much love from Philly ✊🏼
Would love to see better rapid transit coverage in Queens. There are a lot of subway extensions to eastern Queens that need to happen, and I daydream about a new line connecting Jamaica and Flushing before continuing under Long Island Sound to the Bronx.
I agree! With all the people flocking into New York, there is a lot of excess tax dollars just seeking for some good cause to be spent on.
@@enigmawyoming5201 Plus they're already planning a light rail connection between Queens and Brooklyn. Ain't the best but we have to start somewhere
Yeah I lived in College Point and Bayside. No subway around here
You need money for that, not more diversity/welfare recipients.
@@jfphotography69 Bingo!!
Toronto Canada is actually the most diverse place on Earth, recognized by the U.N.
51% of the city is foreign born, 230 different nationalities.
If you call 911 the operators can assist you in 240 languages.
Visiting Toronto was awesome! I really liked the diversity!
yeah geography king actually got this one wrong
I was born in Queens before moving up to Connecticut as a kid. My family is all from Ridgewood, a neighborhood that has been rated not only the coolest neighborhood in NYC, but one of the best in the world! There is still the old German culture there, later on there was a wave of Serb and Romanian, and most recently South American. Lots of history, and in my opinion, the best part of Queens.
Thank you! I was hoping he would mention Ridgewood. My dad grew up there and we used to visit my Oma and Opa there when I was a kid. I remember the Gotscheer Hall and the bakeries.
I'd love for you to explore more of NYC and make more vids on the ethnic enclaves in the city! So many people mainly focus on Manhattan when visiting but there are many other areas where you might find cool stuff. Maybe another vid on the city could focus on Brooklyn!
There's a guy called @ tomdnyc who does "virtual" walking tours of the entire city on TH-cam. He's a stand-up comedian and loves silly dad jokes, but that dude has encyclopedic knowledge of the architecture and history of New York. I've learned SO MUCH about the numerous neighborhoods and not-so-well-known corners of the city.
I lived in NYC for a short while and my biggest regret was not spending more time in queens. I walked and biked all over Manhattan and spend plenty of time in Brooklyn but only spent a handful of days actually exploring queens.
My mum got a flat in Elmhurst when I was a kid as she worked at a nearby hospital. I lived with my dad back in the UK. My dad and I would visit her when I was in my teens and spend time with her for a whole summer. I've never veen exposed to so much cultures just walking around the a 10 mile radius. It was so exciting discovering new neighboirhoods, trying new food, meeting new people and I'm so lucky that I got to experience it, compared to my peers back home. I think it has greatly shaped how I saw the world and my own personal views, and im grateful for that. I always recommend people to swing by Queens, especially the Chinatown at Flushing, when they visit New York. Such a fantastic and vibrant borough!
Lots of Queens content on my channel. You did a good job showing a cross section of the enclaves. A one hour video would not have been long enough to cover it all.
It's so nice to know something new about the borough! Thank you!
My family are Latinos from Bolivia that still live in Jackson Heights & literally every few blocks is a “Little” something 😂 Whenever I visit from Florida I like walking along Roosevelt Ave & going to Little Colombia, Little India, Little Mexico, Little Ecuador, Little Bangladesh, Little Nepal, etc. And its true that there’s a big LGBTQ+ community too (mostly Asians & Latinos from the aforementioned “Little” sub neighborhoods). Downtown Flushing has lots of amazing food. Love getting Chinese dumplings outside of the 6 train there. And when I visit my cousin in Astoria the Greek & Egyptian restaurants are everywhere & love the massive Astoria Park. Long Island City is my favorite because they have all the most beautifully scenic parks of Hunters Point & Gantry Plaza where you can see the skyline of Manhattan as well as cool artwork/murals & graffiti especially at the former 5 Pointz area & Welling Court. Even going to Flushing Meadows Park is fun.
I am so happy you did a video about this. I grew up in the Bronx and whenever I went to Queens I was like warped into a melting pot of cultures. Even within the Hispanic culture there are 20 Spanish countries and I think all 20 are represented in Queens. Just walk down Roosevelt Ave for 40 or 50 streets and you will see all Spanish speaking people
Very true. You can hear merengue, bachata, salsa, reggaeton, and cumbia just on one block (I'm not Latino, just a musician).
Oh Kyle, thank you. I think I requested this a few weeks back! Oh, the food in Queens, hard not to mention. Hopefully you got to try the Night Market in Flushing. You covered a lot in just 3 days, but one sad omission is Ridgewood, Queens which borders Bushwick Brooklyn and is home to the oldest wooden structure in NYC, a 100+ year old pork store, and a growing number of artists. Hopefully Brooklyn is next!!
Seconding the Queens Night Market recommendation! It runs on Saturday evenings in warmer months, and the food is capped at $5/dish. There are usually 40 or so different cuisines there every weekend.
Like a lot of airline people I had a crash pad (a cheap rented place to stay between trips) in Queens. Enjoyed my time there immensely. Thanks Kyle!
I grew up in Queens *long* ago before it was this diverse. Last time I visited NYC I made a point of coming to Flushing, which was my main stomping ground (I actually lived in an adjacent neighborhood), and my oh my! It's not a sleepy backwater any more!
I‘m watching this video in bern - switzerland and now i really wanna travel to queens. Sounds like an awesome place with influence from litteraly every culture
My biggest question: Spiderman is apparently from Queens. Why haven't they already put up a statue in his honor? Seems like a good idea to me.
If New York started putting up statues of every Marvel hero from there you wouldn't be able to walk past them
I'm a Queens native and lived there until earlier this year (moved to Nassau County). The diversity is great but what tends to happen in neighborhoods is one group dominates after a while for better or for worse.
One other thing I'll mention while Astoria was very Greek at one point now it's more of a Greek-American theme park with restaurants and stores. Most ethnic Greeks have left the area mainly due to gentrification and rising costs. While there are still some Greeks there , especially by Ditmars boulevard, the amount of Greek that call Astoria home really is a fraction of what it once was.
nicely presented - it's too bad so many enter NYC via the airports and there run off to elsewhere and miss the feel of and diversity of Queens
True too.
This one was really really cool! Do more!!!
Awesome video! Love Quens. It kind of reminds of the Scarborough borough of Toronto.
I enjoyed this video I lived in Queens for over 50 years, so this was very familiar to me. I've always enjoyed the fact that you could walk 10 blocks in any direction in Queens and feel like you are in a completely different country
I'm British Bangladeshi myself and have family in new york, who I visited recently. I was expecting some community but was surprised with how big it was. Can't wait to go back.
"LITTLE EARTH" !!!!
What a terrific tag line!
Love your videos
Thank you Kyle for visiting NYC and making videos.
They say the 7 train is the international express.
I look forward to your NYC video series
another new video from our geography king! i've only gone to new york once (on a school trip), but i hope to visit again after i graduate and visit the more diverse neighborhoods! we were mostly in tourist-y areas...i did get to ride the subway though which was pretty cool
Urban Caffeine's channel is a great compliment to Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan quirky info.
Always enjoy your show
Thank you!
Being born and raised in Queens I feel that you did an immaculate job showing the diversity in the best city in the world . What an honor it was looking back now, being exposed to such diversity seasoned me to be down to earth and open to people from ALL walks of life despite the color of your skin. Queens till the death of me!! ❤❤❤
I moved to Queens while in grad school several years ago, and the diversity there was amazing! I always encourage people to visit the neighborhoods in Queens when they go to New York rather than spend all their time in mid-town Manhattan.
Around when I first moved there, I went to Flushing Meadows Corona Park and walked around (BEAUTIFUL park!) and I stumbled across a couple of recreational soccer games that had some good crowds watching. The competition looked intense! I watched for a bit and realized the two teams that were playing were Guyana and Ecuador and on the next field over, it was UAE vs. Guatemala. There's so much diversity in Queens that their recreational soccer league teams are based on nationality!!
Fascinating, GK! Keep up the great work!
Thanks. This video opened a door I didn’t know existed for my family’s recent trip to NYC. We combined a trip to the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side with a trip to Little India and Little Columbia in Jackson Heights. Most interesting and educational day of our trip, without a doubt. PS. I knew we found something special when I saw Anthony Bourdain’s picture with the owner proudly displayed on the wall of a non-descript Nepali dumpling restaurant in Little India. Good times!
I stayed at a hotel in Queens near JFK airport for a week in 2011.
Such an awesome video! Thanks Kyle!
I’m a native of Westchester County (just north of the Bronx) and I learned a lot from this video. Thank you.
Great video! I appreciate anything done from a nerdy perspective!👍
Two things could have made this video better. If it was longer, and if the pins were a more dynamic color. I was having trouble finding them.
My best friend from college was raised in Queens, he is a pizza bagel (half Italian/half Jewish - he was raised Jewish). He had a Flushing address and went to Jamaica High School (although those things don’t necessarily mean anything exactly). Queens had seemed much more residential and parochial (not in the Catholic school usage) - at the time I didn’t know anyone from Staten Island that I remember.
Love your channel, sir!
Fellow geographer here 👏🏼
Thank you!
Love this video so much; glad you had a good time visiting Queens & exploring the neighborhoods!
- A proud native of "Little Earth" 🌎
Happy to watch this vid after ur insta pics. Great information!
I love Queens. My family is from Jackson Heights and it's one of the best places for diversity of food. GO METS!!!!!
Such a shame that the most diverse place in the world is also home to the LolMets…...er, the LolMess
LOLMETS is eternal. You can't kill ideas
Great video as always Kyle! You gotta do Brooklyn next!
As usual ... a very interesting video. Many thanks.
I'm sure that Queens is very ethnically diverse, but isn't Toronto the most ethnically diverse in the world?
I think he may be surprised. Queens has a diverse mix but Toronto has to be closed with half the population from outside of Canada
he has to remake the video. yes toronto is the most populated and more diverse location in the world
Great video!
Very interesting! I recently finished a project for a film class in which I analyzed the movie Julie & Julia. About half of the story takes place in Queens, and now I know more about it thanks to you.
Great video! I lived in Queens for a couple of years, not far from Richmond Hill, and I enjoyed both that area and Jamaica very much. I'm not sure I'd be willing to live there again, but I would love to visit again soon.
I would love to visit Queens and try some of the ethnic foods there. The nice thing about places like this is not only that you can find foods here that aren't common in the rest of the US but it's also typically authentic and there's such a variety in such a small space.
Great report from my favorite Mespizzo!
Great vid Kyle! I just stayed in Queens a couple weeks ago, really enjoyed it.
Growing up in Queens is one of the reasons why I can understand and enjoy being around all kinds of ethnic peoples!
Great video, very interesting! I was talking about this exact area tonight so I wish I'd seen this beforehand. Being from Jersey I've often wanted to explore Queens.
I loved my little apartment in Sunnyside, Queens and our neighbors in Jackson Heights and Flushing.
Thank you, was so helpful.
Ridgewood (Queens) is also one of the major places for Gottschee Germans (from what is now southern Slovenia).
Interesting! Slovenia fascinates me. It's like the intersection of Slavic, Central, and Mediterranean Europe, haha. And it's so pretty! The closest I've been to it is eastern Austria, but I'd love to visit Ljubljana one day.
Queens is amazing. Many neighborhoods not mentioned too. Great beaches like Jacob Riis, Fort Tilden and Breezy Point. And Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Has everything really. So much to explore. Thanks for this!!
Hey man, I'm from Queens--born and raised. Thanks for the spotlight! More people need to know that Queens is the most ethnically diverse place on Earth, and one of the coolest...!
Thanks! I'm from Jamaica, Queens, but left in 64, and am now retired in Mexico. My grandparents moved to FL in 71... so its been a long time. My brothers law office is still there. Cool video.
I'm fascinated by NYC, so this was fun. Thanks.
There right now. Certainly a cool place to see. Amazing how clean the place is for how many people are crammed in one small area
Great job again, Kyle. Always love your overviews of places, and this being ethnic diversity is especially interesting.
4:58 East Queens Jamaican neighborhoods
Tips: Brooklyn is a city, Queens is a *county*. (Queens and Nassau were a single county until 1898; Brooklyn was 90% of Kings County.)
Local names in the borough reflect those of villages, hamlets, and town[ship]s before annexation. That is why nothing is mailed to "Queens" to this day. Traditionally, people identified with their neighborhood alone, very different from Brooklyn, which was, and is, a major-league city.
I made sure my mother's obituary upstate specified she was born in *Queens Village*, not merely "Queens". An important distinction!
Very nice. Thank you.
Man, I really need to visit Queens. I've been to NYC maybe six or seven times, but mostly to Manhattan, with a couple visits to Brooklyn. Queens seems like my kind of place.
My parents both grew up in Queens (East Elmhurst/Jackson Heights area) and I grew up consistently visiting my grandma there. The neighborhood has changed a tonnn over the years, this video does a great job of describing it in its current state. From what I've been told, and even what I saw as a kid and how it's changed, these neighborhoods used to be very Italian. Most have moved out to Long Island like my own family, but the older people that stayed like my Grandma saw huge transformations in the makeup of the community she lived in for decades happen in such a short period of time.
I fully understand that communities naturally change over time and that diversity is by no means a bad thing, but on the other end it's hard to watch the community you felt part of fade and evolve into one that makes you feel like an outsider. Williamsburg in Brooklyn is another really good example but with a very different population that took over. I think a video on population shifts would be super interesting
My dad is from south Brooklyn (Sheepshead Bay) and he’s watched his neighborhood get progressively less Jewish and Italian and more Chinese. Again, definitely not a bad thing, but it’s definitely an interesting dynamic
If you "feel like an outsider" whenever you're not around "Italians" (who don't speak a word of Italian), isn't the problem with you?
@@alkh3myst A couple of things here.
1- it's okay for people to prefer to be surrounded by the culture they're accustomed to. It's actually the exact reason why the communities that have now carved out their own enclaves in Queens have done so, to be able to live in a place with a culture that feels familiar. If thats okay for them to do, why would it not be okay for Italian Americans to want as well?
2- If you were an 87 year old woman who lived 70ish years in a neighborhood surrounded by people that share your religion, values, and traditions, and then suddenly over the course of 10-15 years, the majority of that neighborhood completely switched to a Southeast Asian culture, many of whom speak a language other than English to each other in public, would you not feel like an outsider who doesn't really fit in anymore? Again no one is saying it's a bad thing, neighborhoods evolve over time, but it becomes a difficult thing for holdover residents to adjust to, especially at an advanced age.
3- I'm not going to pretend like Italian-Americans are some kind of oppressed people in this day and age. We've done very well here. What I don't appreciate are people who feel like they can say anything they want Italian Americans and our culture and traditions. You wouldn't do it to any other ethnic group, so don't do it to us. We're just as entitled to preserving our traditions wanting to comforted by a familiar community as anyone else is. It gets painted as us being bigoted or dramatic when in actuality it's us being the same as anyone else.
@@JNMFNFnMNH Old white people can't handle change, especially when change has brown skin and slanted eyes. Thank you for confirming my impression, while trying to "refute" it.
A couple years ago I had a chance to go to Flushing. It felt like the PRC more than literally anywhere else I’ve been. Most other Chinatowns and Chinese enclaves I’ve been to, whether in the US or SEA or Europe, have a very different vibe than modern mainland China. By contrast, Flushing felt like I’d stumbled into Shanghai.
Queens is really underrated. Thank you for giving it some love.
It makes sense that “Coming to America” was filmed and based in Queens since folks from all over the world find their way there!
Nice video
Do a breakdown of Phillys neighborhoods. That’d be fascinating. 👍🏼
To be clear, it's 'The' Bronx.
My Dad is from Sunnyside, Queens
Thank you for mentioning the Sikhs in Richmond Hill! Nice video explaining the variety of people in Queens.
This is awesome. I have family who grew up in Queens. Amazing food! Everything is hustle and bustle. There was a place called “The Gable Inn” in Bayside Flushing where we would go with the grandparents. Also, best Chinese restaurants in the country. Brings back some fun memories of some colorful relatives and family gatherings.
QUEENS and Heart Little QUEEN - very good. You are a magic man.
I love seeing how others view my old home towns.
I'm interested to know how the various ethnic groups have changed in Queens over the last 50 years. Noting that All in the Family took place there.
The food is amazing in Queens. If you like to experiment with different cuisines, Queens is the place to do it.
My mother grew up in Richmond Hill. The neighborhood has transformed from a white suburb to a diverse city neighborhood in her lifetime. Only recently was it invaded with migrants and became "Little Guyana".
New York in general is a great City, so so much better than LA in my experience!
Thanks for the video, I hope you have a chance to go back to Queens and continue to explore. There are way more communities and neighborhoods with different make-ups that you missed. Great job nonetheless.
You had that pic of 33rd and Ditmars, did you go to that OK Cafe? I liked it a lot.
I didn't eat there but it looked good
Ozone Park is a great neighborhood in Queens! It's located right next door to Richmond Hill and is also called Little Guyana!
Fascinating!!!!
That was excellent! Such cultural diversity in a small geographic area.
Great video! Were you capturing your own drone footage while you were there?
No, the drone footage is not mine
I love and live in Queens. Best food on earth.
I'm in Queens now and I really like this place
Really crazy how big NYC is by population. Queens alone is larger than several states
I’m from Queens. Raised. I’m from Broookville Park, just south of Laurelton. Same zip code. I think you did a very good job. I think a lot of the black areas are more difficult to get to due to transportation, but for the short time you were here, you managed to shout out my neighborhood!! Shouts to Rosedale, Cambria Heights, Far Rockaway, Bayside, Fresh Meadows, Hollis, Queens Village
Great video as always, but I have a slight correction. Many Indians went to Guyana (and Trinidad, Suriname, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius, Réunion, and Fiji) as a result of the Indian indentured system. My family went to Réunion. I don’t think “moved” is quite correct, but it is probably a nitpick on my part
My grandfather was from Middle Village, which I think is between Maspeth and Elmhurst
Great video! My wife and I lived in Richmond Hill 2001-2004 while I was in medical school. We’d always kick ourselves for not living in Manhattan (where all the “action” is) but I so do appreciate the diversity and how everyone was welcome to make a life there.
I agree with folks’ comments about the lack of public transit in Queens. Queens Blvd is one of the widest, noisiest, unsafe “stroads” I’ve been on. Is it any better?
Ill be sure to get off Manhattan next visit and see Queens and Brooklyn. Drew Binsky also did a video on Queens being the most diverse place on earth a few months ago.
I grew up in Brooklyn, but went to elementary through intermediate school in Ridgewood and Glendale. Not surprisingly, neither of which managed to register on the Geography King Scale ...
I ♥ NY