This is where I grew up and where my mother still lives. It may not look like much, but it is one of the nicer apartment buildings in my Queens neighborhood. My grandmother lived a few blocks away, in a lower-income apartment. When I was in elementary school and my mother went back to work, I went to my grandparents after school. My grandmother made an excellent tuna fish sandwich, with chopped celery and dill.
My father was a physical therapist at a city hospital and my mother still works in publishing, so they never made that much money. They worked hard to put me through two very expensive private colleges, just so I could obtain two completely useless degrees — a B.A. in English and an M.F.A. in Film. I was totally spoiled by them.
I had an excellent childhood growing up in the Flushing/Kew Garden Hills area of Queens. The public school was good, the public library was two blocks away, and the neighborhood was incredibly diverse — blacks, Jews, Puerto Ricans, Indians, Chinese. I’m still good friends with guys from the neighborhood who I’ve known all my life. They’re the first people I see every time I fly into New York.
I am so diverse — here I am with my Jewish childhood friend Barry at the Blue Bay Diner in Bayside last week, which looks exactly the same inside as it did when I was in high school.
When I was a child, Queens felt isolated from the excitement of Manhattan, but it was close enough to travel to by subway. (…ok, first you take a bus to get to the subway) My parents took me to museums and concerts all the time, so I was able to participate in the “high culture” of the city. We also lived near Queens College, which had a symphony orchestra. I spent many weekends in the audience with my parents, falling asleep to Schubert.
Although the stores in my neighborhood weren’t very fancy (still no Starbucks!), you could get everything you needed just by walking down the block. There were grocers, a bakery, a Radio Shack, a cleaners, a pharmacy etc. This was perfect for my parents, who didn’t drive a car. It also created entertainment for me. After school, my friend, Rob, and I could pass several hours just stopping in the Kissena Boulevard shops, or reading the comic books in the stationary store.
I only felt embarrassed about “Queens” once I went to Columbia, and met rich kids from the Upper East Side, Beverly Hills, Boston, etc. They had actually gone skiing in Aspen and visited museums in Florence. All of a sudden, Kissena Boulevard was very small time. I began to feel ashamed of my background, like a Jennifer Beals in Flashdance, moving from the steelmill to the hoity-toity ballet studio. It felt as if the entire borough of Manhattan looked down on Queens. The only reason to visit Queens was to go to the airports or see a sporting event. There was even talk about building a new stadium in Manhattan, so there would even be less reason to travel to Queens. Queens was the home of misfits, from Archie Bunker to Ugly Betty. During snowstorms, Manhattan was quickly shoveled by the plows since it is the center of the business and tourism worlds. Queens was always plowed last. Queens had her big moment in 1963-64 when the World’s Fair was in Flushing Meadows Park, but then most of the fair buildings was just left behind to decay.
“Sorry, we don’t have enough money in the budget to fix the NYS Pavilion.” – Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Eventually, I learned to embrace my Queens neighborhood. There was a cool mix of people on the street, and it felt more “New York authentic” than many of the streets of Manhattan. Today, “Sesame Street” reminds me of Queens, not Manhattan. Big Bird could never afford Manhattan. Sadly, whenever Sophia comes with me to visit my mother, I’m always disappointed that she can’t see the area in the same positive way I do.
“It looks like a slum,” she said recently, as we walked down Kissena Boulevard. This hurt my feelings, especially because, in my heart, despite my romantic view of the neighborhood, I believed the same. At one time, the street was lively, with all sorts of shops and ethnic food. Gene Simmons, who grew up nearby, even named his group KISS, after Kissena Boulevard. Now, the neighborhood has deteriorated almost beyond recognition.
Half of the stores on the block are gated and closed — some stores have been empty for five years! Can’t the management company find any tenants? What happened to the bakery, the pharmacy, the seafood store, the stationery store, the women’s clothing store? Surely some business can make a profit here? People are afraid to walk outside at night because everything looks so abandoned. Why has this happened?
Perhaps the answer can be found on the website of the management company, Pelcorp. On the site, they advertise the entire block, not as available individual stores catering to a community, but only as a 240,000 sq. ft. shopping center. There had been rumors that the landlord isn’t renting out the stores because it’s interested in selling the entire block to a big-box entity like Kmart. This might explain why no stores never seem to be rented, despite having “For Rent” signs plastered on the gates of shuttered stores. Is the management company waiting for the opportunity to unload the entire property at once?
A view of Kissena Boulevard at noon, a far cry from what this busy street used to look like.
The management company has every right to sell the entire complex if they want to, but should they be allowed to thrust the entire neighborhood into a downward spiral? Who wants to live in an area where more than half the stores have been closed for years?
It is pretty sad state of affairs. I remember how The Garden Bakery made the best onion rolls I’ve ever tasted. There was “Sweet Donut,” a little coffee shop/donut store. Dr. Sakow, the friendly optometrist, fitted me with my first pair of dorky eyeglasses in the third grade. All of these stores are now gone, with no replacements.
Even if the management company does want to sell the entire property, shouldn’t they at least be responsible for its upkeep? What about all the garbage and graffiti everywhere? Why should I be embarrassed to show my wife the “old neighborhood?” Why should my mother have to walk past the junk in the parking lot? People still LIVE in the neighborhood.
At one time, the landlord/management company was a local one, headed by a New York builder. He was always seen around the area because he also created middle-income housing across the street. After his passing, his son took over the real estate property, and it didn’t surprise me at all that his management company is based in Palm Beach, Florida! Out of sight, out of mind.
From their website:
Our President, Prescott Lester, is the fourth generation of Builder Developers. He is responsible for building and developing nearly 3,000 residential units in Palm Beach County, Florida. Projects included Lakes of Laguna in West Palm Beach with 2,204 residential units and Cascade Lakes in Boynton Beach having 556 dwelling units.
Mr. Lester’s Greatgrandfather began building in Brooklyn, New York around the turn of the century. He was followed by his son David Minkin who became one of New York City’s Master Builders. Mr. Lester assisted and succeeds his great uncle, David Minkin, in running the family’s building, management and brokerage operations.
Here is a promotional photo of the late David Minkin, Prescott Lester, and former NY Mets (yeah, Queens!) pitching great Tom Seaver, who has apparently sold his New York baby boomer appeal for some hard cash.
Despite a history of New York building, the fourth generation of builders now “specializes in the marketing and sale of luxury properties in Palm Beach County. This includes waterfront, country club, and other estate properties.”
The Kissena Boulevard holdings, one of their four retail holdings still in New York, must be their least attractive holding, compared to their shiny new malls in Florida. No wonder they seem so disinterested in the upkeep of Kissena Boulevard!
I talked to a few people in my mother’s building and they are very unhappy with the way Kissena Boulevard looks. Some say they would even move away, if they could afford it. The shopping area is pretty disgraceful, and much of the blame must go to the management company. They have played a major role in making the area look like a slum. Of course, since Pelcorp is in Palm Beach, and the executives don’t get to come to Queens very often, I’ve included some photographs of Kissena Boulevard for Prescott Lester and his partners to see.
The Pharmacy, now closed, the letters falling from the sign
The Laudromat, closed
The shoe store, closed
The graffiti along the “Wholesale Liquidators” wall
The garbage along the wall, opposite the closed shoe store
The kosher deli, closed
The Rainbow Women’s Clothing Store, closed
The pharmacy, closed, is now a haven for pigeons
The Bakery, closed for years
The fish market, closed
Ugly graffiti and disrepair along the property walls
I really enjoyed this...
This brings a flood of tears from my eyes. My brothers and I grew up at 70-25 Kissena Blvd., between 71st and Jewel Avenues. It was a good neighborhood in which to grow up, nothing like what I saw in these horrifying photos. I am sad beyond words. I don’t understand what has happened to our country, to pride in one’s country, neighborhood, and values instilled by our hard-working parents. This is devastating to me. My brothers have both been back for a visit, over the years, but I haven’t been able to do so. It was sad enough to hear that Gloria Pizza on Main Street Flushing had closed, but this is a real blow. To all the people who still live in my old neighborhood, you are missing the best years in which I was blessed to grow up in a pleasant, “real” neighborhood that still holds sweet memories for the three of us Singer kids. Why couldn’t those who destroyed “my” neighborhood respect it? WHY?
My wiife & I moved into Electchester in1953 when we got married. we raised 2 daughters there & enjoyed the area very much. We moved upstate NY in 1969 when the girls started High School. Some of our old friends still live there. It is ashame what happens to an area afterso many years.
Hi, I lived in Pomonok 67-15 kissena blvd moved out in 1962. Lived in Bayside then Brentwood then moved to Coconut Creek Fl (township) from 1988-until 4yrs ago. My Mother-in-law lived in windmore. Now I am back in NY. I go back and see friends and family. Where do you live in coconut creek alot of people don’t know the place. Love the festival flea market.
I lived at 154-05 71st Ave(corner of Kissena Blvd) 1951-1964. My Grandparents lived at 154-01 from 1955 until the mid 80′s. The comment written by my friend Susan Singer expresses exactly how I feel. This is a now forgotten neighborhood and I feel saddened by it’s current condition. I have so many happy memories of a lively, busy Kissena Blvd. and they will always remain that way. I visited the old neighborhood in 2005 and thought it looked tired and worn, but now it looks dead… So sad for the people who still live there.
What memories! I grew up in Pomonok, 1950′s, and then my parents.bought a small cape cod on 168th St in the ’60′s off 71st Ave. Went to the same schools. Great years!
I have so many happy memories of our wonderful childhood days. I remember the stores, and got my first Gary Lewis and the playboys record in Wainwright!
I know this article is old, but I grew up in the Garden apartments right across the parking lot behind what was once Wainwright’s which eventually became National Wholesale Liquidators. When I read this article I actually got misty eyed… I know places change over time, but this just breaks my heart.. Just this past week I was talking about the bakery and the star deli with my wife.. looking at the photo Aguilar behind Walbaums had me remembering laying in the grass in the 1st court looking up at those buildings and the one’s across 71st ave in Pomonok. It really was once a great neighborhood… I often talk about how diverse it was…
MOst the stores on kissena are closed and they gonna keep closing cus most people around here are losing jobs daily and no money to buy things, and crime round this area is increasing, shootings, assaults, robberies, queens college students getting mugged at night by young men, now the neighborhood majority is blacks, hispanics, asians and afghans, not that many jews like before , pomonok is predominately blacks and Hispanics and the elderly, and the blue buildings on kissena is occupied by Hispanics and blacks but majority that occupies the blue buildings is Afghans. the elderly folks in pomonok don’t come out anymore when it gets dark due to all the problems happening now in pomonok. This July 4th that just past, their were 2 shootings, i think if I’m not mistaken around Jewel and kissena blvd, no one was hurt in the first shooting but the 2nd shooting happen later in the day and it left a mother dead, she was shot in the head, and her son shot in the chest, injured. the crazy part was the 2 shootings were no way connected to each other and happen the same day in the same area. After 8 or 9ish the kissena blvd is dead, no one outside except for groups of young guys roaming the streets in numbers between 2 to maybe 6 or 7 or more. I’m not exaggerating this, i’m just saying what is usually seen by me and my family. this neighborhood has completely changed and is now in my opinion definitely looking like slums. The people in the neighborhood now are between the ranges of being poor or the lower middle class, just enough to survive. It’s disappointing seeing this area like this. Parsons JHS closed down too in 2007 and reopened with the rfk middle school in it and QSI, but there is no more Parsons JHS 168. The wendys is gone, the Blockbuster is gone, the 2 gas stations on Kissena Blvd across the street from National Wholesale are gone.
Living in Maryland now, I was so caught up with rembering the good old days. Then I read your comment and it brought it even more back to life. Yea, I remember, it was the “jews” (as you put it) that ran Pomonok. The “jews” that made everyone else uncomfortable. The “jews” that thought they were better. And we as kids believed it. Now I know you had the same income level that we had to be eligible to live there. Your parents were working class like my banker parents, and you had no more than I did. I am glad that today there is a more diverse neighborhood, or my brother would not have married his “culturally” different wife, and I wouldn’t have beautiful neices and nephews.
Sharon, I am sad that you have such negative memories of your Jewish neighbors. Perhaps it will make you feel better to try to offer some perspective from the Jewish side. First, let me offer that the Jews did not rub Pomonok any more than ayone else who lived there. The Housing Authority ran the project, and all our families paid rent according to their incomes on a sliding scale. We all took the rent checks to the same office and were subject to the same rules. There was never preference given to any ethnic group that I know of. If you mean that there were more Jewish residents than non-Jewish, I suppose that is possible, but I don’t have the statistics. In my building (from 1952 to1978, when I moved to Long Island), I would guess that it was 70% Jewish. We got along well together.
This is where I would like to share my mother’s experience that is similar to your own. Several ladies in our building went to the same Catholic church. It drove my mother nuts that any conversation with them always centered around their church, with references, by name, to the “sisters.” These conversations made my mother just as uncomfortable as you felt among Jewish people. There was nothing in common they could discuss. They came from two different worlds.
Back in those post-WWII years, rhings were very different from today. Jewish families were still led by survivors of Hitler’s death camps. It was difficult to find any commonality with Gentiles, and vice versa. We kids were told that we were to marry people of our own religions and nationalities. My Lutherin best friend, Lynn, told me her father did not want her playing with Jewish children. I became the exception to his rule, although Lynn continued to have other Jewish playmates. It was a time when people were put into what I see as “boxes” that defined them according to religion and nationality. To my generation, this was limiting, annoying and didn’t make sense. To me, it will always define New York. When I moved to California, I discovered a wonderful world in which people liked you for who you were, and no one asked me my religion. It was so different!
What I’m trying to say to you, Sharon, is that that discomfort you felt existed among all of us. Our parents’ generation did not want their kids marrying outside their ethnic and religious groups, so families never gave themselves a chance to get to know people from different backgrounds. My generation made choices that sometimes made Mama happy and sometimes got ourselves excommunicated from the family. But the point is that it was a complicated society of people struggling to support their families. We had amazing parents, all of us, who worked their hearts out so that we could have the memories that we cherish today.
Blessings,
Susan Downs (nee Singer)
Yale, Oklahoma