Flushing, Queens

Flushing, Queens
Neighborhoods of New York City
Flushing Town Hall, now a cultural center
Country	United States of America
State	New York
County	Queens
City	New York City
Founded	1645
Town	1683–1898
Named for	Vlissingen, Netherlands
Population  (2010)
• Total	219,342
Ethnicity
• White	19.7%
• Black	3.5%
• Hispanic	18.4%
• Asian	44.3%
• Other	4.1%
Economics
• Median income	$39,804
ZIP codes	11351-11390
Area code(s)	718, 347, 917, 929

The Unisphere in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, symbol of the 1964 New York World's Fair.

Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central part of the New York City borough of Queens, in the United States. While much of the neighborhood is residential, Downtown Flushing, centered around the northern end of Main Street, is a large commercial and retail area and is the fourth largest central business district in New York City.

Flushing's diversity is reflected by the numerous ethnic groups that reside there, including people of Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, European, and African American ancestry. It is part of the Fifth Congressional District, which encompasses the entire northeastern shore of Queens County, and extends into neighboring Nassau County. Flushing is served by five railroad stations on the Long Island Rail Road Port Washington Branch, as well as the New York City Subway's IRT Flushing Line (7 and <7>​ trains), which has its terminus at Main Street. The intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue is the third busiest intersection in New York City, behind Times and Herald Squares.

Flushing is part of Queens Community Board 7 and is bounded by Flushing Meadows–Corona Park to the west, Utopia Parkway to the east, the Long island Expressway to the south, and Willets Point Boulevard to the north.

ZIP codes beginning with 113 are administered from a sectional center at Flushing Post Office. The 113-prefixed area extends west into Jackson Heights, south into Elmhurst, Glendale, and Forest Hills, and east into Little Neck.

History

Old Flushing Burial Ground, used in 17th and 18th centuries, now a park.

Dutch colony

In 1645, Flushing was established by Dutch settlers on the eastern bank of Flushing Creek under charter of the Dutch West India Company and was part of the New Netherland colony. The settlement was named after the city of Vlissingen, in the southwestern Netherlands, the main port of the company; Flushing is an anglicization of the Dutch name that was then in use.

In its early days, Flushing was inhabited by English colonists, among them a farmer named John Bowne. John Bowne defied a prohibition imposed by New Amsterdam Director-General Peter Stuyvesant on harboring Quakers by allowing Quaker meetings in his home. The Flushing Remonstrance, signed in Flushing on December 27, 1657, protested religious persecution and eventually led to the decision by the Dutch West India Company to allow Quakers and others to worship freely. As such, Flushing is claimed to be a birthplace of religious freedom in the new world.

Landmarks remaining from the Dutch period in Flushing include the John Bowne House on Bowne Street and the Old Quaker Meeting House on Northern Boulevard.

English colonial history

In 1664, the English took control of New Amsterdam, ending Dutch control of the colony, and renamed it the Province of New York. When Queens County was established in 1683, the "Town of Flushing" was one of the original five towns which comprised the county. Many historical references to Flushing are to this town, bounded from Newtown on the west by Flushing Creek (now Flushing River), from Jamaica on the south by the watershed, and from Hempstead on the east by what later became the Nassau County line. The town was dissolved in 1898 when Queens became a borough of New York City, and the term "Flushing" today usually refers to a much smaller area, for example the former Village of Flushing.

Flushing was the site of the first commercial tree nurseries in North America, the most prominent being the Prince, Bloodgood, and Parsons nurseries. Much of the northern section of Kissena Park, former site of the Parsons nursery, still contains a wide variety of exotic trees. The naming of streets intersecting Kissena Boulevard on its way toward Kissena Park celebrates this fact (Ash Avenue, Beech, Cherry ...Poplar, Quince, Rose). Flushing also supplied trees to the Greensward project, now known as Central Park in Manhattan.

During the American Revolution, Flushing, along with most settlements in present-day Queens County, favored the British and quartered British troops. Following the Battle of Long Island, Nathan Hale, an officer in the Continental Army, was apprehended near Flushing Bay while on what was probably an intelligence gathering mission and was later hanged.

The 1785 Kingsland Homestead, originally the residence of a wealthy Quaker merchant, now serves as the home of the Queens Historical Society. The 1790 United States census recorded that 5,393 people lived in what is present-day Queens County.

Map of Flushing in 1891.

Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠).

The Long Island Koreatown (롱 아일랜드 코리아타운) originated in Flushing before sprawling eastward along Northern Boulevard and eventually into Nassau County. This Koreatown abuts the rapidly growing Flushing Chinatown as well.

Nineteenth century

During the 19th century, as New York City continued to grow in population and economic vitality, so did Flushing. Its proximity to Manhattan was critical in its transformation into a fashionable residential area. In 1813, the Village of Flushing was incorporated within the Town of Flushing. By the mid-1860s, Queens County had 30,429 residents. Flushing's growth continued with two new villages incorporating: College Point in 1867, and Whitestone in 1868. In 1898, although opposed to the proposal, the Town of Flushing (along with two other towns of Queens County) was consolidated into the City of New York to form the new Borough of Queens. All towns, villages, and cities within the new borough were dissolved. Local farmland continued to be subdivided and developed transforming Flushing into a densely populated neighborhood of New York City.

Twentieth century development

The continued construction of bridges over the Flushing River and the development of other roads increased the volume of vehicular traffic into Flushing. In 1909, the construction of the Queensboro Bridge (also known as the 59th Street Bridge) over the East River connected Queens County to midtown Manhattan.

The introduction of rail road service to Manhattan in 1910 by the Long Island Rail Road Port Washington Branch and in 1928 by the New York City Subway's IRT Flushing Line (7 and <7>​ trains) hastened the continued transformation of Flushing to a commuter suburb and commercial center. Due to increased traffic, a main roadway through Flushing named Broadway was widened and renamed Northern Boulevard.

Flushing was a forerunner of Hollywood, when the young American film industry was still based on the U.S. East Coast and Chicago. Decades later, the RKO Keith's movie palace would host vaudeville acts and appearances by the likes of Mickey Rooney, The Marx Brothers and Bob Hope. The theater now lies vacant and in disrepair due to an unauthorized real estate development project that took place in the early 1990s.

Emerging Chinese communities

Emergence As Little Taipei(小台北) / Little Taiwan(小台灣)

In the 1970s, a Chinese community established a foothold in the neighborhood of Flushing, whose demographic constituency had been predominantly non-Hispanic white, interspersed with a small Japanese community. This wave of immigrants from Taiwan were the first to arrive and developed Flushing's Chinatown. It was known as Little Taipei (小台北) or Little Taiwan (小台灣). Many who arrived were the descendants of former soldiers and political supporters of Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalist Party, which had lost the war against the Communist Party of China, and established themselves in Taiwan. Along with immigrants from Taiwan at this time, a large South Korean population also called Flushing home.

Before the 1970s, Cantonese immigrants had vastly dominated Chinese immigration to New York City; however during the 1970s, the Taiwanese immigrants were the first wave of Chinese immigrants who spoke Mandarin rather than Cantonese to arrive in New York City. Due to the dominance of Cantonese-speaking immigrants, who were largely working-class in Manhattan's Chinatown (紐約華埠), as well as the language barrier and poor housing conditions there, Taiwanese immigrants, who were more likely to have attained higher educational standards and socioeconomic status, could not relate to Manhattan's Chinatown, and chose to settle in Flushing instead.

As the Taiwanese population grew, a Flushing Chinatown was created with a higher standard of living and better housing conditions.

Mandarin Town, Flushing (國語埠, 法拉盛華埠)

Over the years, many new non-Cantonese ethnic Chinese immigrants from different regions and provinces of China started to arrive in New York City. This led to the creation of a more Mandarin-speaking Chinatown or Mandarin Town (國語埠) that gradually replaced Little Taipei. This wave of immigrants spoke Mandarin and various regional/provincial dialects. Like the Taiwanese, they faced cultural and communication problems in Manhattan's Cantonese-speaking Chinatown and settled in Flushing as well as Elmhurst, Queens, which also has a significant Mandarin-speaking population. Flushing's Chinese population became very diverse over the next few decades as people from different provinces started to arrive, infusing their varied languages and cultures into its Chinatown.

Flushing and its Chinatown abuts the rapidly growing Long Island Koreatown (롱 아일랜드 코리아타운) as well.

Sections of Flushing

Chinatown, Flushing (法拉盛華埠)

Main article: Chinatown, Flushing

Chinatown, Flushing
Traditional Chinese	法拉盛華埠
Simplified Chinese	法拉盛华埠
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Fǎlāshèng Huá Bù Gwoyeu Romatzyh Faalashenq Hwabuh Wade–Giles Fa3la1sheng4 Hua2 Pu4 Tongyong Pinyin Fǎlāshèng Húa Bú IPA [fàláʂə̂ŋ xwǎ pʰû] Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Faat3laa1sing4 Waa4 Bou6 IPA [fāːtláːsȉŋ wȁːpòu] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Niú-iok Hôa-bú

Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), or Mandarin Town (國語埠) is one of the largest and fastest growing ethnic Chinese enclaves outside of Asia, as well as within New York City itself. In Mandarin, Flushing is known as "Falasheng" (Chinese: 法拉盛; pinyin: Fǎlāshèng).

Main Street and the area to its west, particularly along Roosevelt Avenue, have become the primary nexus of Flushing's Chinatown. However, Chinatown continues to expand southeastward along Kissena Boulevard and northward beyond Northern Boulevard. In the 1970s, a Chinese community established a foothold in the neighborhood of Flushing, whose demographic constituency had been predominantly non-Hispanic white. Taiwanese began the surge of immigration, followed by other groups of Chinese. By 1990, Asians constituted 41% of the population of the core area of Flushing, with Chinese in turn representing 41% of the Asian population. However, ethnic Chinese are constituting an increasingly dominant proportion of the Asian population as well as of the overall population in Flushing and its Chinatown. A 1986 estimate by the Flushing Chinese Business Association approximated 60,000 Chinese in Flushing alone.

Chinese demographic

The intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue, the business center for Flushing, on the westernmost edge of the neighborhood, has a large concentration of Chinese and Korean businesses, including Asian restaurants. Chinese-owned businesses in particular dominate the area along Main Street and the blocks west of it. Many of the signs and advertisements of the stores in the area are in Chinese. Ethnic Chinese constitute an increasingly dominant proportion of the Asian population and as well as of the overall population in Flushing. Consequently, Flushing's Chinatown has grown rapidly enough to become the second-largest Chinatown outside of Asia. In fact, the Flushing Chinatown may surpass the original Manhattan Chinatown itself within a few years.

A 1986 estimate by the Flushing Chinese Business Association approximated 60,000 Chinese in Flushing alone. By 1990, Asians constituted 41% of the population of the core area of Flushing, with Chinese in turn representing 41% of the Asian population. However, ethnic Chinese are constituting an increasingly dominant proportion of the Asian population as well as of the overall population in Flushing and its Chinatown. High rates of both legal and illegal immigration from Mainland China continue to spur the ongoing rise of the ethnic Chinese population in Flushing, as in all of New York City's Chinatowns.

According to a Daily News article, Flushing's Chinatown ranks as New York City's second largest Chinese community with 33,526 Chinese, up from 17,363, a 93% increase. The Brooklyn Chinatown (布鲁克林華埠) now ranks #1 as the largest Chinatown of NYC with 34,218 Chinese residents, up from 19,963 in 2000, a 71% increase. As for Manhattan's Chinatown, its Chinese population declined by 17%, from 34,554 to 28,681 since 2000 to rank #3.

Culture

The World Journal, one of the largest Chinese-language newspapers outside of China, is headquartered in adjacent Whitestone (白石), Queens, with offices in Flushing as well.

41st Avenue in Flushing Chinatown

Flushing now rivals Manhattan's Chinatown as a center of Chinese culture and has been called the "Chinese Manhattan". The Lunar New Year Parade has become a growing annual celebration of Chinese New Year. More and larger Chinese supermarkets are locating and selling a diverse and uniquely vast array of Chinese food and ingredient selections in Flushing, the largest of which include Hong Kong Supermarket and New York Supermarket, which also happen to be rapidly growing Chinese American chain supermarkets. Flushing's rise as an epicenter of Chinese culture outside of Asia has been attributed to the remarkable diversity of regional Chinese demographics represented.

The World Journal, one of the largest Chinese-language newspapers outside of China, is headquartered in adjacent Whitestone (白石), Queens, with offices in Flushing as well. Numerous other Chinese- and English-language publications are available in Flushing.

The popular styles of Chinese cuisine are ubiquitously accessible in Flushing, including Taiwanese, Shanghainese, Hunanese, Szechuan, Cantonese, Fujianese, Xinjiang, Zhejiang, and Korean Chinese cuisine. Even the relatively obscure Dongbei style of cuisine indigenous to Northeast China is now available in Flushing, as well as Mongolian cuisine.

Mandarin Chinese (including Northeastern Mandarin), Fuzhou dialect, Min Nan Fujianese, Wu Chinese, Beijing dialect, Wenzhounese, Shanghainese, Suzhou dialect, Hangzhou dialect, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and English are all prevalently spoken in Flushing Chinatown, while the Mongolian language is now emerging. Even the relatively obscure Dongbei style of cuisine indigenous to Northeast China is now available in Flushing . Given its rapidly growing status, the Flushing Chinatown may surpass in size and population the original New York City Chinatown in the borough of Manhattan within a few years, and it is debatable whether this has already happened. The New York Times says that Flushing's Chinatown now rivals Manhattan's Chinatown for being the center of Chinese-speaking New Yorkers' politics and trade.

In accompaniment with its rapid growth, Flushing in particular has witnessed the proliferation of highly competitive businesses touted as educational centers as well as non-profit organizations declaring the intent to educate the community. Some entities offer education in Mandarin, the lingua franca of Mainland China; others profess to provide students with intensive training in computer and technological proficiency; while still others entice high school students with rigorous preparatory classes for college entrance examinations in mathematics, science, and English literacy.

Public service

The largest of the Flushing branches of the Queens Borough Public Library is located at the intersection of Kissena Boulevard and Main Street (see below). This library houses an auditorium for public events.

New York Hospital Queens, a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, is a major medical center providing Flushing as well as surrounding communities with comprehensive medical care services. Numerous tertiary medical clinics also serve the residents of Flushing.

A diverse array of social services geared toward assisting recent as well as established Chinese immigrants is readily available in Flushing.

Satellite Chinatowns

The Elmhurst Chinatown on Broadway in nearby Elmhurst, another neighborhood in the borough of Queens, also has a large and rapidly growing Chinese community and is developing as a satellite of the Flushing Chinatown. Previously a small area with Chinese shops on Broadway between 81st Street and Cornish Avenue, this newly evolved second Chinatown in Queens has now expanded to 45th Avenue and Whitney Avenue.

A third and fledgling Chinatown is now emerging in Queens, geographically between Flushing and Elmhurst, in the neighborhood of Corona.

Koreatown (롱 아일랜드 코리아타운)

Main article: Koreatown, Long Island

There is a Koreatown which originated in Flushing, but has since spread eastward to Murray Hill, Bayside, Douglaston, and Little Neck in Queens, and also into Nassau County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the Korean population of Queens was 64,107.

Additional communities

The neighborhood of East Flushing, technically within Greater Flushing, houses a substantial Chinese community along with most of Downtown Flushing, but also includes substantial Irish, Greek, Russian, and Italian communities, as well as communities of Indians, Sri Lankans, Malaysians, and Hispanics, mostly Colombians and Salvadorans. This neighborhood tends to be more diverse visibly than Flushing Downtown because of the more even distribution of the ethnicities of East Flushing residents resulting in more businesses catering to each community rather than the dominance of Chinese and to a lesser extent Korean businesses in Downtown Flushing.

The northeastern section of Flushing near Bayside continues to maintain large Italian and Greek presences that are reflected in its many Italian and Greek bakeries, grocery stores and restaurants. The northwest is a mix of Jews, Greeks, and Italians. Most of central Flushing is an ethnic mix of Whites, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans.

An area south of Franklin Avenue houses a concentration of Indian, Pakistani, Afghan, and Bangladeshi markets. This concentration of South Asian businesses south of Franklin Avenue has existed since the late 1970s, one of the oldest Little Indias in North America. The Hindu Temple Society of North America (Sri Maha Vallabha Ganapati Devasthanam Sanskrit: श्री महावल्लभ गणपति देवस्थानम्) at 45-57 Bowne Street in Flushing was the very first of the traditional Hindu temples in the US.

Other notable neighborhoods

Broadway-Flushing, also known as North Flushing, is a residential area with many large homes. Part of this area has been designated a State and Federal historic district due to the elegant, park-like character of the neighborhood. Recently much of the area was rezoned by the City of New York to preserve the low density, residential quality of the area. The neighborhood awaits designation as an Historic District by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Broadway-Flushing is bounded by 29^th Avenue to the north, Northern Boulevard and Crocheron Avenue to the south, 155^th to the west and 172^nd Streets to the east.

The Waldheim neighborhood, an estate subdivision in Flushing constructed primarily between 1875 and 1925, is a small district of high quality "in-town" suburban architecture that preservationists have tried to save for at least twenty-five years. Waldheim (German for "home in the woods"), known for its large homes of varying architectural styles, laid out in an unusual street pattern, was the home of some of Flushing's wealthiest residents until the 1960s. Notable residents include the Helmann family of condiment fame, the Steinway family of piano notability, as well as A. Douglas Nash, who managed a nearby Tiffany glass plant. The neighborhood was rezoned by the City of New York in 2008, in order to halt the destruction of its original housing stock, which began in the late 1980s, and to help preserve the low density, residential character of the neighborhood. As with the Broadway neighborhood, preservationists have been unable to secure designation as an Historic District by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to date. Today, Waldheim stretches between Sanford and Franklin Avenues on the north, 45th Avenue on the south, Bowne Street on the west and Parsons Boulevard on the east. The area is immediately southeast of the downtown Flushing commercial core, and adjacent to the Kissena Park and East Flushing neighborhoods.

The area south of Kissena Park is often referred to as South Flushing.

Places

Houses of worship

The Hindu Temple Society of North America, representing the oldest Hindu temple in the US.

Pure Presbyterian Church.

Flushing is among the most religiously diverse communities in America. Today, Flushing abounds with houses of worship, ranging from the Dutch colonial epoch Quaker Meeting House, the historic Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Queens, St. Andrew Avellino Roman Catholic Church, St. George's Episcopal Church, the Free Synagogue of Flushing, the Congregation of Georgian Jews, St. Mel Roman Catholic Church, St. Michael's Catholic Church, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Shrine Church, St. John's Lutheran Church, Queensboro Hill Community Church, Hindu Temple Society of North America, and the Muslim Center of New York.

There are "over 200 places of worship in a small urban neighborhood about 2.5 square miles (6.3 square kilometers)." "Flushing has become a model for religious pluralism in America, says R. Scott Hanson, a visiting assistant professor of history at the State University of New York at Binghamton and an affiliate of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University."

In 1657, while Flushing was still a Dutch settlement, a document known as the Flushing Remonstrance was created by Edward Hart, the town clerk, where some thirty ordinary citizens protested a ban imposed by Peter Stuyvesant, the director general of New Amsterdam, forbidding the harboring of Quakers. The Remonstrants cited the Flushing Town charter of 1645 which promised liberty of conscience.

Landmarks, museums, and cultural institutions

Fitzgerald-Ginsberg Mansion.

Arthur Ashe Stadium, built in 1997 at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, is the world's largest tennis-specific stadium.

Flushing has many landmark buildings. Flushing Town Hall on Northern Boulevard is the headquarters of the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The building houses a concert hall and cultural center and is one of the sites designated along the Queens Historical Society's Freedom Mile.

Other registered New York City Landmarks include the Bowne House, Kingsland Homestead, Old Quaker Meeting House (1694), Flushing High School, St. George's Church (1854), the Lewis H. Latimer House, the former RKO Keith's movie theater, the United States Post Office on Main Street, and the Unisphere, the iconic 12-story-high stainless steel globe that served as the centerpiece for the 1964 New York World's Fair. The Flushing Armory, on Northern Boulevard, was formerly used by the National Guard. Presently, the Queens North Task Force of the New York City Police Department uses this building. In 2005, the Fitzgerald-Ginsberg Mansion on Bayside Avenue and in 2007, the Voelker Orth Museum, Bird Sanctuary and Victorian Garden were designated as landmarks.

Several attractions were originally developed for the World's Fairs in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. There is a stone marker for the two 5,000-year Westinghouse Time Capsules made of special alloys buried in the park, chronicling 20th-century life in the United States, dedicated both in 1938 and 1965. Also in the park are the Queens Museum of Art which features a scale model of the City of New York, the largest architectural model ever built; Queens Theatre in the Park; the New York Hall of Science and the Queens Zoo.

The Queens Botanical Garden on Main Street has been in operation continuously since its opening as an exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair. The Botanical Garden carries on Flushing's nearly three centuries-long horticultural tradition, dating back to its once famed tree nurseries and seed farms.

Parks

All the public parks and playgrounds in Flushing are supervised by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. For Queens County, the Department of Parks and Recreation is headquartered at The Overlook in Forest Park located in Kew Gardens.

• Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, a 1,255-acre (5.08 km²) park, is considered a flagship park in Queens. The site hosted two World's Fairs, the first in 1939–1940 and the second in 1964–1965. As the result, the park infrastructure reflects the construction undertaken for the Fairs. Also located here is Citi Field, home of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center which is the home of the US Tennis Open. In 2008, a new Aquatic Center was opened in the park.
• Kissena Park is a 234-acre (0.95 km²) park with a lake as a centerpiece.
• Queens Botanical Garden is a 39-acre (0.16 km²) garden comprising the upper portion of Flushing Meadows – Corona Park.
• Kissena Corridor Park is a 100.873-acre (0.40822 km²) park which connects two separate corridors, adjoining Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to Kissena Park. It contains a baseball field and it has a playground called Rachel Carson Playground.
• Bowne Park is an 11-acre (45,000 m²) park developed on the former estate of New York City Mayor Walter Bowne.
• Flushing Fields is a 10-acre (40,000 m²) greenbelt that includes the home athletic field of Flushing High School.

Economy

When New York Air existed, its headquarters were in Hangar 5 at LaGuardia Airport near Flushing. The sentimental global headquarters of Calabrese Creations in Iron, Inc. is on 160th street in Flushing.

Education

Public schools in Flushing are supervised by the New York City Department of Education through Administrative District 25. There are numerous public Elementary and Junior High Schools in Flushing and students generally attend a school based on the location of their residence.

Public schools

Public elementary and middle schools include: John Bowne Elementary P.S. 120, P.S. 21 Edward Hart Elementary School, P.S. 22, Andrew Jackson Elementary P.S. 24, Cadwallader Colden Elementary P.S. 214, P.S. 32, Adrien Block Intermediate I.S. 25, J.H.S. 185 Edward Bleeker Junior High School.

IS 237

IS 237

The East-West School

The six public high schools in Flushing are:

• John Bowne High School
• East-West School of International Studies
• Robert F. Kennedy Community High School
• Townsend Harris High School, a selective high school located on the Queens College campus, was once ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the best public high schools in the United States.
• The Flushing International High School
• Flushing High School, the oldest public high school in the City of New York. It is housed in a distinctive Gothic Revival building built between 1912 and 1915 and declared a NYC Landmark in 1991.

I.S. 237

I.S. 237, an arts-oriented magnet school also known as Rachel Carson Intermediate School 237, is also located in Flushing, at 46-21 Colden Street. This school consists of grades 6, 7, and 8. The school was named after scientist Rachel Carson, the writer of Silent Spring which inspired people to name the school after her; it opened in 1971. Each year in June for the 8th graders they have a senior trip to the Poconos. In 1999 the school took ownership of a park called Rachel Carson Playground, which is right across from the school. Judith Friedman is the principal of the school, which has over 800 students. Since 2006 the school made room for a new school to use the space up on the 4th floor for the East-West School of International Studies.

East-West School of International Studies

The East-West School of International Studies (Public School Q278) was established in 2006 in I.S. 237; the school serves students in grades 6-12 with an emphasis on Asian studies. It opened in September 2006 with 6th through 12th grade classes. Operated by the New York City Department of Education, it is led by principal Ben Sherman, has an average class size of 25 students, and has a student-teacher ratio of 14.9:1 in 2006-07, As it shares space with I.S. 237, the education department is looking at sites for the East-West School to occupy, including a nearby Home Depot.

The East-West School curriculum prepares students to graduate high school with a Regents' diploma and proficiency in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

Student groups and activities include erhu club, anime club, art, STEP team, dance team calligraphy, chess club, dance, film-making, MOUSE Squad (student computer maintenance), mentoring, Model United Nations, music, newspaper, peer tutoring, step club, Korean Traditional Painting, Korean dancing and singing, and student government. Athletic clubs and teams include basketball, yoga, martial arts, soccer, t'ai chi, judo, and table tennis.

Private schools

The private high schools include:

• Archbishop Molloy High School
• Holy Cross High School

On December 22, 1980, The Japanese School of New York moved from Jamaica Estates, Queens into Fresh Meadows, Queens, near Flushing. In 1991, the school moved to Yonkers in Westchester County, New York, before moving to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1992.

Higher education

Queens College's Student Union building.

Queens College, founded in 1937, is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY), and is commonly misconstrued to be within Flushing neighborhood limits due to its Flushing mailing address. It is actually located in the nearby neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills on Kissena Boulevard near the Long Island Expressway. The City University of New York School of Law was founded in 1983 adjacent to the Queens College campus, and was located at 65-21 Main Street in Kew Gardens Hills until 2012. It moved to Long Island City for the Fall 2012 Semester. The Law School operates Main Street Legal Services Corp., a legal services clinic.

Libraries

A branch of the Queens Library in Flushing.

Entrance to the Flushing – Main Street terminus station of the IRT Flushing Line (7 and <7>​ trains) is one of the busiest stations in the New York City Subway system.

In 1858, the first library in Queens County was founded in Flushing. Today, there are eight branches of the Queens Borough Public Library with Flushing addresses. The largest of the Flushing branches is located at the intersection of Kissena Boulevard and Main Street in Flushing's Chinatown and is the busiest branch of the highest circulation system in the country. This library has and houses an auditorium for public events. The current building, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, is the third to be built on the site—the first was a gift of Andrew Carnegie.

Transportation

The New York City Subway operates the IRT Flushing Line (7 and <7>​ trains), which provides a direct subway link to Manhattan's 34th Street, Times Square, Fifth Avenue, and Grand Central stations. The Flushing – Main Street station, located at the intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue, is currently the eastern terminus of the line. Until the Flushing line made its way to the intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue in 1928, the center of Flushing was considered to be at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and Main Street.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch that has five rail road stations in Flushing. The Flushing – Main Street is located one block away from the subway station that bears the same name. The other stations in the neighborhood are Mets – Willets Point, Murray Hill, Broadway and Auburndale. The Long Island Rail Road provides a direct rail link to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.

Major highways that serve the area include the Van Wyck Expressway, Whitestone Expressway, Grand Central Parkway, and Long Island Expressway. Northern Boulevard extends from the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City through Flushing into Nassau County.

There are also many buses run by Metropolitan Transportation Authority affiliate New York City Bus (routes Q12, Q13, Q15, Q15A, Q16, Q17, Q20A, Q20B, Q26, Q27, Q28, Q44, Q48, Q58) and subsidiary MTA Bus Company (routes Q19, Q25, Q34, Q50, Q65, Q66). The n20 and n21 Nassau Inter-County Express bus routes terminate in Flushing.

Political clout

The political stature of Flushing appears to be increasing significantly, with many Chinese from Flushing becoming New York City Council members. Taiwan-born John Liu, former New York City Council member representing District 20, which includes Flushing and other northern Queens neighborhoods, was elected to his current position of New York City Comptroller in November 2009. Concomitantly, Peter Koo, born in Shanghai, China was elected to succeed Liu to assume this council membership seat.

In popular culture

• The first series of Charmin toilet paper commercials featuring Mr. Whipple (Dick Wilson) were filmed in Flushing at the Trade Rite supermarket on Bowne Street.
• The rock band KISS first played at the Coventry Club on Queens Boulevard in 1973, and is said to have derived its name from "Kissena," one of Flushing's major boulevards.
• Joel Fleischman, the fictional character from the 1990s comedic drama Northern Exposure, was said to have relocated from Flushing. Often, references were made to actual locations around Main Street, Flushing.
• The eponymous celebration in Taiwanese director Ang Lee's 1993 comedy hit, The Wedding Banquet, takes place in Downtown Flushing's Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel.
• Fran Drescher's character "Fran Fine" on the TV show The Nanny, was said to have been raised in Flushing, where her family still lived. Drescher was born in Flushing Hospital.
• Flushing was the location of the Stark Industries (later Stark International) munitions plant in Marvel Comics' original Iron Man series. In the movie Iron Man 2, the Stark Expo is located in Flushing.
• On the Norman Lear-produced TV show All in the Family, in the episode when Edith Bunker was arrested for shop lifting, she mentions the now-defunct Q14 bus, and the names of a few long-gone stores that were in downtown Flushing.
• The main characters of The Black Stallion series resided in Flushing and many of Flushing's streets and landmarks in the 1940s were mentioned in the first book.
• In the musical Hair the character Claude Bukowski is from Flushing.

Notable people

Notable residents

• Tommy Victor, rock singer, guitarist, songwriter
• Ken Levine, Creator of Bioshock Series, CEO of Irrational Games
• Cathy Ladman, stand-up comedian, actor, writer (grew up in Little Neck)
• Judd Apatow, stand-up comedian, director, producer, screenwriter
• Annet Artani, singer/songwriter and international pop star
• Yak Ballz, rapper, born Yashar Zadeh
• Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America
• Jerry Beck, animation historian
• Michael Bellusci, musician
• Black Sheep (hip hop group), rap group
• James A. Bland singer and composer
• Joe Bolton (September 8, 1910 – August 13, 1986) was the host of the WPIX show "Clubhouse Gang" and "The Three Stooges Funhouse" as Officer Joe Bolton. Bolton was also The Police Chief mc of"The Dick Tracy Show".
• Action Bronson, Rapper
• Godfrey Cambridge African American comedian and actor
• Fidel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart, Fidel Castro's son
• Joseph Cornell, artist
• Fran Drescher, actress, author, politician/humanitarian, cancer survivor, activist (known for The Nanny as Fran Fine)
• Tom Duane, first outwardly gay member of the New York State Senate
• Jimmy Durante, comedian
• Jon Favreau, actor/producer/director
• F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940), novelist (29-34 146th Street)
• Franky G, actor
• Mic Geronimo, rapper
• Charles Dana Gibson, illustrator
• Mary Gordon, writer
• Al Greenwood, former keyboardist of Foreigner
• Marvin Hamlisch, composer
• Heejun Han, American Idol contestant
• Mark Hurd, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard
• Sarah Jones, Tony Award-winning stage actress and poet
• Steve Karsay, baseball player
• Keith and The Girl, podcasters
• Kevin "Flushing Flash" Kelley, boxer
• Large Professor, hip-hop producer
• Gene Larkin, Major League Baseball player
• Lewis Latimer, inventor
• Gene Mayer, tennis player
• Sandy Mayer, tennis player
• Nettie Mayersohn, New York Assemblywoman from 1983 to 2011
• Charles Momsen, vice admiral who organized rescue of USS Squalus
• Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer
• Rick Moonen, executive chef of RM Seafood and R Bar Café at Mandalay Bay
• Lewis Mumford, architecture critic and historian
• A. Douglas Nash, Manager and Designer for world-famous Tiffany Glassworks, resided in the Waldheim neighborhood
• Prong, crossover thrash band
• Richard Outcault, creator of Buster Brown, The Yellow Kid, and Hogan's Alley
• Samuel Parsons, landscape architect
• Nancy Reagan, actress and former First Lady
• Richard Riorden, Los Angeles mayor
• Royal Flush, rapper
• John Seery, artist
• Kasey Smith, Danger Danger keyboardist
• Paul Stanley, member of the band KISS
• Beau Starr, actor
• Mike Starr, actor
• Jeannie Suk, Professor of Law / Harvard Law School
• Himanshu Suri, musician
• Bill Viola, video artist
• Suzanne Weyn, children's author
• Harvey and Bob Weinstein, founders of Miramax and the Weinstein Company
• John Williams, academy award winning film composer
• John Vinocur, journalist
• Najibullah Zazi, convicted al-Qaeda member
• Henry E. Steinway

Buried in Flushing

See also: Flushing Cemetery

• John Bowne, Quaker advocate
• Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, mob boss
• Alan King, comedian
• Louis Armstrong, famed jazz trumpeter and singer
• Bernard Baruch, financier
• Eugene Bullard, the first Black military pilot
• Ellis Parker Butler, author noted for the story Pigs is Pigs
• Dr. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.
• Blossom Dearie, singer and pianist
• Jack Gilford, comedian and actor.
• Waxey Gordon, notable American gangster
• Dizzy Gillespie, famed jazz trumpeter and singer
• Hermann Grab, Bohemian writer
• Thomas Birdsall Jackson, United States Congressman
• Bert Lahr, actor
• Molly Picon, Yiddish stage and film star
• Lemuel E. Quigg, United States Representative from New York
• May Robson, actress
• Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, celebrated husband and wife, Yiddish theatre stars
• Aris San, acclaimed Greek-Israeli singer

See also

Chinatowns:

• Chinatown
• Chinese Americans in New York City
• Chinatown, Brooklyn (布鲁克林華埠)
• Chinatown, Manhattan (紐約華埠)
• Little Hong Kong/Guangdong(小香港/廣東)
• Little Fuzhou (小福州)
• Chinatown, Elmhurst (唐人街, 艾姆赫斯特) and Corona, Queens
• Chinatown, Avenue U (唐人街, U大道)
• Chinatown, Bensonhurst (唐人街, 本森社区)
• Chinatowns in Canada and the United States
• List of Chinatowns in the United States

Koreatowns:

• Koreatown
• Koreatown, Manhattan
• Koreatown, Long Island
• Koreatown, Fort Lee
• Koreatown, Palisades Park

Other:

• Long Island
• Flushing Bay
• LaGuardia Airport
• Main Street (Queens)
• Adjacent neighborhoods:
  • Corona, Queens
  • East Elmhurst, Queens
  • Elmhurst, Queens
  • Auburndale, Queens
  • Murray Hill, Queens