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Snack Happy in Jackson Heights

If you go poking around the hood, there really is no sign, nothing that speaks of the gentleman or his invention, but if you ask enough old timers about Butts, then you’ll get the lowdown on what exactly transpired.

Alfred Butts, was an out of work architect, who wasn’t really happy with the state of board games back in the 1930′s.  He figured that by putting together word games and anagrams, he would be able to give people a game that they would enjoy. Enter, “Criss Cross.” Bad name–but what else could you expect from a guy named Butts? Anyhoo, after trifling with “Lexiko,” the board game was finally christened “Scrabble” by entrepreneur James Brunot.  The rest, is H-I-S-T-O-R-Y.

To add a visual element to my ramble, here is a charming video made by Columbia Journalism Students Benedict Moran and Sruthi Gottipati, about Scrabble in Jackson Heights.

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In Jackson Heights
If It’s Green–It Must Be a Garden Apartment
Jackson Heights Serves Up A Shot of Cool
Snack-Happy in Jackson Heights

So here goes. From fluffly Dhoklas to Alu Paranthas, Idlis and Dosas…we all know Jackson Heights has it all.

But Edible Queens is stuffing it in our face. So, we decided to take a big chomp at it! Here’s a yummy article on seven snacks that satisfy in Jackson Heights.

Wait..no mention of Samosas in that piece. Most dissapointing. Wag of the finger, shake of the head. No worries, we put up our own picture of a samosa to satisfy our cravings.

Related Content:
In Jackson Heights
If It’s Green–It Must Be a Garden Apartment
Jackson Heights Serves Up A Shot of Cool

Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons

As the 7 train climbs overland and clatters noisily into Queens, the demographic shift in the subway car is perceptible. Skin tones get darker, hemlines lower and necklines higher.

The car slowly fills with Koreans, Hispanic families and middle- aged Indian men reading the newspaper.

Incomprehensible chatter fills the air and boils down to a babble as the train pulls into Roosevelt Avenue stop.

The train empties out as groups scurry into their different enclaves to either enjoy a lazy afternoon or get down to business.

No Habla Espanol!
As I get off the Roosevelt Avenue stop and walk across the rows of Mexican and Colombian restaurants, young panhandlers try to sell me fruits that I have never seen or Arepas I have never tasted.

I ask an old man minding a newsstand for directions. He responds in rapid Spanish. He notes my expression of total and utter incomprehension and waves me away from the Spanish side towards the Indian Side of Jackson Heights that starts at 74th street.

Is it just me, or does this place smell like Home?!
I knew I hit home-base, when I see the chaos on the streets. If we are what we drive, then the random parking, the honking and the abject jaywalking showed me the reassuring presence of less civic minded Indians.

A harassed looking traffic cop, explained to me as she wrote out a ticket to a protesting young Indian male ‘They would rather park on this one crowded street than go down three blocks and find some empty places’. Sounds just like home!

Loud Punjabi music blares in "Little India" - Jackson Heights (Pic: Smriti Rao)

The air gets thicker with music at each step. Loud Punjabi music blares from outside shops selling the latest Hindi, Punjabi and devotional music. A turbaned Sikh man hands me a leaflet for newly opened Mehak Beauty Parlor and says, in what can only be interpreted as a reprimand “Eyebrows- Wax!”  I pass.

The market on 74th street, with the South Asian shops pulses and pounds like any other market from back home. This could be Delhi, Dhaka or just plain Jackson Heights.

With an estimated 250 small and medium-sized businesses – the South Asian community (including Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshi and Nepalis)- works within a two block radius from 74th street to 76th street.

A relaxation of the immigration policies during the Kennedy Administration led to a sharp increase in immigration during the 1960’s. Thousands of Asians and Latin Americans arrived on the scene making Jackson Heights their home.

It prompted some people to call this section of Queens ‘The Ellis Island of the 20th century’. By 1965, South Asian and Latino immigrants settled into their neighborhoods giving rise to ‘Little India’ and ‘Little Colombia’

On 74th street, my greedy eyes spot a Kebab King in the corner, zoom into Jackson Diner which is ‘world famous in New York’ and then settle on Delhi Heights – one of the many places where one could drop by for authentic Indian Cuisine.

The choices have now expanded to include restaurants that serve Afghan, Tibetan and Nepali cuisine.

If you would rather whip up your own Dal Makhni or make a mean Paneer Tikka, then Patel Brothers is a virtual Wal-Mart of spices as you try and pick all the ingredients that go into a home cooked Indian meal. Patel Brothers also boasts of a clientele that comes in not just from  New York City but also New Jersey and Connecticut.

God Tussi Great Ho!

Eagle Theatre in Jackson Heights screens all the latest Hindi movies

But apart from the food and shopping, Little India’s cultural aspirations would be miniscule if it did not include a large bit of Bollywood. At Eagle Theatre, visitors and residents of Jackson Heights get their weekly dose of drama and fantasy song and dance sequences.

Audiences sigh and clap and indulge Bollywood’s absurdity as two long lost brothers unite half way across the world thanks to matching tattoos on their arms.

Hard core hindi movie buffs can hop off the ‘7’, trade popcorn for samosas and immerse themselves in 3 hours of magic and mayhem.

Beneath The Business
Beneath the frantic throb of business on 74th street however, there’s a hum of anxiety. Rising rents and a lack of proper parking space on the main strip worries traders.

At the JMD Mall, which proclaims to be the first South Asian mall in New York – the tension is tangible. K K Sharma, a long time employee points outside the window to a parking meter.

‘It’s a big market, but there’s no open parking. Customers want to shop, but they double park on this street, then get tickets. They have no place to park their cars’.

3 stores down, Mudassar Khan of Khan Electronics agrees with Sharma. He adds skyrocketing rents as one of the other reasons why business on 74th street is floundering. Thanks to the high connectivity with Manhattan and the rest of New York, real estate values in the commercial area have shot up, increasing rents to a level that’s unaffordable to most of the small Mom and Pop stores in the area.

As a result, many of them have shut shop. Sitting in his small shop stacked with electronic goods, Mudassar points out that he pays $6000 a month as rent and barely makes a profit.

The existence of the Jackson Heights Traders Association is crucial to these businesses. It provides them with not just a means of redressal in an area, dominated by traditional rivals – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; but also allows the traders to formulate programs that promote cultural harmony.

Mudassar says he looks forward to the Diwali program – which not just has DJs and hindi music, but also draws in a huge expat crowd from across NYC and New Jersey. It’s not just great entertainment but also good business.

Together, But Separate:
But despite the South Asian community coming together for trade and cultural purposes- just a few blocks down- The Latino side of Jackson Heights, with a mixed population of Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, stays on its side of the fence.

Traders from both sides don’t mix and don’t see any reason to. Bill Rubino, of Stanley’s Home Furnishings on the Latino side of Jackson Heights has worked in the area since 1961. He says he never goes over ‘to the ‘other side’ except to get his ‘hair cut and eyebrows done’.

Part 2 of “In Jackson Heights” will have more about the neighborhood and feature the  famed Garden Apartments.

Get fresh coffee at Espresso 77, Jackson Heights (Pic Courtesy: Espresso 77)

Quirky is a word that gets thrown about quite a bit when talking about New York coffee shops.

But when you’re a slice of bohemian cool in a market place hemmed in by Indian purveyors of samosas, curries and kababs —the aura of a shop’s froths transforms an ordinary cup o’ joe into something outside the ordinary.

The quirky aura sits well with Espresso 77, a coffee shop in Jackson Heights — on 77th Street, of course.

The cafe was set up by Afzal Hussein in a unique location, away from the main bustle of Jackson Heights’ uber-commercial 74th Street.

Hussein has the look of a man who’s seen many capitulate to the smell and taste of coffee. “Not everybody likes Indian food,” Hussein says, referring to the multitude of South Asian food joints on 74th Street. “But coffee? Everybody loves coffee.”

An architect by training, Hussein left his Manhattan firm in 2006 to pursue his dream of owning a coffee shop. Buying the small storefront, he and wife, Julie, set about doing the interior. “It’s all about presentation,” Hussein says, comparing his coffee shop’s ambience with other establishments in the area.

He says he finds other restaurants’ interiors too bare — with an undue, though some would say necessary, emphasis on people getting in, eating and leaving.

Hussein set about creating a business model that aspires to be the antithesis of a Jackson Diner, as well as Starbucks. “We want them to linger,” he said. “We want the bohemia of the 50s and 60’s of the Village, right here in Jackson Heights.”

As Hussein speaks, a longtime customer, Conrad Stogel, ambles outside to sit on the coffee shop’s bench and sip a hot chocolate he just bought inside. “I get so stressed out at work,” Stogel said, “I look forward to coming here to unwind.”

Inside, web designer Matt Mentz hunches over his laptop. He likes hanging out at Espresso 77 because he feels it is not a “get up and get out” place. “I can actually drink my coffee without people hating me for staying,” Mentz said.

Mentz’s feelings resonate with several Jackson Heights’ residents, who find the cafe a watering hole of sorts. Neighbors catch up outside, friends gossip inside. “The street outside was dead earlier. Now, there’s more foot traffic,” Hussein said. “People meet, greet and stay to talk.”

Each month, Espresso 77 also provides a venue for neighborhood musicians to play, for artists to show their work and for parents to encourage the seemingly lost art of reading books. Even the bathroom was turned over to a local artist who covered the tiny space with brushstrokes.

“People are always looking for something special,” Hussein says. “And if you want something special, you gotta pay for it.”  It’s an attitude that turns away some customers, who wince when they read the prices written on the cafe’s chalkboard. “Then, they go to Starbucks,” Hussein said.

While Hussein has managed to create a successful local brand for himself, he still struggles to increase the volume of his business. Adding new customers in a residential area is his biggest challenge.  But Hussein is optimistic about his business’ prospects. “People come from Bushwick, Jamaica, other parts of Queens,” he said. “The taste of my coffee will bring them back.”

Day laborers gather at Hart Part, Queens for a hot breakfast given by a local soup kitchen. Residents are angry at the increasing crowds milling outside the park (Photo: Smriti Rao)

On any given day, you would find day worker Jose Manuel at Hart Park, 69th at 37th Avenue, Jackson Heights. The painter from Mexico comes to the park each morning hoping to be picked up for work. On Tuesdays, a mobile soup kitchen run by St. John’s Bread and Life provides him and his friends with a hot breakfast of pasta and beans that makes the wait, which has gotten longer, a little more bearable.

“I have been coming here for a long time now,” said Manuel, eating his breakfast. “Earlier they weren’t this many people,” he said referring to about 60 day laborers still waiting for work at 10.30 in the morning. “But now there are no jobs,” he continues, adding “maybe in January it will get a little better.”

As Manuel and his friends mill outside Hart Park waiting for work; across the street, Stathis Amides, the superintendent of the building across the Park is seething. He stands with a small camera in his hand to record any digressions the workers make.

“I have been seeing this for a year now,” says Amidis, referring to the mobile soup kitchen. “They feed the people, then the workers take their platters to Roosevelt Avenue, and litter all along the block,” he said, adding he was normally up at about 6 am each day to clean up after the workers. “This is a very big problem for me,” he fumed.

Amidis is not alone in his anger towards the workers. A group of irritated residents went as far as posting on a neighborhood blog, their complaints against the soup kitchen and the workers.

Amidst calls for the soup kitchen to move elsewhere in Woodside, the angry residents, who were unnamed on the blog wrote: “Their [the soup kitchen] intrusion into our neighborhood is unwanted and unneeded. None of the residents ever take food from them.” Saying the soup kitchen feeding immigrants was a “creepy intrusion,” the residents worried about their children being exposed to the workers, complained about the bathrooms in the park getting dirty and said the soup kitchen and the day laborers both contributed in reducing the quality of life in the neighborhood.

St.John’s Bread and Life says it is bewildered by the open hostility. “We have been doing this [running the soup kitchen], at the same site, for the last two years now,” said Anthony Butler, Executive Director of the program that feeds roughly 300 laborers at Hart Park each Tuesday and about 3000 others city wide. “But the complaints started just two months ago. It’s kind of xenophobic, really,” he said, adding while undocumented labor was a big issue in the Country, people were being scrooges at this time of the year. “So, should we only feed people who are legal,” he asked adding there was a great deal of racism when it came to to the complaints. “We have seen a 20-30% increase in laborers because of the recession, and we have also seen an uptick in anti-immigrant sentiment. The undocumented [laborers] get blamed for everything,” he said.

Meanwhile, Amides, who has to deal with the workers on an everyday basis, said he wasn’t against the workers, only their attitudes. “Everyday, they bother the tenants,” he said, referring to the workers, “they tease the young girls, “Yo mamita, Yo mamita,” he mimicked.”I understand they are looking for jobs, but I can’t understand them bothering the little girls.”

Residents also complain that they feel unsafe for their children when the workers are milling about Hart Park.”We don’t mind them staying in Woodside, but not on the playground,” said another resident who wished to be unnamed. “They [the soup kitchen] are welcome to stay in Woodside,” she said, “Just move three or four blocks in either direction.”

A request that Sister Kathy Byrnes of St. John’s Bread and Life says, is untenable. “Some neighborhoods want immigrants to disappear,” she said, “We came here because the workers gather here, it’s not the other way around. We try to serve those most in need.” She said that since the soup kitchen clarified park rules,  workers have been notified not to enter Hart Park, as it is against the rules to enter the park without children. “Now, they don’t go into the park, but they can use the bathrooms,” she specified, much to the chagrin of the residents.

As the soup kitchen and the residents battle it out, workers like Jose and his friends admit to a few bad apples in their crowd. “Sometimes, some workers drink in the park in summer,” Jose said, “we tell them not to, but they still do it,” he added. He said the workers were warned by the local precinct to behave and added that it was a  shame that some workers didn’t play by the rules. “This is where we have to meet everyday,” he said, referring to the pick up point. “If they [residents] kick us out from here, where will we go?” he asked, as he finished his breakfast and started another long wait in the biting cold – hoping to be picked up for work.

This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle

No need to worry. With the smorgasbord of ethnic communities that make up Queens, you can stay local but shop global — and not break the bank.

From Dragon statuettes and Tibetan artifacts to handmade soap and scents, Queens has unique stores with big ideas and small price tags.

Ticket to India

Holiday shopping at the Butala Emporium, Jackson Heights (Picture: Julie Court)

No need to fork out $1500 on a plane ticket to India. Instead, find your inner peace — and gifts from the subcontinent — in Jackson Heights at Butala Emporium.

Pamper your senses with the natural, musky aroma of incense from India. Boxes of the scented sticks are cheap and make great gifts.

If you’re looking for something more decorative, head down to the basement, where you can find traditional hand-crafted puppets from Rajasthan and wall hangings with cute elephants and camels. The bright blues, reds and yellows will help brighten up any dreary day. Prices start at $15.

Butala Emporium is located at 37-46 74th St., Jackson Heights. (718) 899-5590

Tryst with Tibet
If Indian artifacts don’t calm your quest for inner gift happiness, then Tibet might hold the key to holiday salvation. Jewels of Buddha, neatly tucked away in Astoria, is a treasure trove of pretty jewelry from Tibet, Nepal and India.

The hand-crafted sterling silver drop earrings with colored stones are classics and can be used to add a dash of the Orient to spice up any outfit.

The store also stocks hand-printed tunics and scarves, traditional Buddhist ritual bells, conch shells, prayer beads and felt bags.

Jewels of Buddha is located at 31-90 37th St, Astoria. (646) 784-7875.

Trees and cheese

Hand made wooden toys at the Czech-Slovak store (Pic: Julie Court)

Need some new tree ornaments? Check out the tiny Czech/Slovak gift store on Jackson Avenue near 50th Avenue.

From tiny, hand-crafted wooden angels imported from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, to hand-blown glass Christmas ornaments, you’ll find items that are simple and artisanal.

If you feeling really adventurous, you can also make a go of gifting some Czech or Slovak food items, such as Slovak bryndza, or sheep’s milk cheese, which is similar to feta or parenica cheese.

Slovak-Czech Varieties is located at 1059 Jackson Ave., Long Island City. (718) 752-2093.

Kenyan masks at the Nubian Heritage store in Jamaica (Pic: Smriti Rao)

Next stop, Africa
Don’t feel like trudging up all the way to Harlem to shop for something Afro-centric?

Then check out Nubian Heritage of Jamaica.

With traditional scented oils to soothe frayed nerves, organic bath salts and herbs, the smells of Mozambique, Kenya and Liberia hang heavy in the store’s air.

The shop also boasts handmade silver jewelry, earrings and necklaces made of conch shells and Egyptian prints and artifacts.

Owner Chris Best, who is Liberian, imports his goods directly from the continent, stocking up not just on handmade leather pouches from Kenya, but also drums, masks and other African-themed knicknacks from countries as diverse as Mozambique and the Ivory Coast.

For the bookworms, there’s a wide variety of literature exploring the black, African and the Caribbean experiences.

Don’t forget to check out the Voodoo Handook of Cult Secrets (to unhex a spell that has been cast on you).

If the handbook doesn’t do the trick, try out the “Go Away Evil” soap.

Nubian Heritage of Jamaica is located at 155-03 Jamaica Ave. (718) 291-5105.

Feeling low? Here’s some Bamboo
If the recession continues to bog you down, why not try some feng shui to ease those blues?

At Lucky Bamboo Flower Shop on Flushing’s bustling Main Street, pick up gifts the Chinese believe will fetch you love, luck, money or even a job — like the Lucky Bamboo!

The Lucky Bamboo plant is not really a bamboo plant, but a member of the lily family meant to be a symbol of good fortune.

Practitioners of the ancient Chinese science of feng shui believe the bamboo represents the wood element, which influences life energy, growth, vitality and physical energy.

While buying your Lucky Bamboo, keep in mind that the number of stalks you buy has significance: three means happiness and longevity, five means wealth.

Other items at the store include dragon statuettes, representative of fame and career prospects, a collection of Chinese wall art, lucky jade figurines and several laughing Buddhas.

Lucky Bamboo Flower Shop is located at 41-42 Main Street, Flushing. (718) 939-3385.

Happy Holidays!

This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle

Sandra Park of Queens Community House, left, and Jackson Heights residents Nuala Narango, Nuala O'Doherty and Paul Bundarin discuss ways to improve their community and increase the area’s green space. PHOTO BY SMRITI RAO

Saturday may be the hardest morning to crawl out of bed, but this week more than 100 residents of Jackson Heights gathered at the Renaissance Charter High School on 81st Street to brainstorm how to make their community greener.

Jackson Heights was originally intended to be a “garden in the city.” Edward MacDougall who headed the Queensboro Corporation, which developed the area in 1908, wanted to build a “city within a city” and began creating garden apartments, with the intention that working class folks could have access to greenery, sunlight and fresh air at home.

Many of those pre-war co-ops are still around, boasting immaculate gardens, but they are among only a relative few green spaces in the area, and Jackson Heights ranks 50th out of the city’s 51 council districts in available park space.

To make matters worse, at least in the short term, the city recently announced that Travers Park, the only neighborhood playground, will be closed for renovations for upwards of nine months, temporarily straining outdoor resources further.

Saturday’s meeting, organized by the Queens Community House along with Friends of Travers Park, a committee of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group and the Pratt Center for Community Development, marks the start of a three-month conversation among residents aimed at outlining what the community sees as Jackson Heights’ most pressing green needs.

“The first stage is community dialogue,” explained Vicky Weiner, director of planning and presentation at the Pratt Center for Community Development, “so the discussion can go home, to your place of work, the children can talk about the community’s issues to their friends in school.”

In the school auditorium, residents sat down in groups over coffee and muffins and began listing grievances.
“There are no public green spaces,” said Roy Sirengu, who moved to Jackson Heights with his wife earlier this year.

“I walk around a lot, bike a lot,” added another resident named Louis So. “The funny thing is there are no places to sit in this area — no public benches.”

“We need better parks, more trees,” piped in 8-year-old Nuala Naranjo, the youngest and most vocal participant at the table.

There were calls for restaurants to start composting to curb the amount of trash they generate, and for additional garbage cans to be brought in. Residents complained of bus exhaust and dog feces, drug dealing and graffiti on the BQE.

It wasn’t all gloom and doom at the tables; participants also spoke of what they love about life in Jackson Heights. “There is a big sense of community,” said little Nuala’s mother, Nuala O’Doherty. “I lived in Long Island City for 20 years, but no one knew me. Here, I go to the cleaners, and they go, ‘Hi there.’”

The next step in the journey toward greening involves creating “community workbooks.”

“The idea is that the community boards talk to their residents and fill out the workbook,” said Michael Epp from the Pratt Center. “Mayor Bloomberg’s office has PlaNYC 2030, which asks the question ‘How do we make New York City more sustainable?’ But what this means for individual neighborhoods is still up to residents to define.”

At community board meetings, residents will discuss and rank the issues that annoy them in the neighborhood and will fill out the workbooks accordingly.

The greening group will meet again in February, compile workbook answers and discuss what can be done to address prevalent issues of concern.

The mayor has pledged to eventually have a park within a 10-minute walk of every city resident, and Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst), whose district encompasses part of Jackson Heights, says she plans to “hold the mayor accountable to that commitment.”

Ferreras didn’t attend last weekend’s meeting but said park space is “vital to the health of our communities.”

This piece first appeared in Queens Chronicle.

The city recently acquired the building that formerly housed the Blessed Sacrament School and plans to open a new public school there in September 2010

For many students in Queens, overcrowded schools are a constant reality. Each day they jostle and push through crammed hallways, squeezing into classrooms designed for fewer occupants.

Some students in Jackson Heights, however, may soon be granted a reprieve, as the city has acquired the Blessed Sacrament School building at 34-20 94th St. and will be turning the facility into a public school, set to open in September 2010. The new school is expected to eventually house 700 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

“We need a few thousand seats to prevent overcrowding in Jackson Heights,” said Isaac Carmignani, president of Community District Education Council District 30, the advisory board for District 30. “This new school is a very big deal, because it is hard to get new buildings.”

After months of speculation, the school was finally acquired from the Catholic Diocese, which had shut down Blessed Sacrament as enrollment levels at the Catholic school dropped to a precipitous low of 180 students in January 2009.

On Thursday, members of CDEC 30 brainstormed what the new curriculum for the school ought to be, with five educators from across the city presenting proposals.

Jackson Heights is one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods, with families from South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as a vibrant Latino community, with immigrants primarily from Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Members at the meeting agreed the new curriculum should reflect the area’s range of ethnicities.

Lenia Matias, a teacher and aspiring principal from Brooklyn, proposed a multilingual program wherein children would have the option of learning core subjects like math and science in English and Spanish on alternate days. Matias also suggested that children be given the option of learning a third language — perhaps Hindi or Bangla.

Jacqueline Coombs, who has been an educator for the last 17 years, also supported the idea of having the curriculum reflect the diversity of the neighborhood.

“For example, Friday would be ‘game day,’ and we can use this day to learn how math across the world is different and how different cultures add and subtract differently,” Coombs said, alluding to the use of the abacus and other counting instruments that would be used to enhance the learning experience.

The use of the school building after school hours also came up for discussion. “I see a lot of kids who are in the school till 3 p.m. and then go home and sit in front of the TV,” said Darwin Smith, another educator who presented a proposal. “We can use the building to house these students, so they can use their time in a more constructive fashion.”

Smith pointed out that school buildings are community properties and often lie unused in the evenings. By keeping the school accessible until 8 or 9 p.m., he indicated the building would be utilized for more youth programs.

Setting a new curriculum is a lengthy process, in which both the city’s Department of Education and the relevant CDEC consider an array of proposals.

CDEC 30 will meet again in December to discuss the proposals, hear public comments and incorporate changes into the possible plans. Ultimately, the DOE will decide on a curriculum. The person who proposed the curriculum may become the new principal, although that is not always the case.

This piece was first published in Queens Chronicle