NYT Article Criticizing JH

[intercaecos]

Believe me, if I could afford a $900K apartment in Park Slope, I would move in a minute and “celebrate diversity” with all the other white liberals there.  If I was truly wealthy, I’d move to Park Avenue and “celebrate diversity” with Leonard Bernstein and his crowd as portrayed in Tom Wolfe’s New York magazine article “Radical Chic”. 

What admirable candor! This poster can be depended on to be refreshingly honest, sensible and free of the ridiculous political correctness that so pervades this site. I moved to Jackson Heights eight years ago because I could afford to buy an elegant apartment here with a formal dining room, a fireplace and a spectacular view of a lush private garden. End of story! It certainly had nothing to do with restaurants or ethnicities.  If I could have afforded to buy on Fifth Avenue or in Brooklyn Heights, I most certainly would have done so!

[julesnyc]

The Times has posted letters:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/nyregion/thecity/11lett.html?_r=1&ref=thecity

[liam0925]

I agree with wait 500 although I had trouble copying his quote: "As a relative noob, I still feel so incredibly fortunate to live right here!"
This is my second incarnation here, and every day for the past two years I am so glad I came back!

[elyaqim]

I have a comment to this part of the discussion.  Believe it or not my partner and I did 'choose' JH.  After living in Hoboken for over 16 years we grew tired of the transient, young, white yuppy influx to the point of deciding to leave.  The soul of the town had vanished, and we went looking for someplace that would allow us to live mortgage free, easy commute, with with a rich diversity.  Here we have been welcomed with open arms by our neighbors, all shop owners, and we have had only great experiences at restaurants.  I don't feel like we settled for JH, I am happy that it exists and that we were able to move here.

I also explicitly chose JH. Were I wealthy, maybe I would have chosen Manhattan, as John Prester discussed, but I would like to think I would have instead just chosen a more upscale building here in JH. When I emerged from the subway in JH to view my current apartment for the first time, I loved the neighborhood even more than when I had been researching it. In my year living here so far, I have attended a far greater diversity of community events than I did in the Bronx in any one year of living there (and I lived there all my life). The author of the Times article might have tried the not-for-profit community groups as a way to make diverse friends instead of relying primarily on businesses that cater to specific ethnic communities. He complained about eating alone in various ethnic restaurants because of an inability to make local friends. He really should have joined the Jackson Heights Food Group. Not that I’m keeping score, but at the last lunch at Delhi Heights, we had quite the ethnic mixture (Asian, white, Latina, Jewish), as well as both gay and straight, men and women, couples and singles, in a spectrum of ages from our twenties to our fifties. I think we were all white-collar working class, but there may have been some middle-class or blue-collar people there; I didn’t ask around. I also don’t think any of us were immigrants, so perhaps we wouldn’t have been authentic enough for Mr. Ellick, but still a great place to start. (Kudos to our Jeff for organizing such a fun and successful group in such a short span of time.)

Also, immigrant communities are frequently based around languages. Nepalese, Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi communities intermingle here to some extent possibly because of the use of Hindi as a lingua franca. Colombian, Mexican and Ecuadorean communities have the Spanish language to bind them. Mr. Ellick seemed to expect to integrate into communities who usually communicate in a language he doesn’t understand. These things take time, and don’t expect to ever fully integrate when your new group of friends have to speak a language in which they are less fluent just to communicate with you. It’s not necessarily inhospitality, but a desire to be more relaxed after a hard day or week at work instead of playing the rôle of exotic tour guide.