Hello from New York City (5) - A Local Expert Takes Us Through
Queens
Yesterday was a pretty interesting day, the weather was cool and
overcast, with rain coming in during the latter part of the
afternoon. A few weeks ago I had booked a meeting with one of
the Big Apple Greeters, an organization of local NYC volunteers
that takes out-of-town visitors around the city and shows them
local sights and shares local information. The service is a
great way to link up with a local New Yorker, and best of all,
it's free of charge.
We were supposed to meet Suzanne, our greeter, at 11:00 am at
the 71st Street subway station, but we got a late start after
breakfast and there were some delays on the subway system, so we
didn't meet Suzanne until 11:50 am. Suzanne is a former
highschool teacher, in her sixties, and a very friendly and
outgoing individual. We felt bad about being late, but she said
it wasn't a problem at all. She was extremely gracious and
helpful throughout our entire time with her.
Suzanne started the tour by taking us through a very upscale
Queens neighbourhood called Forest Hill Gardens, which is a
neighbourhood with private streets where local residents pay
higher than normal taxes for additional services, such as more
frequent garbage pickup etc. Suzanne indicated that these homes
go from anywhere from US$ 1 million and up. Everything was
blooming and many local handymen, gardners and maids were on the
road. We also had a chance to visit the old US Open Tennis
Center which is located in an amphitheatre right next to the
Forest Hill Country Club.
On from there we took a bus to the Flushing neighbourhood, an
area with lots of Chinese and Korean stores, where Suzanne
treated us to same savory Chinese dumplings. All the time she
explained to us the multicultural character of Queens, and that
one of the main subway trains (the 7 train) is called "The
International Express" because it cuts through all sorts of
ethnic neighbourhoods.
A quick jump onto this very subway later, which runs on elevated
tracks through a good chunk of Queens, so you can actually see
the neighbourhood, and we arrived in Jackson Heights, an area
with a lot of Latin American immigrants and further west we saw
lots of South Asian (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi) stores.
For a Torontonian seeing all these ethnic stores is not all that
unusual, since we have a lot of that in Toronto too, but I am
sure these ethnic neighbourhoods must be quite unusual and
unique for people who come from smaller less international
places.
We then took the 47 and 19 Queens bus to a neighbourhood called
Astoria, where a lot of Greek immigrants congregate. We ended up
having dinner in a little quaint and cosy Greek restaurant
called Zygos Restaurant ("zygos" means "libra" or "balance")
where we continued our nice conversation with Suzanne, our local
expert. Suzanne has been a greeter for the last 12 years and has
studied all areas of New York City. She said she travels, by
herself, into all areas of NYC, including Harlem and the Bronx,
and she loves exploring and sharing the city that she loves with
people from all over the world.
When we left at about a quarter to 7 pm, Suzanne had spent more
than 7 hours with us and we had really gotten to know each other
quite well on a personal level. We also we ended up exchanging
email addresses and we extended mutual invitations to stay in
touch and I said I'd love to take her around whenever she comes
to the Toronto area.
The Greeter experience has been excellent, our personal local
expert really loves her city and she loves interacting with
visitors and we definitely enjoyed her enthusiasm. I am sure we
have a new friend to call up next time we come to New York City.