Thanks for Stopping By!
Greetings! If you’ve just stumbled across our new(ish) site via this weekend’s New York Times article, then welcome. Please take some time to browse our archives. Some of our most frequently blogged topics include real estate development, architecture, and Listings of the Day. We also cover new restaurant and store openings and have three freelance…
Greetings! If you’ve just stumbled across our new(ish) site via this weekend’s New York Times article, then welcome. Please take some time to browse our archives. Some of our most frequently blogged topics include real estate development, architecture, and Listings of the Day. We also cover new restaurant and store openings and have three freelance writers blogging about Queens history and its less-known nooks and crannies. Most of all, we want our readers to be our eyes and ears on the streets. So if you pass a new building going up or a storefront being renovated, we will be forever grateful if you would snap a photo on your phone and email it to queens@brownstoner.com or tips@brownstoner.com. Similarly, we appreciate your comments underneath the blog posts themselves. And, in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BrownstonerQNS.
I’ve been reading this blog since before it was acquired by Brownstoner and I really hope it can retain some of the identity it had before of really appreciating and covering Queens for what it is and not just the yuppie, over-priced, brooklyn wannabe the NYTimes article sometimes implies it should be.
I’m glad Mr. Butler is curious and wants to explore this uncharted (for him, some of us have lived here for years) territory, but I hope he can be respectful of Queens as it always has been and not just whatever he considers to be “hip” or potential real-estate.
And I do truly hope that he can get us locals to commit to sending in information, and also to get local Queens people to write for him as well.
I was happy to see the NY Times Q&A with Jonathan Butler. I think that it is a great thing for Queens that Brownstoner decided to start a Queens version of it’s blog. And the Times Q&A will hopefully bring more people to Brownstoner Queens and hopefully more people will be posting comments and sending in tips.
Like some of the other commenters above, I was surprised that one of the answers in the Q&A implied that Forest Hills is an “outlying area” of Queens. While Mr. Butler might not have intended to say this, that is how it came across in the article. As anyone who lives in Forest Hills knows, FH is a lot closer to Manhattan than many people think. On the E or F trains, it takes about 20 minutes to get from FH to midtown Manhattan on an average day. This is one reason why many younger people who have been priced out of Manhattan and Brooklyn have been moving to Forset Hills in the last few years.
But despite the statement about FH, I think that this blog has done a great job so far in covering a lot of Queens neighborhoods, including Forest Hills. One suggestion–the only coverage I’ve seen so far here about the upcoming concert at the Forest Hills stadium was a link to a NY Times article. This is major news for Queens–the first concert that will be held at the FH stadium in over 20 years and the planned preservation of an historic stadium that had been at risk for many years of being torn down. It would be great to see more coverage of the planned preservation and renovation of the stadium in this blog.
First of all, none of this Mr. Butler stuff! Mr. B has been the moniker of both affection and frustration on the Brooklyn site for 8 years. Speaking of frustration, all comments above are duly noted, though we hope you’ll chalk up the impression that we think Forest Hills is on the eastern border of Queens to the translation of a rambling conversation into a tight print version. To Dk’s fair point that we “don’t know much about east of queens,” guilty as charged. We hope to learn a lot more about it in the coming months and to the extent that readers from the eastern neighborhoods submit photos and tips, we’ll certainly include stories on those areas. With limited resources, it’s going to be hard to cover that much ground on our own. As for the Ridgewood comment, we can see how that rubbed Kat the wrong way, but please realize that was in the context of making a case for why the new site was a natural extension of the Brooklyn one, not a diss of the vibrant, diverse neighborhood that it was long before the first bearded locavore showed up.
Anyway, we appreciate the feedback, even if it’s negative because if there’s one thing we’ve learned having a comment-heavy blog for the past eight years it’s that you’re not really doing your job if you’re not ruffling some feathers. So keep the negative comments coming (along with, hopefully, some positive ones) and if you want to see certain neighborhoods or topics covered more, get involved by sending us tips. It takes a village (or a borough) to make a local blog dynamic. We certainly can’t do it alone and welcome input of all kinds.
Thanks,
Mr. B
Sorry if my comment came off as negative, I really didn’t mean it to be. If there’s one thing that can be said about people from Queens, it’s that anyone who has grown up here, is from here or lives here is very proud of the neighborhood they call home. There is very strong neighborhood identity in the borough of Queens. And if you didn’t already know this you have probably learned as much just by reading the comments on this post.
One more thing, in terms of tips and such that you would like coming from the audience, they don’t all have to be retail space or residential space oriented, do they? Because a lot of what is on this blog is about housing stock and restaurant openings/closings. Personally, for the past few weeks I have been watching what looks to be a new mosque go up in my neighborhood. If it is a mosque, it would be very interesting and different for the neighborhood and I would love to send in pictures as soon as I get the chance. I would like to see this blog show more about Queens than just places to live and eat. There’s a lot more to Queens than that 🙂
I enjoyed the article and look forward to seeing if the site can achieve what Mr. Butler is aiming for. As a 15-year resident, I’m glad to be seeing Queens start to get broader recognition. Of course, I already own a place. If I were a renter I might want Queens to remain undiscovered.
I thought what might make a lot of people cringe is the part where he explains Ridgewood as just an “extension” of Bushwick. I’m pretty sure Ridgewood retains its own neighborhood identity as a place different and separate from Bushwick. I mean, no one would explain Greenpoint as just an extension of Williamsburg, right? Even though like Ridgewood and Bushwick, one neighborhood is just right above the other.
In any case, was nice to read that a major point of this blog is to get the audience involved by sending in pictures and information on happenings around the borough. That’s kind of cool and if more people knew about it then more people would send things in.
I read the times article but seems to me Mr. butler don’t know much about east of queens. It has
many beautiful park, Golf course and great restaurants. Walk on kissena corridor which is great place to watch migratory birds during spring time. Queens botanical garden is one more example. For foodie
flushing downtown offer many chinese restaurants. If you take long walk in flushing and surrounding
area, you will see many old buildings, churches and temples with unique architecture.