Queens

Brooklyn is hip. But Queens has more poetry.  Hip Williamsburg is the trend du jour, but poetry comes from things more enduring. Like the elevated 7 train rumbling over produce shops and children milling around the interection after school in a hot summer afternoon, or pockets of ethnicity bleeding into each other at the seams. They run like a watercolor in a rainy afternoon like today.

We went out to Astoria this time, in search of housing. We actually settled with the sublet in Union square, but I had previously scheduled to see a couple of places and it is a good way to explore the neighnorhood. The lessors all had accents. The first one on 30th Ave was Ukranian perhaps. And the second one Sam's Puetorican wife on Newtown Ave. They were all friendly and repectful people. Hard-working too. They, not you, are the ones making America Great, Donald.

It was our 3rd time in Queens, after Sunnyside and Long Island city. I'm afraid LIC will become another Williamsburg or Manhattan in another 20 years, but Astoria and Sunnyside will endure. And Flushing will too.

As a practical matter, it doesn't make sense to spend weeks searching for the right apartment when you are going to be in it only for a couple of months. So we settled with Union Square sublet. It is a coveted area, a hip place. I didn't like SF-like pretentious price, but the terms were right for us and the sublessor were willing to make a deal. It has quietude of the Union Square park and its side streets, and glitz of department stores next to it. If I coming back to settle down, however, I'll be choosing Queens.