Flushing at Night

   Of all the disorienting ethnic neighborhoods in New York, Flushing gives me the best twilight-zone-foreign-country experience.

   Perhaps it's the way every inch of space is used for retail.  Or maybe it's the weird themed architecture of tall neon signs and unfashionable typefaces.  Unlike Manhattan's Chinatown, which physically resembles the typical building stock downtown, in Flushing the facades are often tiled metal or concrete, terribly weathered, that brings to mind the vast high-rise slums the British built in Kowloon. 

   

    Originally settled in 1645 by the Dutch West India Company, Flushing was, at one time, a Quaker haven.  Fast forward 350 years to 1990, when an old Irish neighborhood was giving way to a growing Asian community, then 36% of the population.  Today it's estimated to be 55% Asian, and, depending on your source, either the biggest or second biggest Chinatown in New York (and thus North America).  Flushing's Chinese population is primarily Taiwanese in contrast to Manhattan's mostly Cantonese and Fujianese Chinatown.  The terminus of the 7-train, a stop on the Long Island Rail Road, and a Queens bus hub, downtown Flushing is exploding with stinky fish markets, tricked out Civics, and pirated DVDs.  Worth a look.