Indo-Caribbean Content, Victorian Style
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Version 0 of 1. RICHMOND HILL, in southeastern Queens, is the ultimate study in New York diversity. It is a place to eat Caribbean cuisine, shop for Bollywood movies, worship at a Sikh temple and stroll through streets lined with Victorian-era houses, a slice of pure Americana. Extending down the south slope of Forest Park, the neighborhood evolves from the quiet streets just off the park, where the old wood-framed homes are found, to vibrant “Little Guyana” along Liberty Avenue, its southern border with South Ozone Park. “There are churches next to mosques next to mandirs,” said Richard S. David, the executive director of the Indo-Caribbean Alliance, a social service agency that works in the neighborhood. (A mandir is a Hindu temple.) Ivan Mrakovcic, the president of the Richmond Hill Historical Society and a vice chairman of Community Board 9, says he also sees religious diversity near his home in the Victorian section, where an Orthodox synagogue sits near Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches. Mr. Mrakovcic moved to Richmond Hill in 1994, finding it more affordable than Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where he had originally looked in order to be close to family. The way he describes it, the area offers both urban and suburban living. “You can have a vegetable garden and mow the lawn, but the J train is three blocks away and it’s a short walk to the park,” he said, also noting that the Rockaway beaches are a 20-minute drive. According to 2010 census figures compiled by the city Planning Department, Richmond Hill covers about three square miles and has nearly 63,000 residents, including Asians (27.4 percent), Hispanics (36 percent), whites (11.2 percent), and blacks/African-Americans (11.1 percent). Among those populations are the neighborhood’s Indo-Caribbean residents: Guyanese immigrants of South Asian ancestry who began settling in the area in the 1960s, Mr. David said. Now, the community includes second- and third-generation Americans. “A lot of people are renting basements or housing family members,” said Seema Agnani, the executive director of Chhaya Community Development Corporation, a housing agency that works with South Asians in New York City. “All floors of those homes are occupied.” For immigrants especially, housing space has been particularly limited by the foreclosure crisis, which hit hard in parts of Richmond Hill. “People fell prey to predatory loan practices and many refinanced during the height of the high interest rates,” Ms. Agnani said. Financial troubles were compounded when homeowners who held service jobs or who worked in construction saw their incomes drop. “It was really a loss of income together with the bad loans that pushed a lot of homeowners over the edge,” Ms. Agnani said, adding that the housing market is slowly improving. It is south of Atlantic Avenue, in an area also known as South Richmond Hill, that Guyanese-Americans have settled in large numbers. There, homes are smaller and more closely spaced. Liberty Avenue serves the Indo-Caribbean population with its many small businesses: sari stores, Guyanese bakeries and restaurants, and fish and vegetable markets. Colorful wares and clothing are displayed on sidewalks, which bustle with shoppers. According to Mr. David, Sikhs took root here during the height of the real estate market in the early 2000s, when some Guyanese-Americans in the area moved to Florida, Pennsylvania and other states and often sold their homes to Sikhs. The city’s largest Sikh temple, the Sikh Cultural Center, is at 117th Street and 97th Avenue. WHAT YOU’LL FIND The area is low-rise, made up of single- and multifamily homes with a smattering of apartment buildings. The northern part has larger houses, many of them fine examples of Queen Anne Victorian architecture, adorned with gables and inviting verandas. The historical society has unsuccessfully petitioned the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate a historic district in the northern part. Mr. Mrakovcic said a new petition would seek to cover a smaller area between Forest Park and Myrtle Avenue. Homeownership turnover in this microneighborhood of Richmond Hill is low, especially since the downturn of 2007 and 2008, said Mitra Hakimi, a real estate agent who works in Richmond Hill and other Queens neighborhoods. She said some owners were testing the market now, putting their houses up for sale to see how much buyers would be willing to pay. Inventory is more plentiful below Atlantic Avenue. Some homes share narrow driveways that lead to free-standing garages that abut backyards of neighboring properties. This part of the neighborhood is lined with block after block of neatly kept homes, most with aluminum siding in white and light colors and well-tended front gardens. WHAT YOU’LL PAY Home values suffered during the mortgage crash. “Before the 2008 financial crisis,” Ms. Hakimi said, “you couldn’t find a property under $250,000; It didn’t exist. Now you can easily find one.” According to a search of properties in Richmond Hill on the Multiple Listing Service last month, 159 properties — predominantly single- and multifamily with some mixed-used buildings — were for sale. On the high end was a six-bedroom Victorian with a formal living room and a home office, listed for $779,000. The least expensive was a four-bedroom listed at $150,000, as a short sale, in which a bank sells the property because the mortgage debt has surpassed the home’s value. It was one of 43 short sales on the list of 159. Prices are still depressed compared with levels before the crisis. According to Ms. Hakimi, a house that sold for $470,000 in 2004 would very likely sell for $100,000 less now. Rooplall Phagu, an agent with Family Choice Realty in Richmond Hill, said he saw a similar trend. A large two-family home listed for $480,000 to $550,000 would have sold for as much as $650,000 before 2007, he said. Ms. Hakimi added: “It is a price-driven market. Nobody is going to overpay. They want to buy, but at the right price.” THE COMMUTE Richmond Hill is well served by the subway system, which has elevated lines running along two avenues. The rides to Manhattan are direct, if long. The northern part of Richmond Hill has J trains along Jamaica Avenue. A trip to Grand Central Terminal from the 104th Street station takes about an hour and requires a transfer to the 6 train at Canal Street. The A train has a branch that runs along Liberty Avenue ending at the intersection with Lefferts Boulevard, the center of Little Guyana. The journey from the Lefferts Avenue stop to Times Square takes about an hour. Residents also can take a bus to the nearest Long Island Rail Road stop in Kew Gardens; the trip to Penn Station in Manhattan takes 17 minutes. WHAT TO DO Residents of northern Richmond Hill have easy access to Forest Park, which has a golf course, a horseback-riding school and equestrian path, a historic carousel, playgrounds, ball fields and trails for hiking and running. Shopping and eating on Liberty Avenue are also popular. Mr. David says Guyanese-Americans who live in the Bronx and Brooklyn come to Liberty Avenue to do their grocery shopping. Ms. Agnani added: “On the weekend, it’s very thriving on the streets with music and food. The diversity of our city — it comes out very clearly there.” The commercial area in northern Richmond Hill along Jamaica Avenue has experienced the loss of longtime businesses like Jahn’s ice cream parlor, which closed a few years ago. A shopping center being built along Hillside Avenue at Lefferts Boulevard promises the arrival of a Dunkin’ Donuts, a rare fast-food presence in the neighborhood. THE SCHOOLS Richmond Hill High School, with about 2,500 students, got a C on its most recent city progress report. Its combined SAT average last year was 1156, versus 1325 citywide. The neighborhood has a number of elementary schools, among them Public School 90 Horace Mann School, which has 860 students and got an A on its most recent progress report. No. 66 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has 500 students and also received an A. For middle school there is No. 137 America’s School of Heroes, which has nearly 2,000 students and got a C. THE HISTORY A mural depicting the neighborhood’s beginnings in the late 19th century can be found inside the Queens Library at Richmond Hill on Hillside Avenue. The American artist Philip Evergood painted it in the 1930s with funding from the Works Progress Administration. Covering a wall above the fiction section, the work shows three scenes: a crowded and squalid immigrant neighborhood in Manhattan; a group of prosperous real estate barons surveying plans for a new garden community near a railroad stop; and a bucolic scene of trees, homes and happy mothers and children in the newly created Richmond Hill. |