Streets By Air Ep 12 - Bayside, Queens - New York City

Resting along the Little Neck Bay and the Long Island Sound sits the neighborhood of Bayside, Queens. Originally inhabited by Matinecock tribe, the area was settled by the Dutch, and soon followed by the British. During the 1800s, Bayside was mostly farmland, where Manhattan's wealthy would visit as a "rural resort". However, in the 1920s/30s, it was the proposed site for the original "Hollywood". With the major movie studios in nearby Astoria, Bayside quickly became the home of sprawling estates lived in by socialites, gossip columnists and mostly, household names of theater and silent films like Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, and Charlie Chaplin. Unknown to many today, the Queens neighborhood was once the center of glamour and entertainment. After WWII, residential development of the neighborhood increased significantly as transportation on the train helped commuters get to Midtown Manhattan in under 30 minutes. Today, that train is now part of the LIRR, but many residents heavily rely on NYC buses, since the nearest subway station is a bus ride down Northern Blvd to the first stop on the 7 train. Although Bayside contains a lot of free-standing homes, it ranks "high to very high" in population density, nationwide. Large apartment buildings, co-ops, condos and multi-family homes have been built to accomodate the growing number of residents. A part of the NYC Dept. of Education's District 26, Bayside is "the highest performing school district for grades K-9 in all of New York City, making Bayside a more educated community than other American communities." Bayside is also more recently a home to a plurality of Asian-Americans (many of South Korean or Chinese heritage). The overall neighborhood is an evenly diverse mix of people from all cultural backgrounds, while other parts of the neighborhood are majority white and, mostly inhabited by those of Italian, Greek, and Irish descent. • Bayside remains one of the safest and most affluent neighborhoods in Queens. However, Bayside has been the setting to several organized crime incidents involving groups like the Lucchese, Gambino, and Bonnano crime families. • A home to parks and playgrounds, greenspace is plenty here. Crocheron Park is a local treasure that leads out to the Little Neck Bay. Alongside the water you can see a scenic exercise path for bikers and joggers, looking out at the bay, seeing the boats at the Bayside Marina, and the Throgs Neck Bridge leading into the neighboring Bronx. • The lifeblood of the neighborhood, Bell Boulevard, is known to many throughout the borough as a notoriously popular bar/restaurant strip. “If you grow up in Queens, this is the place you start your drinking life." The street is lined with at least a dozen bars, and maybe another dozen or so restaurants, making it a hot destination for dates, dinners, drinks and dancing for regulars and visitors. • The people of Bayside are very proud New Yorkers, who reflect it well in the care of their neighborhood. These are "people who keep the city running: cops, firefighters, teachers and other civil servants. They are nurses, people in the construction trades, union workers, as well as white-collar professionals." • These are the reasons why Bayside is the multidimensional neighborhood it is, and hopefully it stays that way for a very long time. #knowyorkcity