Southeast Queens

[freepcrusher]

anyone know why it has a large black majority as opposed to other areas? It just seems so isolated and out of sync in the region. What's more is that unlike other areas (Harlem, BedSty) it doesn't have much of a history. The congressman from that area for decades was Joseph Addabbo and I doubt that it had much of a large black population when he was first elected (it was probably heavily Italian and Irish back then).

[kcguy]

From Michael Barone's works, I can glean two facts:

1.  At the time of the 1970 census, Addabbo's district was 37% Black.
2.  Black households in Queens tend to be slightly more affluent than White ones.

From this, I take a wild jump to a baseless theory:

Perhaps, middle-class Blacks were swept up in the post-WWII drive for suburbia, but were prevented by restrictive covenants from moving to Long Island.  I could see the furthest reaches of Queens having some of the same appeal as the suburbs just on the other side of the city limits.

[patrick1]

This is complex subject and the story of each community, the housing stock and timing of the demographic shifts are different. However, this is a good insight into the times and fears: Bill Moyers documentary on Rosedale 1976

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRfAdi0s73I

[retromike22]

I thought this was the title of a book in which a picture of Lindsey Graham would be one of several on the cover.

[Kraxner]

Started in late 1940's when JFK International airport which caused lots of working class irish and italians to leave to new suburban developments in Long island, due to the noise which continued when the Post-WW2 boom allowed many to rise up the ladder.

Then lots of blacks who moved during the great migration, settled in the areas between Brooklyn and queens. And as whites left they brought up cheap properties in South of Queens and over time became the majority but now a lot of hispanics are moving in due to cheap rent.

[Smash255]

Kc guy and Patrick touched on it a bit.   The area tends to be mostly middle class and quite a bit of it (especially Rosedale) has a very suburban feel and look to it.