Nice!
Posted on 07/07/2008 3:47:26 PM PDT by forkinsocket
To the Bukharian Jews of Central Asia, a big house is an essential tradition: a place to shelter multiple generations, to hold large parties, memorials and holiday dinners, to reaffirm a community’s unity.
So wherever they have put down roots, Bukharians — or, as they are sometimes called, Bukharans — have built aggressively, including in central Queens, where tens of thousands have settled since the early 1990s and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Nowhere has their love of big homes been on more opulent display than in a section of Forest Hills known as Cord Meyer, an upper middle class neighborhood long cherished by its residents for its tranquillity and architectural charm.
There, Bukharians have been tearing down the neighborhood’s sedate Tudor, Georgian and Cape Cod-style homes, paving over lawns and erecting white-brick edifices that borrow from old Europe, with sweeping balustrades, stone lions bracketing regal double doorways, chateau-style dormers and pitched roofs, Romanesque and Greek columns and ornate wrought-iron balconies accented with gold leaf that glints in the sun.
But while the Bukharians’ arrival has been a boon for the area’s residential construction industry, it has been a bane for some neighbors. These residents have complained about the Bukharian tendency to build boldly and big, saying that the new houses are destroying their neighborhoods.
“There is a lot of history in the Cord Meyer area and a lot of historical houses that have a specific aesthetic character in that community,” said Melinda R. Katz, a city councilwoman whose district includes Forest Hills. “A lot of the houses that are going up there are just simply too big relative to the other houses that are there and have been there for generations. They are out of character.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Nice!
Bleccccchhhh! I vote for the Bukharians!
I am all for keeping traditions. However the Bukharians are upending local traditions to keep there own. Why no fix up some the less nice hoods surrounding Forrest Hills.
The statues are not exactly kosher.
If you like cheesy McCrap. These "Central Asians" lived amongst moslems too long. Lots of mney no taste.
In all seriousness, the level of venom I have seen from Ashkenazic long time residents of Forest Hills towards to Bukharians is only matched by the similar venom of the Ashkenazim towards the Persians in Beverly Hills.
Why? But what right does this woman get to tell others how big the houses may be on their property?
How I despise liberty-loathing busybodies!
One is in awe of the way extruded aluminium columns have redefined Grecian esthetics. It is so hard to chose a favorite achitectectural element on that timeless beauty.
Bukhara is in Uzbekistan, which was in the Soviet Union. I doubt those "Jews" are particularly kosher either.
They don’t seem to have a problem pimping up a Benz anyway.
I don’t much care for the looks of that house either. Did they pave the front yard? Are those cars parked where the front yard is supposed to be?
The Russians are ruining Forest Hills with their "screw the rules, I'll pay the penalties after I build" attitude from the old country where there were no rules and anybody could be bribed.
They're starting the same two nabes down the boulevard in Briarwood.
You don't want them and their attitude in your neighborhood.
Their astroturf musta died.
“Bukhara is in Uzbekistan, which was in the Soviet Union. I doubt those “Jews” are particularly kosher either.”
The oppression (cultural and financial) explains the Coming-To-America Richy-Rich look.
I grew up poor.
When I started getting decent money from my business, I paid cash for a goofy-looking King Ranch F450 duelly pickup and parked it out front for all the other white trash to see that I made it.
It’s the redneck version of that Mercedes.
I have since outgrown that tendancy, but I understand it.
I fail to understand the need to keep the "old" style everywhere. "Historical" houses are those that have some significance to our history; not just the fact that they are old.
Since when is it ok for conservatives to stick their noses in other people's wallets and tell them where they should spend their money. As long as it's legal, it's none of our business.
This line in the article tells me all I care to know...."Councilwoman Katz said that while the Bukharian homes in her district have complied with the city’s building and zoning regulations,..."
If they don't want to look at the new houses, they are just as free to move away as the Bukharians were to move in.
why dont they do this in harlem? walls work well there.
I’m old fashioned. I like Cape Cods, New England homes etc.
In the Brunswicks and in Edison (all Central New Jersey for you folks outside of the area), the Indians tear down post-war capes to build “Mumbai Mansions” up to the property line, ie the sidewalk. Very tacky, but they paid for it!
So, how are you dealing with the Tehranis in north Great Neck?
It seems to me that every nabe in the outer boroughs has its drawbacks. Everything changes so quickly, and you don't know who is going to start moving in months down the road. Say what you will about the out of state transplants, but they don't tear down brownstones in Brooklyn and Fort Greene to build Fedders homes.
I stay out of Great Neck North. I’m having big fun with the ROKS in Great Neck South though.
Such an idiotic view of history I have not seen since IHR.
It makes sense that the Koreans would move up Northern Boulevard as they made more money, just as they moved up 9W from Fort Lee to Leonia and Alpine over on my side of the river.
Northern from just east of Main Street all the way out to the county line is now primarily Korean. I predict that Lake Success will be 35% Korean by 2025.
Whaaaat. You actually don’t like our palaces, shady cash businesses, & swaggering macho men with gold chains?! ;)
What is J-Dub? Sounds like something Jewish that I should know about.
Slang for Ashkenazic Jews. First heard it among some SY (Syrian Jewish) acquaintances of mine. You find it used mostly in a derogatory manner by Jews of Sephardic and Mizrahic background.
Hm I’m Mizrahi & I’ve never heard that before. Thanks.
Same thing happening in Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn. Garrish houses being built by the Russian population there.
Seems that a lot of their money is coming from shady dealings though. I read in the NY Times that the FBI had to set up a new division for the Russian crimes. That is what we get for unrestrained immigration policies. We did not have enough of homegrown criminals. I also heard that mnay Russians claimed that they were Jews, but were lying just to enter the country and reap the benefits. I would not put it past them as they have proven that they know how to milk a system. This would explain why we have more banks in this part of Brooklyn than the Cayman Islands. A bit suspect, wouldn’t you agree?
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