Black Incomes Rise Above Whites in Queens (NY)

NY Times ^ | October 1, 2006 | SAM ROBERTS

[Dick Holmes]

Investigators for the NYSLIMES have determined that the 65,000 Queens population is broken down as 64,998 blacks and 2 whites.

The article actually reports: Of the more than 800,000 households in Queens, according to the Census Bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey, about 39 percent are white, 23 percent are Hispanic, 18 percent are Asian, and 17 percent are black.

Interesting phenom. It's not that there are only 2 whites left in Queens, but that most of the more ambitious whites have long since realized they were in Queens, and left for Westchester and beyond, to be replaced by some of the more ambitious black West Indies and West African immigrants, for whom Queens is a step up.

[Alter Kaker]

I bet the same can be said about Harlem.

When was the last time you were in Harlem? Harlem is doing very, very well these days.

[I'll be your Huckleberry]

Now you've done it.

My hungry brain just had a rush of hot knish with mustard and perhaps one of the meat on a stick toped with a roll.

It is not the old faded romances or the kinetic energy, but the food that I miss most about New York.

My God how hard would it be to recreate a descent corned beef sandwich about the thickness of your fist and sell it for (you name the price) - they would have my money.

Excuse my while a pour a little Crown Royal and get in my story telling mode.

Ahhh - the purple bag has been violated and the magical brew is soaking on the ice.

Anyway..... My last return to Texas was decades ago, but remains vivid in my mind.

Home from the City to visit friends in Austin and out late one Saturday night, I decided to take the gang out for a late night Pastrami sandwich and beer. Which is just about the perfect end to any nice night.

An hour later and very frustrated we settled on (Huck stops for a sip of the Crown) chicken fried steak and fries - a meal that seemed available at every corner.

But a nice sandwich and pickle, no way, unless of course your expectation of a sandwich is greatly diminished.

This story really does have a point and here it is:

You don't realize how your world has expanded until it is put in your face.

At 2am in the City we could have gone to hundreds of wonderful delis and cafes.

Some little switch clicked in my mind and I never looked at Texas the same, hardly ever went back and even on the West Coast it is the smells and flavors of Manhattan that I do miss.

Huck

[Alter Kaker]

It wasn't until the beginnings of the 20th century that blacks moved there and it wasn't until WW II, that Puerto Ricans moved into a part of it.

My wife's father grew up in Harlem, when it was upper middle class and largely Jewish. Of course that was before and during the First World War, before the block busters arrived.

[denydenydeny]

As conservatives have been saying for some time, the primary "barriers" to minority achievement are mental ones, and the data here tend to support that.

[nopardons]

It's almost impossible to find a good eggcream in Manhattan now.

I know the secret and make the best damned egg cream you ever tasted! Yes, I have jars of U-BET in my pantry and use freshly made Seltzer.

[nopardons]

Exactly so! :-)

Harlem's history has been muddied by blacks and liberal historians, so that most people have no idea that it wasn't always a black enclave.

[MarkL]

The Slimes never misses a chance to blather about racism, even in a story in which it provides hard numbers that scream about the cultural difference which explains the income gap.

You've hit the nail right on the head... "Cultural difference." Long ago, I worked at a large chain drugstore, and there were a number of blacks working there. Of them, 3 were from the caribean or indies. You could tell those 3 were "different," even just by looking at them. They carried themselves differently, were better dressed (and not just than the other blacks, but all the employees in the store, myself included), and you could easily understand what they said when they spoke, even with heavy accents. They were polite and hard working. One whom I got to know quite well was in his mid-twenties at the time, holding down 2 full time jobs, and going to night school: Fist to get his GED, and eventually to go to college.

That level of motivation and dedication will guarentee success.

Mark

[Roccus]

I have but one word for you, "Katz's"!!!

[Roccus]

It's all in how you hold the spoon!

[MarkL]

My hungry brain just had a rush of hot knish with mustard and perhaps one of the meat on a stick toped with a roll.

It is not the old faded romances or the kinetic energy, but the food that I miss most about New York.

Me too! Here in KC, there's the "New York Bakery" which has pretty good corned beef (at $18/pound!), but nowhere near as good as in NYC, and they don't have knishes! There, you have a choice! Baked or fried: Potato, spinach, meat, or kasha... Heck, you can get them at baseball games! At least in KC, I can get packaged Nathan's Franks, so that's saying something. And we've got some pretty good chinese and italian restaurants: Still, nothing like a really good NY Jewish or Italian deli and bakery, or some of those little dives in Chinatown or little Italy! NUTS! Right now I'd kill for a really good canolli!

Mark

[Roccus]

The population (legal) of Queens is somewhere north of 2,000,000. If you include illegals, which abound there, the sky's the limit.

[VOA]

bump

[durasell]

Canter's in the Fairfax isn't bad, if you're in LA.

[durasell]

Egg creams are a lost art. There is new food though -- who would have suspected Jamaican beef patties would gain a foot hold?

[Roccus]

Them and pastelli's (sp?)

[durasell]

Food in NYC is special. It's what immigrants bring with them. Combination of pride and wanting to succeed in a new country.

I have a whole spiel about it...

[Roccus]

Believe me, I know. 68 Mott, 7 Division, veal and spaghetti at The Luna, Vincent's at 3AM, Juniors cheesecake in B'klyn, pastrami at Katz's or that deli by the Bronx courthouse, meat patties at the Hot Pot in Harlem or up in Kingsbridge, pizza at New Park on Crossbay Blvd.
I'm going back to Fun City for a visit next month and will prolly gain a few!!!

[KellyAdmirer]

George Jefferson is movin' on up, while Archie is still stuck with Meathead. Meat Head.

[freeangel]

"what will race hustlers like sharpton do..."

He will still play the race card--only it will be about poor native blacks, pitting them against immigrants who will get off their backsides and work instead of having their hands out to the taxpayers. I believe the article said something about values--maybe having two parents to raise kids? That will really frustrate sharpton.