Elmhurst

From The Peopling of New York City: Indian Communities

The neighborhood of Elmhurst is highly concentrated with Indian immigrants, as well as large numbers of Chinese, Colombians, Koreans, Filipinos, Dominicans and Ecuadorians. Newspapers can be found in a myriad of languages, including Polish, Arabic, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Greek and Bengali. While Elmhurst may be quite similar to Jackson Heights and Flushing in many ways, Elmhurst does not contain one highly concentrated area of Indian immigrants, but rather can be found living amongst the other ethnicities as well. On the same block, you can find Indian spice shops, Chinese food markets, Colombian coffeehouses, and Korean bakeries.

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Elmhurst is the thriving home of middle class and working class families housed in a mix of older multi-family homes, co-op and apartment buildings. Multi-family homes are the most common forms of housing found there, and "Fedder-style" houses as well as newer condos have become popular within the last decade. While Elmhurst is a relatively safe neighborhood, there is still a fair amount of illegal housing as well as rundown corners that continue to blight the neighborhood. Much graffiti can be found on the sides of buildings and storefronts.

Broadway, centered at Whitney, is a commercial heart of Newtown, especially for Chinese and Southeast Asian stores and restaurants. Under the 7 train along Roosevelt Avenue is another big commercial strip, shared with Jackson Heights, of Latino shops, clubs, bars, and restaurants. [2]