Flushing Economy

Contents 1 Shopping and Dining 2 Banking and Finance 3 Sports 3.1 Baseball 3.2 Tennis 4 Income and Real Estate 5 Underground Economy and the Gray Market 6 References

Shopping and Dining

Downtown Flushing is considered the busiest shopping district in Queens due to its extensive store variety. In fact, retail trade constitutes almost 16% of the business industry in Flushing, which leads all other industrial economic sectors (see table). Just taking a walk on Main Street can answer the question why Flushing is such a popular destination for many shoppers. The street is lined with stores ranging from huge shopping complexes to small, specific stores. The major stores include: Flushing Mall, Hong Kong Supermarket, Macy’s, Old Navy and several Korean and Chinese markets. Shopping centers and stores are geared towards attracting and tailoring to the Asian Community, which is very prominent in the area. Flushing Mall is an indoor mall, with many small shops. Just like the clientele of many of the other places in the area, the clientele of the mall is mainly Chinese. The mall has many items from East Asia or clothes tailored for East Asians. Among the small shops are Jin Xiang Trading Inc., King World Accessory, and Ms. Xiang Fashion for apparel and others such as Banzai 99 Cents and Oriental Arts & Craft City to name a few. Outside the mall one can find a plethora of other stores aimed at the Asian clientele.

Music stores such as Star CD feature the latest Chinese pop music. Magic Castle sells Korean pop culture items. Book stores such as Chung Hwa Books and World Book Store sell many Chinese books and games. There is even a Chinese Herbalist store on Roosevelt Avenue. Not only does the area attract Asian customers, but it appeals to all New York residents with its large variety and sometimes low prices.

To complement its extensive shopping network, over 9% of the industry is based on accommodation and food services. This translates into numerous Chinese and Korean restaurants as well as those featuring other Asian cuisine. Places range from dining halls to small bakeries and cafes. Particularly popular are the bubble tea cafes, which provide a strong competition for Starbucks.

Banking and Finance

Anyone passing by Main Street can’t help but notice the numerous banks and financial firms in the area. Not only are they the common, well known banks such as the Bank of New York, Chase, Citibank, HSBC, National Bank of NY, and the NY Community Bank, but there are also banks that do business more with the Asian community: Amerasia Bank, Asia N.A Bank, Chinatrust Bank, Chinese American Bank, Chohung Bank, Eastbank, and United Orient Bank. These banks and more attract the Asian residents by their names and signs in various different languages.

    

Sports

Baseball

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One of the most profitable enterprises in Flushing is Shea Stadium. It was constructed in the year 1964 and at some point or other has been a home to the New York Mets, New York Giants, and New York Jets; the New York Yankees also played on this field for a short period of time. After 1983 the stadium belonged solely to the Mets, bringing many of the team’s fans to Flushing and seating as many as 55,600. The ticket sales are very profitable due to the large number of games played in a baseball season. Despite Shea Stadium’s popularity, construction of a new stadium, called City Field, for the 2009 baseball season is on its way in the parking lot adjacent to the old stadium. The project is expected to create 3,532 new jobs, thus giving a boost to the economy.

Tennis

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Another sport makes its home at Flushing. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) runs the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center which hosts the U.S Open played annually in August and September. The center is located across from Shea Stadium and fills up during the U.S Open, which is one of the four Grand Slams televised across the world. Throughout the year the stadiums in this center are open to the public, and in fact The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is the largest public tennis facility in the world. It is open eleven months a year, seven days a week and gains its revenue from membership fees and ticket sales. The Tennis Center is named after a woman who became a champion for women’s rights while winning 39 Grand Slam singles during her tennis-playing career. One of the recognized stadiums in the center is the Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium, known for holding the US Open every fall, and named after a prominent African American tennis player who broke through the color barrier by competing in and winning many top tournaments.

Income and Real Estate

Flushing has a median family income of around $42,000. The average household income is lower at $36,000-37,000. This is considered on par with the other neighborhoods in Queens. The average income is $35,264. The six economic industries in which people earn above average income are: information, health care and social assistance, finance and insurance, construction, professional tech and scientific, and manufacturing (see table). Retail trade and food services seem to be the areas of the lowest income, most likely due to huge competition they are facing. The real estate is made up of variety of housing options, similar to the rest of Queens. At least half of the homes are rented. Housing options range from single-family houses to large apartment complexes.

Underground Economy and the Gray Market

The underground economy is quite interesting in Flushing. A common commodity on the streets is bootleg DVDs. This, however, is not a rarity in NYC. The most profitable gray market in Flushing is located near Shea Stadium at Willets Point and is informally known as the Junkyard. This is a site of numerous auto repair shops, machine repair shops, or garages. It brings in a huge profit even though the business there is conducted in a very informal manner. A recent project being considered is tearing down that area and implementing new construction. The project is estimated to be very expensive because of the problems that need to be fixed. These, among others, include toxic soil contamination and an inadequate soil substructure. The project is also met with opposition from those who value the businesses that are currently in the area. It provides both many jobs for the workforce and a cheap source of car repair and part purchasing for consumers. In April 2008, business owners in Willets Point filed a federal lawsuit against the city, accusing it of denying services to the neighborhood thus causing the property values to fall and making it easier to take the land through eminent domain. Mayor Bloomberg makes it no secret that he wants to obtain the land and use it construct housing units, retail shops, restaurants, a hotel, and other commercial structures.