The People of Queens & NYC: Past & Future

Well, I guess it's official: The Economist, the magazine everyone in power reads/pretends to read, has discovered Queens.

With classic Oxbridge condescension, this haughty publication writes a long, totally inaccurate portrayal of this borough of 2.5 million people as containing either just-of-the-boat immigrants or Archie Bunker/Trump-like white people. As a resident of this borough for over a decade, I assure the people of Queens are not so easily categorized -- but trying telling The Economist that.

However, this lengthy article does have a wonderful history of how this northwestern patch of Long Island became Queens. It's worth reading just for that.

And talking about that, how about learning about a girl from Queens  (and other places), Padma Lakshmi, the former model and current TV cooking guru. Her's is an amazing story of a immigrant done good.

P.S. This has nothing to do with Queens but it does have to do with the people of NYC -- a profile of one of the last remaining Bowery flophouses in the city and the people who live there in defiance of gentrification and changing times. It's a reminder of how the past is never quite in the past -- and how some people will resist the future at all costs.