A Letter from Queens

The Guardian weekly publishes an article each week in the form of a letter from a particular place, submitted by a reader. I decided to have a go at getting published, and have just submitted a proposal for them to consider. It would be exciting to have it printed. But in the likely event that the submission does not receive such a wide audience, here I am making it available to a narrow one.

The letter is entitled: "Letter from Queens, NYC: Gateway to the World"

Thirty years ago I lived in Balham, the south London suburb ironically labeled “Gateway to the South” by Tony Hancock. I now find myself in Queens, which could easily be described as the Gateway to the World.

Many people pass through Queens. If you have ever flown to JFK or La Guardia airports, you will have sat in traffic on our crowded highways or ridden on our dirty subways on your way to our glamorous neighbour, Manhattan. You may have noticed suburb after suburb, squeezed together just like in south London.

In addition to the throngs of Long Island commuters and global tourists just passing through, we are home to the most ethnically diverse two million residents on the planet. Many of us are just passing through as well, staying for a few years rather than the few minutes of the visitors. It is a transitory sort of place, but it has its unique charms.

You can discover almost every culture of the world here, established by waves of immigrants creating their home from home. Within a mile of our home, I find Uzbek Jewish, Greek, Colombian and Philippine hamlets, to name just a few. Even south London has left its mark – Queens suburbs include Kew Gardens and Richmond Hill. New arrivals cluster around their own type, but then interact with others to blur the boundaries. Fusion could have been invented here: we can find authentic cuisine and traditions from anywhere, but also a plethora of exotic combinations.

Folks from Queens associate the metropolis on the other side of the East river with different things. It can be a place of work or a destination for abundant culture. But for others it might as well be on the other side of the world – we know people who haven’t visited “the city” in thirty years. Mind you, try asking Manhattan residents to come to your concert in Queens and many will look at you as if you’ve asked them to cross an ocean. 

Sometimes my daily walk takes me through Corona Park. In forty short minutes, I cross two frantic highways, a railway and a subway line, and pass examples of most types of housing, with their associated range of affluence. The park hosts a top quality museum, the massive homes of the US tennis open and baseball’s Mets, and sundry relics from a World Fair of sixty years ago. It is a feast for the senses. I see the Manhattan skyscrapers but also wonderful spring blossoms and games of cricket. I hear screaming jets descending into La Guardia but also birdsong and happy kids. I smell garbage and transport fumes, but also a park full of joyful family barbecues. It is all here if you are alive to it, even peace.

Arriving New Yorkers soon pick up the habits of our city. We’ll readily start a dialogue, loudly tell you what we are thinking, and frequently test the horn in our cars. We also laugh a lot, are generous with help, and celebrate humanity in all its diversity. I feel blessed to be passing through the Gateway to the World.

End of Letter

Meanwhile, I have also started blogging for the company I work part time for, called Synthetron. I'll submit posts once per month or so, on the general theme of situations where Synthetron could offer help. My first post follows up a Time interview with Mary Barra, the new CEO of GM. Here is a link to the post.

http://www.synthetron.com/mary-barras-staff-engagement-challenge/