Month: September 2011

Categories
Interview

Ching-Tse Lee (elder); Mario Yang and Christina Chang (congregation members) – Taiwan Union Christian Church

Ching Lee downstairs in the Taiwan Union Christian Church
Ching-Tse Lee downstairs in the Taiwan Union Christian Church

On 31st Street just South of the 30th Ave subway stop and opposite EuroMarket is the Taiwan Union Christian Church.  I spoke with one of the church’s elders, Ching-Tse Lee: it happened to be on Sunday September 11th.   A service had recently ended and the church basement was bustling with activity, as members of the congregation mingled with each other and sought advice from the pastor.

Ching-Tse came to the USA from Taiwan in 1964.  He studied in Ohio before coming to live in New York.  He worked as a psychology professor at Brooklyn College and retired three years ago, which has enabled him to become more active in the church as an elder.

The church originated in 1968 when a group of Taiwanese students in New York formed a bible study group.  They then established a church which met at a Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.  In 1982 they moved the church to the Astoria location, which was formerly the Second Reformed Church in Astoria.  Two years later they joined the Reformed Church of America.

Ching-Tse says that the congregation today includes Taiwanese students who are in the US to study for their MD, PhD, or other forms of higher education; some of them stay in dormitories in the modern building next to the church.  Others are Taiwanese immigrants to the US like himself.  They come to the church in Astoria from all over the Tri-State area: some from Staten Island, Westchester, Long Island and elsewhere.

“We come here to worship and also we try to provide a home for our children,” he says.  “Once they are in their individual community they don’t really have the kind of Taiwanese home base to grow up with.  Many of them have adapted to the local environment.  For some of them, the local environment may not be very suitable for them as Taiwanese.”

The church conducts services in Taiwanese, and in Mandarin for local Chinese residents.  They have an English mission, also in the modern building next to the old church, for Taiwanese-Americans born or raised in the US.

Beyond services and bible study the church is active in many ways.  The week after I was there they were holding a photography exhibition.  “It’s very special,” says Ching-Tse, “because all the photographers are women.  We thought that a female has her viewpoint of the world…they are much more sensitive about their environment.   So we encourage them to put up shows.  This time in the exhibition there will be images of flowers, scenery, and different places, like Disney World.”

The church members are also engaged in issues around Taiwan’s future and its efforts to maintain autonomy from China.  They were preparing for a forthcoming “Keep Taiwan Free” rally, calling for the UN to accept Taiwan as a member.

Christina Chang and Mario Yang outside the Taiwan Union Christian Church

Outside the church, I met Mario Yang and his girlfriend Christina Chang who had attended the service.  Mario is a financial analyst at American Express, and lives in Manhattan.  His parents brought him to the US from Taiwan when he was eight years old: they lived in North Carolina and then Mario came to New York for college.

“My parents are firm believers in public education, but didn’t feel like the system in Taiwan was good at the time.  It’s fantastic now, but back when I was younger they felt it was a better choice to be in the States.  I think I got a great public education here!  I would hope I did.”

Christina is currently a Masters student at Columbia University.  She is a flutist and often plays at the church services.

The couple comes to the church in Astoria as often as they can.  “We have tons of friends who come here, it’s a community,” says Mario.  “There’s a wide variety of people at the church.  There are people in arts, people in finance, people in all sorts of careers.  They’re really supportive regardless of what you do.”

Categories
Observation

New murals on the walls at the Welling Court Mural Project

In early June, Ad Hoc Art brought a group of street artists from around the world to paint new murals, and paint over some of the old murals, for the Welling Court Mural Project.  I had interviewed Jonathan Ellis and Georgina Young Ellis, who live along Welling Court, earlier in the year.  Walk to the far Western end of 30th Ave and you can check the murals out, and also the Two Coves Community Garden which is just opposite.  Below are a few photos of the murals for tasters.  Here’s a link to Ad Hoc Art’s description of the project, and here’s one of the artists, Fumero, talking about his painting of Einstein that features on one of the walls.







Categories
Observation

Summer memories: The ice cream parlors of 30th Ave

Ice cream on 30th Ave today: Gino's Italian Ices on sale outside Salerno Pizza, near 29 Street
Ice cream on 30th Ave today: Gino's Italian Ices on sale outside Salerno Pizza, near 29 Street

As of yesterday Summer is officially over.  It already felt like it was over a few weeks ago, with the passing of labor day and the heavy rain that settled in over 30th Ave and the rest of New York City as if to say enough fun, back to work.

While summertime is still fresh-ish in our minds, here’s a post in its honor, looking back in time to the ice cream parlors that featured along 30th Avenue until sometime in the 1970s and 80s.  I was recently contacted by Alfred Holzman, now in Miami, who lived on 30th Avenue from 1944.  His parents owned a paint and wallpaper store at number 34-03 called “Grand Paint Supply Company.”  Among the vivid memories that he and his contemporaries have of 30th Avenue are the ice cream parlors.

“During the summer months, in the evening, the ice cream parlors would be jammed with eat-in and take out customers,” he says.  “Without question, these places were absolutely spotless.  In addition to ice cream, they were all counter and booth luncheonettes.  The place to go for fountain drinks.  Each had a juke box.”

There were three along 30th Ave:

Goodness Gracious Thrift store, between 30th and 31st Streets on 30th Ave, where Jacoby's used to be

Jacoby’s, between 30 and 31st street, where the “Goodness Gracious Thrift Shop” now is.  Alfred says: “I was there many times for lunch when I was in the fifth and sixth grades at PS 5.  Teachers had lunch there, and I saw them smoking whilst sitting in the booths.” (PS5, which was on 29th Street just off 30th Ave, burned down in 1967 after an eight-year-old pupil set a fire in a clothes closet while playing with matches).

Gerken’s, at 34-04, where Astoria Art and Framing now is.  This was directly opposite Alfred’s parents’ shop.  “It was run by the wonderful couple, Henry and Margaret Gerken.  Like us, they lived above their store.  They started the business shortly after the war, in about 1947.  The façade was black and very stylish.  I and my family knew these hard-working folks well.  The hours were 10am to 11pm.  They sold great ice cream made in the basement.  Terrific Banana Splits, Banana Royals, and their specialty, the 30th Avenue Special. The Gerkens retired to Florida in the late 70s / early 80s.”

Rudy’s, a block up from Gerken’s at 35-16.  “This business was the oldest of the three.  Rudy owned it, and again, the family lived upstairs,” says Alfred.  “The façade was/is beige.  Rudy died long ago, but his daughter, a Bryant High grad, ran the place.  She married a guy who was an electric train collector.  Years ago, he began to sell electric trains from one side of the store.”

Marvin Cochran of Rudy's Hobby Supplies, 35-16 30th Ave

He, Marvin Cochran, still sells electric trains from the store, which is now called “Rudy’s Hobby Supplies.”  They also sell model toys and all the materials you need to make them.  I dropped by to speak with Marvin, who told me that the store first started selling ice creams in 1939 and was “Rudy’s Ice Cream Parlor” until 1987.  “We changed over because it was just too many hours, and we were getting older.  It was pleasant though – you had your friends and customers who you knew for years and years coming by for their ice cream.”

In the non-summer seasons, the ice cream parlors still did well, selling chocolates and candies – especially at Valentines, Easter (when they sold chocolate bunnies made in-house) and Christmas.

The ice cream parlors may have gone but there are still plenty of details that define 30th Ave in summertime, for which we’ll now have to wait another nine months or so.  There’s the water fountain for kids to cool off in at Athens Square.  There are the groups of chairs on the sidewalk outside the Laundromats where people chat as they wait for their clothes cycles to finish.  There are long sticky waits for trains in the sweltering heat at 30th Ave subway station (which really shouldn’t be called “subway” here at all, because it’s elevated).  And of course there’s ice cream too, just sold in different ways: like Gino’s Italian ices sold from the cart by Salerno Pizza near 29th Street, and the ice cream vans that jingle their way along 30th Ave and its surrounding roads.

Categories
Interview

Skateboarders Philip Sparta and Wallace de Olivera

Philip Sparta (l) and Wallace de Olivera (r)

As the 30th Ave labor day street fair was winding down I met Philip Sparta and his best friend Wallace de Olivera on their way to meet some friends at the Athens Square basketball courts.

They are both skateboarders.  Serious skateboarders.  They skateboard for between four and six hours every day.  They used to skateboard in Athens Square itself but only do that rarely now.  Philip explains why:

“People thought that the skateboarders here were annoying.  Once in a while the police would come and kick us out of this park.  We didn’t really care, we loved skating so much that we just kept coming back once they’d left.  But now since the Skate Park opened up we hardly come here, just once in a while.  We have friends who play basketball on the courts here so we come to hang out.”

The Skate Park he is talking about is the one in Astoria Park that opened in 2010, beneath the towering Trioborough Bridge and next to the East River.  It’s always whirring with boarders, the sound of their wheels competing with the traffic roar overhead.  (Here’s an article about the opening of the park and a You Tube clip of boarders there).

Wallace and Philip met in primary school but now go to different high schools: Wallace is at La Guardia High and Philip at Bryant High, at 31st Ave and 48th Street.   “I like it around here in Astoria,” says Philip, who lives near 30th Ave.  “I used to live in Flushing.  Over here is a lot nicer, it’s really diverse.”

On what they enjoy about skating, Wallace says, “it’s the thrill of actually skating.”

“And it keeps us from doing bad things, you know,” adds Philip.  “We don’t do bad things like most of our friends have gotten into.  It keeps us fit too, it’s very healthy.”  Not that it’s without its risks; both of them have recently recovered from ankle injuries.

Philip, now sixteen, was born in Japan and came to New York with his family when he was six.  He has few memories about living in Japan but does remember the move and how weird it felt.  He hasn’t been back.  “I’m totally Americanized.  I’m not really interested in going back.  Except to skate there.”

Categories
Interview

Julia Bravo and Janeth Toral

Julia Bravo (l) and Janeth Toral (r)
Julia Bravo (l) and Janeth Toral (r)

I met friends Janeth Toral and Julia Bravo sitting outside a house on 14th Street just south of 30th Avenue, on a Saturday morning.  Janeth works as a consultant for Mary Kay: they were selling beauty products made by Mary Kay and Avon from the porch to passersby.

Janeth and Julia are both from Ecuador.  Julia has lived in Astoria for 49 years and is now considered the “abuelita” – the “grandmother” – of her community.  She works as a crossing guard by public school 171, which is bordered by 29th and 30th Aves, and 14th Street.  Her work is clearly needed there, as there are no traffic lights.  One day four years ago, after getting a group of children across the street, a taxi hit her and hurt her leg.

Julia works 12 months a year – in the summertime there are still classes going on.  She says that the children who she helps cross the road are from all ethnic backgrounds – Hispanic, black, South Asian, Chinese, Irish, Italian – but that differences are overridden by the fact “they are all children.”

She enjoys the affection she gets from the children and the fact their parents are grateful for her help.  Julia’s own children are now grown up and married, and are currently serving in the army – she says that email helps her to keep in regular contact with them.

Janeth came to New York from Ecuador 19 years ago.  For the first year before moving to Astoria she lived in Corona.  “I didn’t like it because it was so noisy.  There was so much loud music!  Here it’s a bit calmer.  There are problems here and there, but we manage.”  She began selling beauty products to help support her family.  Her husband and two of her sons are in Ecuador, and her other four children (two boys and two girls) live with her in Astoria.

Both Janeth and Julia agree that the good things about the neighborhood are the nearby parks – in particular Astoria Park with its swimming pool – and access to different things that they need: stores, schools, post-offices.  The problems, they say, come mainly from people who come through from other parts of New York City.  And as Julia adds, the prices are going up, making it an expensive neighborhood to live in now.

The two women first got to know each other when Janeth’s son, now 13, was in pre-kinder.  “He kept asking me about Julia, saying ‘when are we going to see my grandmother?’” says Janeth.  “I would say no, she’s not actually your grandmother’ and he would say, ‘yes, she is!’”.

Categories
Interview

Benny Banker – mailman

Benny Banker delivering mail along 30th Ave
Benny Banker delivering mail along 30th Ave

Benny (Virendra) Banker has been delivering mail along 30th Avenue for over 13 years.  “My area covers most of this heart part of Astoria,” he says.  “It’s a nice residential area.  There’s Astoria General Hospital which is now Mount Sinai, so there are a lot of doctors around here.”  Benny is also a singer of Hindi devotional songs and other forms of Indian classical music.

He lives in Queens Village, in Eastern Queens.  It takes him one and a half hours by train to get to Astoria.  But he makes it no matter what.  “On the day when there was the biggest snowstorm I woke up at four in the morning, I walked to the subway station and I took a train and I made it here by eight o’ clock.  I managed to work, while 80% of people didn’t make it to their work that day.”

He adds: “When people see us in the snow and the rain they feel really sorry about us.  But if you talk about counting the full year of 365 days we hardly have those heat-waves and those mountains of the snow or the rain.  Hardly I would say ten days in the year.  This job may look like its hard but I think it is not that bad.  To be honest, the difficult and the easy thing about the job is just your mindset.”

Benny says that he loves his job “because it’s a service for the people.  I feel good seeing old people – when they wait for me and then they see me they become so happy.  If I am off a while, when I’m back everybody feels like a family member came back after a long time.  This job is also my lifesaver, because it gives me compulsory exercise everyday.”

Benny was born in Gujarat, India.  He came to New York City in his late teens, went back to Gujarat in 1977 when he got married, and returned to New York with his wife.  His three children are now grown up: one son is a pediatrician in Houston, one is a gastro-intestinal doctor in Stonybrook, and his daughter is in business management.

Benny crams a lot into his spare time.  He sings bhajan sandhyas (devotionals) and light classical Indian music in various languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Sanskrit, performing at events in New York and also other parts of the US.  (You can listen to him singing here).

He also designs and maintains websites, making the most of his Sunday mornings when he wakes up very early.  He has created one for his music, one for the block where he lives with details of their annual block party, one for his religious community, and also a site for memories of his mother.

When Benny first started working for the US Postal Service he was working in Brooklyn and living in Woodside.  That commute was very long: he applied for a transfer, and within six months his choice of the Long Island City area came up.  One of the main changes in the area that has affected him has been the increase in large new buildings with many apartments.  “That creates a parking problem mainly.  Before we used to find parking any time – now we have to struggle for it.”

Before, he says, there was a lot more first class mail.  “Now there is more junk mail, though even that is decreasing.”  He hastens to add that mail is not dwindling entirely.  “People still have to mail things like lawyers documents.  People still need a hard copy.”

The US Postal Service is currently in financial trouble and is planning to make major cuts, including by closing post offices.  One of the four in Queens on a list for potential closure is the Grand Post Office on 30th Ave between 45 and 46th Streets – over 1000 people have reportedly signed a petition to keep it open.  Benny keeps things in perspective though.  “Like every other business the post office is in the midst of hardship but personally I don’t think there’s a serious problem.  People do need to mail a letter.  Every business has a right to save the money and they are trying, but what I see in a big city like New York, downsizing will be almost impossible.

“What I say, is think positive you’re going to get positive.  If you think negative, you’re inviting the negative.”