By Philip Newman
Sunnyside is “flat-out cheap,” a “hidden gem if there ever was one” and rated the third-best place to live in New York City by New York Magazine.
Sunnyside, Astoria (No. 11), Woodside (No. 13), Jackson Heights (No. 15) and Long Island City (No. 16) are prominent on a list of the top 20 neighborhoods of the five boroughs in the ratings.
Flushing (No. 22) and Corona Park (No. 32) show up in the 21 through 50 scale.
The ratings reflected housing cost, transit, shopping and services, safety, restaurants, schools, diversity, creative capital, housing quality, green space, health and environment and nightlife .
New York Magazine presented the No. 1 honor to Park Slope, Brooklyn.
“No neighborhood is the butt of more stroller jokes or recipient of more anti-gentrification scorn,” the magazine said. “But any way you slice it, Park Slope is the very definition of a well-rounded neighborhood.”
The area has an average two-bedroom rent at $2,275, excellent public schools, low crime, vast green space and many restaurants and bars.
The Lower East Side of Manhattan came in second and Cobble Hill/Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, fourth.
As for Sunnyside, New York Magazine said a two-bedroom apartment rents for around $1,300. It has better-than-average schools, is a safe, quiet neighborhood and is 16 minutes from Times Square. But it was a bit lacking in restaurants and nightlife.
The magazine cited Astoria for reasonably priced housing, “strong ethnic clusters that have weathered the first waves of gentrification,” good shopping at both local markets and big-box retailers and pedestrian-friendly streets. Downsides were the lack of foliage and park access and a commute that is “cumbersome if your destination is lower Manhattan.”
Woodside “has low crime, good schools, affordability and diversity” and a bit more in the way of nightlife thanks to “a plethora of Irish bars around Roosevelt Avenue.”
Jackson Heights “offers something most Queens neighborhoods don’t — appealing older housing stock.” Transit, however, is a challenge with commutes to midtown that can take 25 minutes.
As for Flushing, New York Magazine called it a “dense, food-rich downtown surrounded by a mini-suburbia with high ranking schools and low crime. The downside was “a lifetime on the No. 7 train.”
“Long Island City has one foot planted in Queens and the other in Manhattan with very favorable commuting times to midtown,” it reported, but a fairly high crime rate and poor public schools.
Corona Park was found the be “an affordable haven for immigrant families with more green space than most parts of Queens. Lacks restaurants and shopping areas such as are available in Jackson Heights and Flushing.”
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-260-4536.
