'Angel' brings chicken and rice to Jackson Heights

Video of 'The Chicken and Rice Man,' Jorge Munoz, by Adam B. Ellick for the New York Times, November 25, 2007.

Bengali Community meets in JaxHts to address hurricane

Locals send help home to Bangladesh
By Kristen V. Brown for amNewYork, November 19, 2007

Armed with scissors, tape, and a few yards of pink twine, the leaders of New York City's Bengali community yesterday turned the Alauddin Sweet Meat Restaurant in Jackson Heights into makeshift fundraising headquarters for cyclone victims in Bangladesh.

Members of the Bangladesh Society of New York and Bengali social-help group the Probashi Barisal Divisional Association covered the restaurant tables with fliers and banners encouraging help, taking to the streets of Jackson Heights to raise money for the people back home....

'SuddenWorld' Interviews Jackson heights Film Director

by epontee for SuddenWorld.com

Jinoh Park was born in Seoul, South Korea, but for now, he calls the neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens his home as he commutes daily into Manhattan, endeavoring to make his first full feature-length film...

...To date, his short films “Lunch,” “Request,” and “Slowly Silently” achieved international recognition as official selections in numerous film festivals around the world, including the Cannes Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, and the DGA (Directors Guild of America) Haig P. Manoogian Screenings in Los Angeles, to name a few...

...Its working title is Night and Day. He describes the plot in brief as an actor and actress spending a full twenty-four hours against the backdrop of New York City. There is a story outline, but the script will be developed in organic fashion, which Chris indicates has a notable precedent in the expressionist pastiche method of director Wong Kar-wai...

'Open space and Urban Development' Tour includes Jackson Heights

MUNICIPAL ART SOCIETY Saturday (11.24.07) at 1:30 p.m., “Sunnyside to Jackson Heights: More Space and New Arrangements,” covers the coexistence of open space and urban development, meeting in Sunnyside, Queens at the Sunnyside Arch, 46th Street and Queens Boulevard. (212) 439-1049. $15; $12 for members.

Queens Courier presents 'The Ghost Workers' Series of articles

THE GHOST WORKERS’ SERIES was reported by The Queens Courier staff writers Pete Davis,THE GHOST WORKERS’ SERIES was reported by The Queens Courier staff writers Pete Davis, Noah Rosenberg and Christina Santucci during a three-month span beginning the end of August. Damian Ghigliotty and Joe Hirsch contributed reporting for the series. Christina Santucci was the photographer for the series. Lou Parajos edited the series, and Stephen Reina designed it.

From 'It is about the families left behind' BY PETE DAVIS

...Queens, which has more than 1 million
foreign-born residents, making it the most
diverse county in the United States, has seen
an influx of Hispanic residents with 31 percent
of the immigrants classified as Latin
American, according to a report entitled,
“The Newest New Yorkers,” based on data
from the 2000 census.
The number of Hispanics is even greater in
Woodside, Jackson Heights, Corona,
Elmhurst and East Elmhurst – the neighborhoods
surrounding Roosevelt Avenue and
69th Street – with 38,076 born in Ecuador,
32,297 in Colombia, 29,439 from the
Dominican Republic and 23,105 from
Mexico, according to statistics from the
report....

Jackson Heights (11370, 11372)
Total, Foreign-born 64,242 100.0%
Colombia 11,420 17.8%
Ecuador 9,303 14.5%
Mexico 4,676 7.3%
China 4,643 7.2%
Dominican Republic 4,262 6.6%
Peru 2,680 4.2%

From 'Dreams and Dancing'BY DAMIAN GHIGLIOTTY

...Two dollars per dance add up over the course of a night,
especially when the DJ blends several songs together in a matter
of minutes. However, as long as customers have the cash on
hand to pay, a house of 20 to 30 women – nearly all South
American and Caribbean – awaits them at The Flamingo Club
in Jackson Heights...
...The Flamingo stays open seven days a week from 5 in the
evening to 4 in the morning with roughly between 80 and 90
dancers. On busy nights, the price at the door is $5 after 10 and
on other nights there’s no cover at all. The dancers, however,
are employed as independent agents and earn all of their
money in hard cash from customers on the spot. Minus a $10
house fee charged at the beginning of the night and a penalty
of $10 for every half hour late to work, those working full-time
– about fifty hours a week – can make up to $2,000. In return,
The Flamingo’s management enforces a strict dress code for
each night.
“On Mondays, the dancers dress up as cowgirls with hats
and boots, Tuesdays in lacy pajamas, Wednesdays in bikinis,
Thursdays as police women, Fridays in mini skirts, Saturdays
in dresses, and Sundays as Catholic schoolgirls,” said Carlos.
“And for all the fun, it’s a lot less stressful than trying to pick
up strangers at a regular nightclub. As long as you treat the
girls with respect, they’ll treat you the same, and as long as
you have enough money, you’re guaranteed companionship.”...

From 'Hard workers take a break' BY CHRISTINA SANTUCCI AND NOAH ROSENBERG

On Sunday afternoons...hundreds of Ecuadorian immigrants
fill dozens of makeshift, dirt volleyball
courts in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
These men, many of whom travel with
their wives and children in tow, attend
Mass in the morning, so games often begin
at 2 or 3 p.m. Families line the sidelines of
the courts, cheering on their team and
feasting on empanadas and hot chocolate.
Nearby, a vendor slices up “cuey” or roasted
guinea pig, an Ecuadorian specialty.
“We work Monday to Friday, Monday to
Saturday, the only day we can enjoy is on
Sunday,” said Louis Pintado, a 42-year-old
immigrant from Cuenca, Ecuador, after finishing
a volleyball match.
...Some guys travel from their homes in
Jamaica and Jackson Heights for the
games each weekend, but they keep in
touch with their teammates via cell
phones.
“We just make phone calls to come over
there,” Pintado said...

from 'Faith is their comforting bridge' BY CHRISTINA SANTUCCI AND NOAH ROSENBERG

...“You cannot define the Latin American culture
or Latin culture without the Catholic
faith,” said Monsignor Otto Garcia, pastor of
St. Joan of Arc Church in Jackson Heights.
“When they emigrate from their countries
and become immigrants in the U.S., the one
thing that they can bring that is the same in
their country is their faith,” he said...

Korean Group encourages broader idea of community

Lisa Biagiotti, via the blog 'Junction Boulevard,'reports that the Korean American Empowerment Council, a non-profit organization, "encourages Koreans to take interest in their surrounding community" and the "Korean American Association awards 20 scholarships to students of any ethnicity at Newtown High School in Elmhurst."

John Park, 56, of Jackson Heights and president of the Korean American Empowerment Council says "We need strong friends, we have to grow up together... I try to make [Koreans] ask, expand, [and] be open."

Apartment Therapy features a JH renovation by Sarah and Jim

An 1100 sq ft JH 2-bdrm pre-war co-op gets a nice renovation and a slideshow feature on Apartment Therapy.

JH Ethnic Retail part of healthy trend

Are Ethnic Shopping Strips Luring Suburban Customers?
By Sewell Chan, for the New York Times, November 13, 2007

Last weekend, thousands of South Asians from across the New York region descended on Jackson Heights, Queens, to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. The neighborhood’s central corridor, 74th Street, has become renowned as a Main Street for South Asian Americans, even though few Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis actually live there, according to Madhulika S. Khandelwal, a professor of urban studies at Queens College who directs the Asian American Center there.

“It has become an important cultural concentration, but only because of the businesses,” she is quoted as saying in a new report by the Center for an Urban Future. ...

The four-page report argues that “once-modest retail areas have evolved from primarily serving local customers into regional shopping districts that routinely attract large numbers of second and third generation immigrants from the suburbs who come to buy ... ethnic products.”

...ethnic retail strips have not only become gathering places for immigrants on weekends, but are also “facilitating the type of economic activity that all
cities covet: they attract people from outside the city to spend money here that otherwise probably would have been spent elsewhere.”

NY Times reports on Ecuadorians being offered a 'Plan Retorno'

A Homeland Beckons
By ALEX MINDLIN for the New York Times, November 11, 2007

In a soundproof glass booth in the back of a travel agency on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens, Alex Polanco was murmuring into his microphone in Spanish. “We want to know your thoughts, your opinions,” said Mr. Polanco, a host of Grupo Radial Delgado, a tiny radio station aimed at New York’s Ecuadorean immigrants. “The Plan of Return, is it good? Is it bad? The lines are open.” ...

...The program, called Plan Retorno, will be open to Ecuadorean citizens worldwide and will take effect for Ecuadorean-Americans in February. To lure them home, Ecuador will raise or end ceilings on the value of cash and goods they can bring back; offer them attractive loans to build houses and start businesses; and let them ship home their cars without paying the usual high import duties....

'Little India' CD reviews

Rough In Here reviews some CDs purchased at one of the many stores in JH providing Bollywood soundtracks, Punjabi mixtapes and bhangra beats.

'Jackson Heights Life' is up and running

Sign on to Jackson Heights Life for Neighborhood Chat, Community Groups, Activities & Events, Apartments, Sublets & Room-mates, Business Listings and Services Directory, Community Trade and Classifieds.

Shangri La Express photographed for New York Times

Director presents JH 'Dance' film at Hispanic New York Film Festival

Filmmaker Yolanda Pividal will be present TWO DOLLAR DANCE 2006, 17 m
Wednesday, November 28th, 8-10 pm
(followed by LA BRUJA: A WITCH FROM THE BRONX, Dir Felix Rodriguez, 2005, 50 m. and THE KRUTCH , Dir Judith Escalona, 2004, 29m)


TWO DOLLAR DANCE

Every weekend, hundreds of Latino immigrants pack the dance clubs of Jackson Heights, Queens. There, they meet women who will be their dance floor partners for two dollars a song. Through the eyes of Victor, a patron, and Liz, one of the ballerinas, this film dives into the solitude and expectations of men and women who leave their families and countries behind to work in the United States.

Presented by Columbia University and Instituto Cervantes in collaboration with The Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Curated by Marcela Goglio and Claudio Iván Remeseira.

FREE ADMISSION. Photo ID may be required at door. To make a reservation, please reply to this e-mail. For further information, call (212)854-6698

Davis Auditorium, Columbia University , 500 West 120th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue

JH pharmacies still carry recalled infant medicines

John Toscano reports for the Queens Gazette that Senator John Sabini's staff surveyed a number of pharmacies in the Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst and discovered "many pharmacies still selling these potentially fatal products..."

Has JH lost rep as best place for Indian food?

Brian S. asks the Chowhounds "Are there ANY good Indian restaurants in Jackson Heights (or anywhere else)???"