Forgotten NY and Forget the Past? Sunnyside, Queens Compared to Hamilton Park, Staten Island

I love the Forgotten NY website; before I even arrived in New York, I got to know the city and all its forgotten corners through it. I remain a fan; the creator works hard to cover the entire city, and he does it with verve. He also seems to share my perspective, that entire neighborhoods, not just a single historic building preserved in a sea of new (and generally shoddy) construction, is the way to go. It is very important to walk streets as they were 50, 100, even 150 years ago. He touches upon this in his latest posting, on the Hamilton Park neighborhood of Staten Island. Now, I have never actually set foot in Staten Island, only ever so briefly driving through on a failed attempt to reach Coney Island from New Jersey a few years back, so I cannot confirm his assertion that this is a neighborhood under assault from the "Fedders" (cheaply-made, characterless) condos. However, I can appreciate his work capturing this lovely, and widely-unknown, neighborhood, as it sleepily moves through time.

So, I will get to my ultimate point: it is a rare treat, from what I can tell, to be able to walk the streets of any neighborhood, in any borough of New York, without being intruded upon by graceless modernity. Mr. Walsh, creator of the site (and author of a book with the same name), touches upon the constant peril neighborhoods such as this face. Any one of the homes he showcases here could be gone in a heartbeat. He calls for a neighborhood-wide historic preservation designation for Hamilton Park, which I have to agree with. It takes just one intrusion for the magic to be lost. It is already happening in my neighborhood of Sunnyside, over in Queens. Sunnyside is nothing flashy; a neighborhood that carries on an Irish tradition, while welcoming Koreans, Colombians, Romanians, Turks, all with their own prominent neighborhood institutions. When I first arrived, I saw much evidence of large-scale demolition in the commercial district along Queens Boulevard, where gas stations and fast food restaurants mar the streetscape. What was once a continuous business district is now pockmarked. By chipping away at the continuity of the businesses, some of the charm has been removed.

More recently, however, this harmful "progress" has begun to impact the residential structures of Sunnyside. While the business district has gaps, most of the homes and apartment buildings are unchanged from their origins in the 1920s. The recent historic preservation efforts here have focused on (the successful and thrilling landmarking) of Sunnyside Gardens, despite the fact that the rest of the neighborhood was also remarkably well preserved. But, as with the rest of Queens and New York, this neighborhood continuity is under threat. My heart plummets each time I walk down 42nd St and see the horrible Fedders condos being constructed between two 1920s apartment house gems. While some folks from the 1920s could conceivably still be walking the streets of Sunnyside, they are beginning to outlive some of the residential buildings that make this neighborhood a window into 1920s New York. Another New York tragedy that makes me blue. Hamilton Park be warned, change could be a-coming, and it won't be pretty.