New York City / Queens, New York

W Garrisun / Living in Queens / Updated 2y
★★★

Is Queens a good place for a young person?

Queens is a fine place! Very good restaurants, lots of different cultures, can be as quiet or as nightlife-y as you want it. Not sure what gives you the idea it's cheap though. It's certainly not that.

It's obviously more residential feeling than Manhattan. If it's your first time living in NYC, you might want to start off living in the city somewhere if you can afford it just to get familiar with it, etc. Especially if you're a single person that doesn't need a ton of space.

Can't go wrong in Queens tho, it's a good place to live. Jackson Heights, Astoria, Ridgewood has a lot of clubs and bars because it's next to Bushwick in BK. Any of the areas people here are telling you are fine.

ApatheticAbsurdist / Living in Queens / 3y ago
★★★★

Queens is very large (it covers an area over twice that of San Francisco) and just like within San Fran there are huge differences from the Tenderloin and the Persidio.

The issue is there's a constant expansion of what is a nice area. Used to be everyone wanted to live in Manhattan. Shadier areas in Manhattan got pricier and nicer until the point where many people couldn't afford it, so then Brooklyn became the next spot. Now a lot of people can't afford Brooklyn, so Queens is now growing a lot, but largely in the areas closest to Manhattan. Long Island City (aka, LIC, which has nothing to do with Long Island) and Astoria are getting more and more expensive and LIC has high rise luxury apartments popping up.

Going a little further out can be more affordable. They are often very interesting areas with tons of good food with lots of ethnic diversity. Jackson Heights has a lot of Indian and hispanic restaurants and the like. Flushing and Elmhurst have more Asian options. Elmhurst and Jackson Heights have some decent subway connection options to get you into Manhattan easily. Sunnyside and woodside are between LIC/Astoria and Jackson Heights/Elmhurst and are a little quieter but still tons of good restaurants and an easy jump on the subway or bus to get elsewhere.

It's not as cheap as it once was, but it is great.Full Review

NorthernAvo / Living in Queens / Updated 2yr
★★★

Brooklyn's my favorite borough, but Queens is home because my life revolved around it while growing up. It's a comfortable place to live with more diversity in the type of density, kinds of people, rent prices, food, you name it - it's incredibly diverse. I will advocate for moving to Queens, but be aware of where you choose to look. Eastern Queens doesn't have direct subway service like the rest of the city. You have solid bus service and the Long Island Railroad (which is pricey), but it's a lot less convenient to get around without a car.

I really like it around Glendale, Ridgewood (both right along brooklyn), and Elmhurst the most. Flushing's a really interesting area that's a bit more affordable in some pl how many people imagine it is here. It's wonderful and I'll miss it when I move away - there's no place quite like it anywhere (all of nyc, for that matter, but particularly Queens and Brooklyn).a in the borough (and I think the city) but it's quite chaotic. I enjoy that chaos quite a bit, but I enjoy living somewhere just a tad quieter. That said, the food there is chef's kiss.

I highly recommend you come and spend some time here and get a feel for things. New York's taken a lot of people I know and chewed em up and spit them out because it is not how many people imagine it being here. It's wonderful and I'll miss it when I move away - there's no place quite like it anywhere (all of nyc, for that matter, but particularly Queens and Brooklyn).

Think of Queens as the more laid back, not so egotistic, experienced member of the nyc family :)

Good luck!

Full Review

B Pearlman / Living in Queens / Updated 3yr
★★★★

What is it like living in Queens, New York?

As a current resident of Rego Park, I can tell you from my perspective what living in my corner of Queens is like. First, I’m fortunate to live only one block from the subway on a quiet residential street that abuts Queens Blvd. (the busiest city roadway in America and arguably the widest!) I have neighbors from all over the world, including Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, and Russia! I (as a white male) am a MINORITY in the borough and I couldn’t be happier about that. The diversity here is STUNNING. You can hear more languages spoken here in Queens than anywhere else on earth. It’s amazing. Not only is the borough diverse in population, it’s also diverse as to urban landscape. You can live at the beach (No, really…you can in the Rockaways), in a city (Long Island City), upscale suburbia (Forest Hills), or in a hugely diverse neighborhood like Jackson Heights (with some of the best food on the planet).

You can live without a car (I do) if you live near the subway. A word of caution…the subway is not nearly as accessible in Queens as it is in the other boroughs. We are served by the N,W,E,F,M,R,G and 7 train. There are express buses to the city as well as cross borough buses. The LIE, Van Wyck, BQE and Grand Central Parkway are all busy thoroughfares and can slow you down almost any time of day…upside? You are close to both LaGuardia and JFK. Green Cabs and car services are readily available too. It’s pretty easy to get around, so you may or may not need a vehicle.

The bottom line is that Queens truly is the World’s Borough. It offers the best of NYC and is too often overlooked. It’s also a great place to live!

Brett Conti / Updated 2yr

INSIDE QUEENS NYC (The Most Diverse Place on the Planet)