Astoria, a mainly working-class neighborhood in northwestern Queens New York, is known as “a Greek isle in the New York City sea,” to use the expression once used by the New York Times.
Astoria has a long and colorful history dating back to early 1600s, and it is only after 1965 that a huge wave of poor migrants from Greece’s villages and islands made Astoria a predominantly Greek neighborhood. After World War II Astoria was predominantly Italian, and prior to that predominantly Irish.
In the last couple of decades Astoria has emerged as a multinational neighborhood as migration from Greece declined and migrants moved in from other parts of the world. In addition, Astoria has also began to attract many Americans who seek cheaper neighborhoods to live in the ever outrageously expensive City That Never Sleeps.
However, since the eruption of the debt crisis in Greece, a new wave of Greeks is flocking to Astoria, although most of them are professionals and nowadays they come from the country’s major cities.
To be sure, Astoria has changed a lot since All in the Family’s Archie Bunker days (Astoria was home to TV’s Archie Bunker), and will continue changing as time goes on. Change, as they say, is inevitable.
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