Queens
I live in Queens, New York. The Birthplace of both Simon and Garfunkel, Jackie Gleason, Phil Rizzuto, Whitey Ford, Arlo Guthrie and the only female nominee for the executive branch of the US Government, Geraldine Ferraro. Queens is also geographically the largest borough in New York. It is also possibly the most ethnically diverse county in the country.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census of the 2.22 million people in Queens 46 percent were foreign born. Manhattan may have Chinatown and Little Italy, The Bronx may have Arthur Avenue, but Queens has every group.
Travel to Flushing, although it is primarily Asian, Chinese people make up only 15% of the population. Venture to Forest Hills, always a large Jewish population. I am often the only male customer of the Glatt kosher Chinese restaurant not wearing a Yarmulke. The Russian Jews have settled in Rego Park. As children we would always buy our German Pastry in Glendale or Ridgewood.
Woodside and Sunnyside have a very large Irish Population. Douglaston and Little Neck are very Italian.
Although Norman Lear had Archie Bunker in Astoria, in those days he more likely would have settled in Ozone Park or Richmond Hill. I have read that Astoria is the largest Greek community outside of Athens. Today people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are settling in Richmond Hill, Ozone Park and also Woodhaven.
People, including me, go to Manhattan for culinary treats, but these Queens neighborhoods are second to no other neighborhood for ethnic diversity.
It seems appropriate for this ethnic diversity to take place in the county that hosted both the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs.