Koreatown, Queens, or the Long Island Koreatown (), on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its s ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...

, is one of the largest and fastest-growing

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language * ...

enclaves outside

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and Sout ...

. It includes the north-eastern portion of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long Is ...

, a

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, as well as part of the Gold Coast of Nassau County, outside the New York City limits. Long Island's Koreatown is largely oriented around Northern Boulevard.

Location

The core of this

Koreatown A Koreatown (Korean: 코리아타운), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula. History Koreatowns as an East Asian ethnic enclave have o ...

originated in the Flushing (플러싱) neighborhood of the

of Queens (퀸즈). However, this Koreatown has continued to expand rapidly eastward alongside Northern Boulevard through the Queens neighborhoods of Murray Hill, Auburndale, Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck, and eventually into the Gold Coast of Nassau County (나소 카운티).

History

Development of Flushing's Koreatown

In the 1980s, a continuous stream of Korean immigrants emerged into Flushing, many of whom began as workers in the medical field or Korean

international student International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying. In 2019, there were over 6 million internati ...

s who had moved to New York City to find or initiate

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

entrepreneurial Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

positions. They established a foothold on Union Street in Flushing between 35th and 41st Avenues, featuring restaurants and

karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...

(''

noraebang Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...

'') bars,

manicure A manicure is a mostly cosmetic beauty treatment for the fingernails and hands performed at home or in a nail salon. A manicure usually consists of filing and shaping the ''free edge'' of nails, pushing and clipping (with a cuticle pusher ...

and

pedicure A pedicure is a cosmetic treatment of the feet and toenails, analogous to a manicure. Pedicures include care not only for the toenails; dead skin cells are rubbed off the bottom of the feet using a rough stone (often a pumice stone). Skincar ...

salons, grocery markets, education centers and

bookstores Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of libra ...

, banking institutions, offices,

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually ...

vendors,

apparel Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

boutique A boutique () is a small shop that deals in fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (''apothēkē'') "storehouse". The term ''boutique'' and also ''d ...

s, and other commercial enterprises, and a Koreatown was conceived in Flushing.

Koreatownscape

Expansion eastward

As the community grew in wealth and population and rose in

socioeconomic status Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic access to resources and social position in relation to others. When analyzing a family's ...

, Koreans expanded their presence from Flushing eastward along Northern Boulevard, buying homes in more

affluent Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an ...

and less crowded Queens neighborhoods and more recently into adjacent suburban Nassau County, bringing their businesses with them, and thereby expanding the Koreatown itself. This expansion has led to the creation of an American ''Meokjagolmok'', or Korean ''Restaurant Street'', around the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With an average wee ...

station in Murray Hill, Queens, exuding the ambience of

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

itself. The eastward pressure to expand was also created by the inability to move westward, inhibited by the formidable presence of the enormous Flushing Chinatown centered on Main Street.

Demographics

According to the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servi ...

, the Korean population of Queens was 64,107, representing the largest municipality in the United States with a density of at least 500 Korean Americans ''per square mile''; while the Korean population of Nassau County had increased by nearly two-thirds to approximately 14,000 over one decade since the 2000 Census. Along with the two Koreatowns of

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

(in Palisades Park and Fort Lee) and the Manhattan Koreatown in New York City, the Long Island Koreatown functions as a

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radiois ...

node for an overall

Korean American Korean Americans are Americans of Koreans, Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian ...

population of 218,764 individuals in the

New York City Metropolitan Area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan are ...

, the second largest population of ethnic Koreans outside Korea.

Korean Air Korean Air Co., Ltd. (), trade name, operating as Korean Air (Korean Air Lines before 1984), is the flag carrier of South Korea and its largest airline based on fleet size, international destinations and international flights. The present-da ...

and

Asiana Airlines Asiana Airlines Inc. ( ) is a South Korean airline headquartered in Seoul.Home
." Asiana Airlines. Retrieved 13 September 2 ...

provide

non-stop flight A non-stop flight is a flight by an aircraft with no intermediate stops. History During the early age of aviation industry when aircraft range was limited, most flights were served in the form of milk run, aka there were many stops along ...

s from

JFK Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the New ...

in Queens.

Climate

The Long Island Koreatown lies at the northern edge of the

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40� ...

zone, according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

, similar to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

; Koreatown has a moderately sunny climate, averaging between 2,400 and 2,800 hours of

sunshine Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when ...

annually.

Education and public institutions

Koreatown residents can enjoy an urban oasis at

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Flushing may refer to: Places * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom * Flushing, Queens, New York City ** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens ** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens ** Flushin ...

. Numerous branches of the Queens Library are readily accessible to the Koreatown community, as are branches in Nassau County. The two-county region is served by numerous

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nicke ...

, and

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

s, including the highly sought

Great Neck School District Great Neck Public Schools is a public school district serving students residing in specific areas of Great Neck, North New Hyde Park, North Hills, and Manhasset Hills, New York. It is Union Free School District Number 7 in the Town of North ...

in Nassau County.

Medical care

Flushing Hospital Medical Center Flushing Hospital Medical Center (also known as Flushing Hospital) is one of the oldest hospitals in New York City. It survived a 1999 bankruptcy and subsequently affiliated first with the New York Presbyterian Hospital and then with the MediSys ...

in Queens,

North Shore University Hospital North Shore University Hospital (formerly known as Manhasset Hospital) is a part of Northwell Health, New York State's largest healthcare provider and private employer. It is a primary teaching hospital for the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of ...

in Manhasset, Nassau County, and St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, also in Nassau County, all serve as medical centers providing the Long Island Koreatown as well as surrounding communities with comprehensive

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health pr ...

services.

Transportation

The () of the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...

have their eastern terminus at Flushing – Main Street station; , it is the 12th busiest subway station in the subway system. The intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue, at the western end of Koreatown, is the third busiest intersection in New York City, behind only

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

and

Herald Square Herald Square is a major commercial intersection in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, formed by the intersection of Broadway, Sixth Avenue (officially Avenue of the Americas), and 34th Street. Named for the now-defunct ''New ...

in the borough of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Numerous other public bus and rail connections also serve Koreatown at the Main Street/Roosevelt Avenue intersection, including 22 bus lines, and the

Port Washington Branch The Port Washington Branch is an electrified two-track rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It branches north from the Main Line at the former Winfield Junction station, just e ...

of the

. Long Island's Koreatown is also readily accessible by automobile from several major controlled-access highways, including the

Grand Central Parkway The Grand Central Parkway (GCP) is a 14.61-mile (23.51 km) long parkway that stretches from the Triborough Bridge in New York City to Nassau County on Long Island. At the Queens–Nassau border, it becomes the Northern State Parkway, w ...

and the Whitestone Expressway/

Van Wyck Expressway Interstate 678 (I-678) is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway that extends for through two boroughs of New York City. The route begins at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Jamaica Bay and travels north through Queens and ...

News organizations

The Korea Times ''The Korea Times'' is the oldest of three English-language newspapers published daily in South Korea. It is a sister paper of the '' Hankook Ilbo'', a major Korean language daily; both are owned by Dongwha Enterprise, a wood-based manufactu ...

'', a news organization based in Seoul, carries a significant presence in the Long Island Koreatown. All of the major New York City daily newspapers are also found ubiquitously in Koreatown, including ''The New York Times'', ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

'', the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in t ...

'', and the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was establishe ...

''.

International media exposure

The Korean Air '' nut rage incident'', which occurred on December 5, 2014, at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, made news headlines around the world, as did the legal case begun in 2015 against Heather Cho, former executive of the ''

chaebol A chaebol (, ; ) is a large industrial South Korean conglomerate run and controlled by an individual or family. A chaebol often consists of multiple diversified affiliates, controlled by a person or group whose power over the group often exc ...

'', held in Queens County Court as opposed to the Seoul High Court, per the insistence of flight attendant Kim Do-hee, the plaintiff.

Cuisine

According to ''The New York Times'', a " Kimchi Belt" stretches along Northern Boulevard and the Long Island Rail Road tracks, from Flushing into Nassau County. However, a prominent Korean food chef stated that "Queens is the closest you can come to authentic Korean food." The Long Island Koreatown features numerous restaurants that serve both traditional and/or regional Korean cuisine. As noted above, the development of this Koreatown has led to the creation of an American ''Meokjagolmok'', or Korean ''Restaurant Street'', around the Long Island Rail Road station in Murray Hill, Queens, exuding the ambience of Seoul itself.

Korean Chinese cuisine Korean–Chinese cuisine (), also known as Sino–Korean cuisine, is a hybrid cuisine developed by the ethnic Chinese in Korea. Despite originally being derived from Chinese cuisine, Korean-Chinese cuisine consists of unique dishes with Kor ...

is also available in Koreatown.

Languages

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

are both spoken prevalently in Koreatown. Retail signs employing the Hangul (한글) alphabet are ubiquitous.

Economic and political clout

As Long Island's Korean population has grown, Koreatown has concomitantly gained increasing economic and political clout. Upscale Korean-owned shopping centers continue to open along the Northern Boulevard corridor. In November 2012, Ron Kim was elected as the first Korean American to the

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an official t ...

, representing the 40th district.

Social services

A significant array of

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administe ...

toward assisting recent as well as established Korean immigrants, is readily available in Koreatown.

References

{{navboxes, list= {{Flushing, Queens {{Ethnicity in New York City , state=collapsed {{American Koreatowns {{Queens Ethnic enclaves in New York (state) Geography of Nassau County, New York Korean-American culture in New York (state) Korean-American culture in New York City Koreatowns in the United States Neighborhoods in Queens, New York