A Slice of Europe Near the East River

JUDITH KLEIN came for the food and stayed for the kitchen.

 

A blogger by moonlight under the name Foodista, Ms. Klein was born in Slovakia and says that living in the culturally diverse Ditmars-Steinway area - near the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden - makes her feel "very at home." Also nice: being able to gather provisions in this food-obsessed swath of Astoria and cook in a kitchen bigger than a breadbox. "My friends who live in Manhattan are surprised it's so large," she said.

 

Matt Mahoney, another young commuter, described the area as "cheaper than Park Slope - and closer." After boarding the elevated N line - which starts on 31st Street, above Rosario's Italian deli and Choo-Choo's Chicken 'n Crepes - he gets to his office on West 57th Street in 20 minutes.

 

"It's the hottest area in New York City and the greatest community," said George Delis, a former district manager for Community Board 1 and lifelong neighborhood tout. He pointed to a profusion of mom-and-pop stores and cafes, which give some streets a whiff of Europe.

 

"Best food in the entire world, and every ethnicity is within a two-block radius," said Peter Vallone Jr., a councilman and third-generation resident.

 

Stretching from Astoria Park, which runs along the East River, to La Guardia Airport, and from Bowery Bay down to Grand Central Parkway, Ditmars-Steinway has about 54,000 residents, about 60 percent white, 20 percent Hispanic, 9.8 percent Asian and 1.4 percent black - and 45 percent foreign-born, according to a Queens College compilation of 2000 census data. Greeks colonized the area from the 1920s to the '60s, joining Italian, Irish and German immigrants. Today, "the schools record 118 nationalities," Mr. Delis said.

 

Depending on the broker you ask, prices are either holding steady or sinking slightly. Charles Sciberras, an associate at Re/Max Today, says they are about 8 percent below last year's, with one-family houses starting at $525,000 and two-families averaging $750,000. Still, "anything under 700 will sell within 10 days," he said. "Anything in a two-family category, between 750 and 775, will take about 30 days. Over 800, it's sitting there and taking a longer period." Rents are about $1,100 for a one-bedroom.

 

"Affordability? It's got that," said Louis Charbonneau, who works at the United Nations and with his wife and two children recently moved to the area from Berlin. "Decent commute? It's got that. And decent schools? It's got that, too."

 

What the area lacks are bookstores and vegetarian restaurants, says Crystal Fenton, who shares a two-bedroom here with her boyfriend and two large dogs. But, she said in an e-mail message, "it has a nice mix of people - young, old," and "still has that New York `neighborhood' feel."

 

Despite an influx of "yuppies by the bushel," as the Greek-born Mr. Delis put it, the neighborhood is largely working class. Neighbors build fences; dentists hang shingles. Some streets are so shorn of trees they get as bleached-hot in summer as a Greek isle.

 

Despite its small size - just under two square miles - Ditmars-Steinway packs in five power plants, generating about 75 percent of the city's electricity. Add the planes at La Guardia and the traffic as prison employees drive on and off Rikers Island, and no wonder some call the neighborhood Asthma Alley. "It's not fair for one community to bear that burden," Mr. Vallone said, "and it's only going to get worse."

 

But naysayers don't stay downbeat for long. Mr. Vallone, 47, whose grandfather Charles marched in ecumenical "brotherhood parades" in Astoria, and whose father, Peter Sr., served as City Council speaker, says he wouldn't raise his own children anywhere else.

 

WHAT YOU'LL FIND

 

If Manhattan has high-rises and Brooklyn has brownstones, Ditmars-Steinway has one- and two-family red-brick row houses in a style that "I would characterize as nondescript," said Gerald Caliendo, an architect who works in the area. They have small yards and often contain rental units. Apartments over stores and offices are common.

 

The knot of activity around the N and W subway station at Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard unwinds as the street stretches east and west. At one end lies Astoria Park, with grassy hillsides and views through the plane trees of the Manhattan skyline and the Triborough Bridge's lacy towers. The Hell Gate Bridge is also visible, striding on elephant feet across the park and through the neighborhood, shadowing houses underneath.

 

The boulevard travels west to Hazen Street, the pipeline to Rikers Island, and a bit beyond. Victorian-era row houses on 41st Street are remnants of a village - complete with a school, church and post office - that William Steinway built in the 1870s for his piano makers and other factory workers. At the top of 41st Street, overlooking Bowery Bay, is a 27-room mid-19th-century fixer-upper whose owner, Michael Halberian, puts on the market periodically; he says he might part with it for $5 million.

 

Co-ops and condominiums include two recent conversions, both developed by Joseph Pistilli. Smaller condos are scattered about; others are under way.

 

WHAT YOU'LL PAY

 

Apartments generally sell for $200,000 to $400,000, and single-family attached homes for $525,000 to $600,000. Occasionally, a vintage Steinway house goes on the market at $550,000 or so, said Victor Mihailescu, an associate at Re/Max Today.

 

Marlene Perno of GM Dynasty Real Estate said it recently sold three large houses, around 35th and 36th Streets near 30th Avenue, for more than $1 million each. The Corcoran Group is advertising a two-family house on 35th Street near 24th Avenue at $1.1 million.

 

Generally, prices rise on streets tunneled with trees, and move down on the "subway challenged" streets, as Peter Horowitz of Amorelli Realty describes the area nearest La Guardia.

 

WHAT TO DO

 

With some 200 small businesses in the area, according to Catherine Piecora, executive director of the Astoria Restoration Association, you'll have no trouble getting a manicure or something to eat. The food choices run from the high-end Trattoria L'Incontro to vintage pastry shops like La Guli ("since 1937") and eclectic delis like the Parrot Coffee Market ("European Balkan Middle Eastern Gourmet").

 

The Astoria Restoration Association, created in 1979 to help spruce up the commercial district with wide sidewalks and benches, claims credit for one of New York's first street fairs, now an annual event in the spring.

 

Astoria Park covers 65 acres, with a track, playground, tennis courts and landmark 1936 pool.

 

The Bohemian Beer Garden, on 24th Avenue near 29th Street, is a major draw. Coffeehouses include the Waltz-Astoria, on Ditmars Boulevard near 23rd Street.

 

THE SCHOOLS

 

Public School 122, a k a Mamie Faye, has about 1,370 students, prekindergarten through eighth grade, and describes itself as a magnet school for core knowledge. Eighty percent of its fourth graders met state standards in reading last year, and 93 percent did so in math; citywide percentages were 56 and 74.

 

P.S. 084, the Steinway School, has magnet programs in global arts and learning. It has about 390 students, prekindergarten through sixth grade; 63 percent of fourth graders met standards in reading and 75 percent in math. P.S. 085, the Judge Charles J. Vallone School, has magnet programs in theater arts and technology. It has about 450 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade; 70 percent of fourth graders showed proficiency in reading and 81 percent in math.

 

Intermediate School 141 enrolls about 1,080 students in Grades 6 through 8; 51 percent of eighth graders showed proficiency in reading and 69 percent in math.

 

THE COMMUTE

 

It's a 15-minute hop from the terminus of the N and W lines at Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard to 59th Street and Lexington Avenue. The Q19A bus runs on Ditmars Boulevard to the subway.

 

THE HISTORY

 

The Dutch, then the British, settled the area, forming hamlets that merged with Astoria in 1870 and with New York in 1898. When the Steinways built their enclave, in the 1870s and '80s, "they wanted to create a utopian community for workers away from the strife of New York," said Robert Singleton of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.

 

The area encompassing La Guardia was once home to a beer garden-cum-amusement park. Developers moved into the neighborhood in 1917, when the El started running. In the '30s, Robert Moses built the Grand Central Parkway, which cuts across Astoria and onto the Triborough Bridge.