John Liu gets a hug from a longtime supporter at a recent fundraiser. (Photo: Stella Chan)

An F.B.I. investigation into New York City Comptroller John Liu’s fundraising practices has had a chilling effect on Liu’s ability to raise money for a potential 2013 mayoral run. As revealed this week in his campaign filing report, he’s also been forced to spend thousands on legal fees related to the investigation. But John Liu remains a role model for New York’s Asian American community and still embodies the political aspirations of this growing segment of the city’s population. 

In this podcast, Fi2W executive producer John Rudolph interviews Sing Tao Daily reporter Stella Chan about her recent article for Fi2W concerning the conversations taking place about Comptroller Liu among Asian Americans. We also hear from Korea Daily Senior Reporter Danny Shin. Listen:

Subscribe to the Fi2W Podcast using Podbean or iTunes ¦ Download this episode

Reporter’s Notebook: “Scandal” vs. “Issue”

Chinese vs. English Language Media and the Subtlety of Words. By Stella Chan.

When the F.B.I. investigation unleashed a flood of news about City Comptroller John Liu, I saw that the stories in New York’s English-language and Asian-language media were as different as day and night. In contrast to the mainstream English-language press which uses the word “scandal” to refer to Liu’s situation, Chinese newspapers were terming it a “fundraising issue,” while the Korean press used the word “allegation.”

On October 11, 2011, the New York Times ran a front page article titled “Doubts Raised on Donations to Comptroller.” The investigative article uncovered irregularities in Liu’s donor lists, and subsequently, the F.B.I. began a probe into whether Liu’s campaign was illegally bundling donations. Immediately, the Chinese media began to run articles concerning the negative impact of the investigation on Asian American political participation. Several community leaders expressed their concerns about the investigation and some of them wondered if Liu was singled out because of his race. These angles were muted in the English-language press until the recent NY1 report, “Asian-American Community Struggles with Liu Controversy,” on Jan 5, 2012.

Meanwhile, the English media was reporting that Liu may be involved in several irregularities apart from his fundraising scandal, including his appointment of John Dorsa, his decision on a pension fund contract and his own office renovation. The New York Post even called upon Liu to resign, writing that “John Liu was never suited for public office,” in a November 21, 2011 editorial.  An Asian reporter, off the record, told me that some English press were running negative stories in order to damage Liu’s reputation.

The different approaches of English and Chinese media were clearly shown in the reporting on a press conference hosted by Liu’s Chinese supporters on December 22, 2011. The New York Post, Daily News and New York Times joined a number of Chinese media outlets at the Chinatown meeting. The following day, The Post and The Daily News came up with the headlines “Liu in FBI cross hairs” and “Liu insists he’s still running for mayor despite probe,” while the Chinese media wrote articles about supporters calling for a united community to back up Liu.

After the press conference, Lotus Chau, Chief reporter of Sing Tao Daily, (where this reporter is on staff) wrote in a side bar that because Liu is the first Chinese American who holds a city-wide office in New York City, when the New York Post refers to Liu as a “Liu-ser,” it is seen as a personal attack and makes many Chinese supporters uncomfortable.

“Innocent until proven guilty,” said Danny Shin, senior reporter for The Korea Daily who wrote an exclusive report about the FBI investigation of Korean donors. According to Shin, Korean supporters had donated $100,000 to Liu as of July 2011 and Korean supporters hosted a big fundraising event this month.  Shin says while the mainstream English-language media has their own take on the scandal, “We are neither reporting it negative nor positive.”

Listen to Stella Chan speaking about John Liu on our partner WNYC Radio.

Stella Chan is a reporter for Sing Tao Daily and a Feet in Two Worlds reporting fellow. Her work, and that of the other Feet in Two Worlds fellows, is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Fi2W podcasts are also supported in part by WNYC Radio and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

John Liu with South Asian immigrants at an anti-crime event. (Photo: Stella Chan)

Is John Liu politically dead?

Ever since an ongoing FBI investigation into the embattled New York City Comptroller’s campaign finances began last year, bird-like murmurs have fluttered through the air in New York’s Asian American community .

A group of young Korean, Chinese and South Asian professionals gathered at a cozy Manhattan restaurant recently, gossiping about the scandal.

“Did Liu come under increased scrutiny because of perceptions of foreign money? Will there be heightened suspicion of untoward behavior by other Asian American candidates or of Asian money in American politics? These topics are on the mind of every Asian American,” said Bright Limm, President of Korean Americans for Political Advancement.  “A lot of questions need to be answered but they have not appeared in the media yet.”

Limm’s group aims to maximize the political influence of the Korean American community. Last year, they mobilized a large turnout of Korean voters in State Senate District 11, contributing to the victory of State Senator Tony Avella.

John Liu is in hot water. The scandal began in October with a New York Times investigation which found a number of people Liu listed as donors denying they gave him money. Shortly thereafter, Liu’s fundraiser Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan was arrested and charged with conspiring to arrange a $16,000 political contribution to Liu under the cover of straw donors. Now the FBI and Manhattan federal prosecutors are investigating whether foreign money flowed into Mr. Liu’s 2009 campaign. The Foreign Agents Registration Act prohibits campaign contributions by foreign nationals.

Behind the curtain, Liu’s damaged reputation has led to lengthy discussions in New York’s Chinese and Korean communities. Progressive groups, journalists and people in political circles are constantly exchanging emails and opinions. The most pressing question is, “Can John Liu still run for mayor?”

Some believe the scandal has damaged Liu’s ability to raise campaign funds, others think his supporters will remain steadfast, even if they become less vocal in their support.

Liu, the first Asian American to be elected to city-wide office was widely seen as poised to make history again by being elected the city’s first Asian mayor.  Liu has not formally announced his candidacy, just calling it “2013 fundraising.”  But one person close to Liu who preferred to remain anonymous, said if Liu stops right now, there is no other plausible Asian American candidate for mayor, at least in 2013.

John Liu gets a hug from a longtime supporter and friend at a recent fundraiser. (Photo: Stella Chan)

The past decade saw a dramatic increase New York’s Asian population. Asians now make up about 13 percent of the city’s population, with over one million Asians counted in the 2010 Census.  The community’s fundraising ability has also grown. Chinese Americans and Koreans account for a large part of John Liu’s Asian donors.

A new group, the Asian American Civic Alliance was announced last Friday to promote Asian American political participation and empowerment during the election season. The group will focus on voter registration and voter education. While the coalition will not directly express its opinion on the investigation, it is planning to set up a legal referral hotline for Asian Americans who have been contacted by the F.B.I. regarding their donations to Liu.

A person familiar with Liu and his relationship with the Chinese community, who also preferred to remain anonymous, told this reporter that John Liu’s campaign team is still confident it can attract donations from the Chinese community, and is eager to continue fundraising after the FBI completes its investigation. “Their strategy is get money from Chinese, votes from African Americans, votes from Latinos.”

Holding onto the hope of sending an Asian American candidate into higher office, supporters of John Liu are trying to fight the scandal and continue to solicit funds.  A press conference in Liu’s support was hosted by several Chinese American leaders last month, and a Korean group, “Supporters for John Liu” recently held a fundraising event in Flushing. It was the first Korean fundraising event since the FBI started going after Korean donors to the comptroller, according to Danny Shin, senior reporter of The Korea Daily.

Liu’s recent birthday celebration was well attended by the mainstream political establishment.  It was the first fundraiser since he decided to accept donations of the maximum amount allowed, $4,950, in the wake of his fundraising scandal. Previously, Liu had refused to accept more than $800 from donors, which he said reflected the lucky number 8 in Chinese culture, and also gave him bragging rights about his vast number of supporters.

But a Liu campaign event on December 19 was called off.  The event’s sponsor was the Lin Sing Association, a 111-year-old Chinatown advocacy group. The group’s senior adviser Eddie Chiu said, “The FBI investigation shocked the Chinese community, the Chinese are very sensitive to it.”

Chiu maintains the scandal has had a chilling effect on donations—which may be reflected in Liu’s decision to raise his money cap. After the FBI visited the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, which was the first fraternal group in Chinatown, Chiu received calls from many of Liu’s supporters. They were nervous about dealing with the FBI and said they wouldn’t attend the fundraiser.

Supporters in the Korean American community threw Liu a fundraiser on Tuesday. (Photo: Stella Chan)

Some young Asian American professionals suspect that the new immigrant political force is sparking a conflict with the political establishment, and this is why Liu was targeted. A few have asked if  Liu was singled out due to racism.

John Park, a member of KAPA’s Steering Committee, suggested that if John Liu was not a person of color, his legal difficultires might not have aroused the same attention. “Obama is still being questioned on his identity–if he is foreign born or is a Muslim. However, not one question about Mitt Romney. Does a foreign face equal foreign money?” he asked rhetorically.

There’s also concern that if Asian Americans become nervous about making political contributions, it could affect other Asians who want to run for higher office such as Assemblywoman Grace Meng, and City Councilors Peter Koo and Margaret Chin. Corky Lee, a well-known Chinese American photographer, said the investigation will slow down the money flow in general, and without money, candidates cannot move ahead.

Asian Americans have traditionally lagged in voter registration. But many more voted in 2009, and they were expected to turn out for John Liu. Whatever the future of Liu’s political career, there’s no question that his presence on the New York scene invigorated a new generation of Asian American political activists and civic leaders. Back at that Manhattan restaurant, in spite of worries about Liu, there was a note of optimism at the table. “We should conserve our energy for political advancement,” said Limm.

John Liu himself emphasized the importance of the Asian American community’s support at his recent fundraising dinner, where he said there will be tremendous opportunities for the community and for him as a candidate in 2013. When asked if the FBI investigation has changed his relationship with Asian voters and campaign contributors, he simply replied, “at the end of the day, nothing is going to stop or slow us down.”

Stella Chan is a reporter for Sing Tao Daily and a Feet in Two Worlds reporting fellow.

Feet in Two Worlds, a project of the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

A tribute in light to those lost on 9/11. (Photo: Planet Gordon/flickr)

In late summer, I was interviewed by Filipina poet Hossannah Asuncion about my family’s 9/11 experience. It was for a multimedia project called Together We are New York: Asian Americans Remember and Re-Vision 9/11, in which Asian American poets interview members of their community about that horrific day and reinterpret the stories in verse. I heard those poems in September at a public reading to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

There will be another public reading of these poems on December 18 on the second floor of the Chen Dance Theater on 70 Mulberry Street. The event is organized by Kundiman, an organization of Asian American poets.

It is a moving production of voices and bittersweet memories that tell the unique stories of Asian Americans. We hear from a Chinese mother about how she was making soup when she heard the news, and from a South Asian cabbie who, in the aftermath of 9/11, was the subject of verbal attacks because of his turban.

While December is typically not a time for tragic thoughts, think of this encore performance as a moment for community story-telling where the memories of 9/11, as collected by Kundiman, remain “indelible, profound and visceral.”

When speaking to Hossannah Asuncion, my voice quivered as I recalled how my family found ourselves in three separate places when the World Trade Center towers were attacked: My daughter was at school in Lower Manhattan, I was reading emails at my old office in Chelsea, and my husband was just settling in with his first cup of coffee at his office in Times Square.

The subsequent chaos caught our family—new immigrants at the time—unprepared but having to make quick decisions. What I remember next was my daughter having to walk around Manhattan on socks (because her new pair of shoes was giving her blisters) and being reunited as a family at my husband’s office.

“That’s OK, mommy, daddy. Even if we die, at least we’re all together,” my little girl uttered those brave words as we all hugged in a brief emotional moment.

This is the poetry Hossannah Asuncion wrote about my family’s 9/11 story.

Naturalization

I.
Inside you are American, but outside the papers rustle. Be careful of paper as you are cautious
of rubble. Pretend that the blood drying on the faces of the survivors is the red dye on a flag
that is on your home country and ‘home’ country. Maybe the television is answering the harder
questions. Maybe there are twenty more blocks to walk before your family is reunited. Your
daughter is alive, but maybe…

Maybe peace is just a train ride away. But maybe crossing borders and an ocean cannot protect
anyone from war. We can agree that there should probably not be violence, but there it is again,
present.
When dinner arrives, the boxes may contain bombs. This is the vulnerability of wanting to know
and glass buildings.

II.
You must get six out of ten questions correct.
What is the supreme law of the land?
What is a reason colonists came to America?
What are rights in the Declaration of Independence?
Are you a person of good moral character?
And you can say, Yes, yes a very good person, but only you can make me officially American.
And your young daughter will ask, because she saw too many things that day, Why would they
do it?
This country has enemies, you say, but it’s a strong country.
And we can ask, But what is an American?
And we can use words like document, or legal, or survivor.

III.
Can we also say, But if we are in America, we are American.
If we are close enough to see the red, blue and white ways of wounds, or to have blisters
because we have walked a lot of ways to be safe, or to have risked enough to hope, shouldn’t
we be American, too?

Development in Chinatown. (Photo: Larry Tung)

For Fu Ko Poon, a longtime Chinatown resident living on Madison Street, the harassment started five years ago. His landlord stopped cashing his rent checks and sued him for not paying rent. According to Poon, his landlord’s goal was to evict him so he could bring in new tenants and charge them market-rate rent.

“He hasn’t cashed my checks for the last five years,” said Poon, who immigrated from Hong Kong in 1983 and is now 73. “The paint on the walls is peeling and the floor has not been repaired. The apartment is infested with mice.”

Poon is one of the many low-income Chinatown residents in rent-stabilized housing who are facing eviction by their landlords to make way for wealthier tenants, according to a report released by CAAAV (Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence) a local community organizing group, and the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center. The report recommends the creation of a special zoning area for Chinatown that will allow new housing development with at least half of the units reserved for low-income residents.

“Zoning is integral to how a community is shaped and formed,” said Helena Wong, CAAAV’s executive director.  “It is really important that community members who are most impacted by development have a say in what kind of community we are going to live in,” she added. There are currently dozens of special zoning districts through out the city for various purposes, including the special Little Italy District and 125th Street District, both created to preserve and enhance the historic and commercial characters of neighborhoods.

Chinatown was one of the areas of the city hardest-hit by the 9/11 attacks. The neighborhood was blocked off for weeks and many restaurants and gift shops went out of business. But the economic bounce-back has been problematic as well: In the last few years, major development projects can be seen everywhere in Chinatown and its immediate area, ranging from clothing boutiques, bars and restaurants to luxury condos and hotels. This trend has raised concerns in the Chinatown community.

On top of that, the successful passage of the Lower East Side’s 197-C plan, a community-initiated plan to limit new development, also made zoning an urgent matter for Chinatown. Many residents now fear being pushed out by hungry developers, who as a result of the LES plan, may go south and tap into their neighborhood.

Esther Wang, director of CAAAV’s Chinatown Justice Project, said that while the Department of City Planning does have an inclusionary zoning program in place to ensure that affordable housing is available, it is not enough for Chinatown. The current program allows developers to build extra floors if they agree to reserve 20 percent of the development for low-income housing. The CAAAV report calls for 50 percent of the units in new housing developments to be set aside for low-income tenants.

The report also asks that low-income housing eligibility be based on the median income in Chinatown’s Zip Code instead of the city-wide median income.  The average income for a family of four in New York City is $78,300, significantly higher than Chinatown’s average income of $41,254, and advocates fear that the rent-stabilized housing won’t necessarily go to those who need it the most.

In addition, the report recommends that, in an effort to preserve the physical characteristics of Chinatown, special zoning provisions should prohibit demolition of structurally-sound buildings. To prevent landlord harassment, the report authors say city agencies should not issue construction permits to buildings where tenant harassment is documented.

To protect small business owners, the report proposes limiting big-box and chain stores by requiring businesses with 10 or more locations in New York City to get special permission to open storefronts in Chinatown. The advocates also want a cap on the number of new hotels that can receive building permits each year.

For Poon, a longtime resident, the most important thing is that the community keep its character.

“I want to see a Chinatown that is lively and viable. I don’t want to see another Wall Street. It seems lifeless with all these tall buildings around,” said Poon. “I want to see families, children, and I want to see people who get fair pay for their work.”

Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. 

A Korean American rally to promote participation in the 2010 Census in Queens, NY. (Photo: Sooyeon Kim)

Immigration is seen by most Americans as a Latino issue. The faces splashed on newspapers, television and blogs appear to be Hispanic, their names sound Spanish, and they are said to come from Mexico and other nations in Central and Latin America.

But the U.S. immigration system and the debate over how it should be reformed affect not only Latinos but all immigrant communities. Among the countenances rarely pictured and stories seldom told are those from Asia.

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) reports that 28 percent of all immigrants in the United States – about 11 million – hail from Asia. Asians are the second largest immigrant group after Latinos, with nearly half coming from the Philippines, India and China and residing in California, New York and Texas.

Michelle Mittelstadt, MPI’s Director of Communications, believes that immigration is identified with Latinos because more than half of all immigrants to the United States are from Latin America, and much of the political discourse is focused on those without papers. “Much of the public discussion in Washington and beyond in recent years has focused overwhelmingly on illegal immigration – and more than three quarters of unauthorized immigrants are from Latin America,” Mittelstadt said.

Tarry Hum, associate professor of urban studies at CUNY Queens College and Graduate Center, agrees. “The American public assumes immigrants – in particular, undocumented immigrants – are Latinos who crossed the Mexican-U.S. border,” she said.

Melany DeLa Cruz, Assistant Director of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center says the difference in perception of the two ethnic groups has to do with the history of immigration policy and where these immigrants fit into the U.S. economic scheme.

“U.S. corporations have heavily relied on cheap labor supply from Latin American countries. This has resulted in stereotyping Latinos as ‘taking jobs away’ or ‘bringing down wages’ when it is the corporate structure at fault. In contrast, recent U.S. immigration policies towards Asia and the Pacific have changed to attract wealthy investors and skilled workers. This has resulted in overlooking poor Asian immigrants that work in low-wage sectors,” Cruz said.

Asian immigrants are perceived as ‘model minorities’ who work hard, do well, and don’t complain. In the American imagination, they do not seem to share the challenges faced by other immigrant groups.

The statistics perpetuate the stereotype. Nearly half of Asian immigrant adults have a college degree or higher. Among all immigrants, Asians are more concentrated in management, information technology, and science and engineering. A majority of immigrant doctors and nurses are from Asia.

Hum, who characterizes the model minority ideal as “another type of racial stereotyping,” argues that this is bad for the Asian American community as “it sets Asians apart from other immigrant communities of color and reinforces our invisibility in the political sphere.”

“Countless Asian or Pacific Island immigrants are part of the 99 percent that are exploited in low-wage jobs and subsidize the comfortable lifestyle of the 1 percent that are privileged,” DeLa Cruz added. “These include Vietnamese nail salon workers, Thai massage workers, Filipino home health care workers, Chinese restaurant workers, etc. Their stories need to be told and be made more visible to the larger public.”

Indeed, not all Asian immigrants are highly educated, affluent or in the country lawfully.

MPI estimates that Asian immigrants accounted for 11 percent of all unauthorized immigrants in 2010. The Department of Homeland Security counts among the undocumented 280,000 Filipinos, 200,000 Indians, 170,000 Koreans and 130,000 Chinese.

Asians are no different from Latinos and other immigrant communities. Many families are threatened by separation since a family member or two, usually parents, are without papers. Young Asian women and men who were brought into the country as children and grew up thinking they are citizens often discover that they are not. Both high and low skilled Asian workers are wanting for visas and legal jobs. Gay Asian immigrants cannot be sponsored for permanent residency by their American spouses and partners.

A key issue for the Asian immigrant community is family separation which is exacerbated, rather than alleviated, by the current immigration system.

“Immigration is an area fraught with complexity, so the issues are many,” Mittelstadt wrote via email. “But among the top immigration challenges are the lengthy wait times for family-based visas for immigrants coming from China, the Philippines and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Asian immigrants and their family abroad often wait for as long as two decades to be reunited. In the meantime, children and parents get older and families grow apart.

The faces we see and the voices we often hear in the immigration debate might seem only Latino, but the often rancorous exchange and resulting consequences impact all immigrant communities, including the fabled “model minority.”

You can follow Erwin de Leon on Twitter or read his blog. Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Sirus Fund.

New York State Congressional Districts. (Nationalatlas.gov)

NEW YORK—Ten years ago, there was not a single elected official of Asian descent in the entire state of New York. But since then, Asian Americans, more than 1 million of whom now reside in the state, have made great strides in New York politics. They currently occupy one seat in the State Assembly, two seats in New York City Council and the office of New York City comptroller.

Much of this happened thanks to the rapidly growing Asian American population and their greater participation in voting. But there is another important factor: redistricting.

John Liu, the first Asian American elected to the City Council and who now holds the comptroller’s office, owed his success partly to the redistricting efforts in 2001, when his district in Queens was redrawn to include downtown Flushing, Murray Hill and Queensboro Hill. The redistricting left out Corona, Bayside and Douglaston, where the percentage of Asian voters is lower.

Ten years later, with another redistricting process underway, immigrant communities throughout the city are weighing in on the process, hoping the new boundaries reflect the true face of New York.

Looking at Lines

Redistricting is a political process that occurs every 10 years. The electoral districts get redrawn based on the population change in the latest census. This affects elections at all levels, from school board, city council, state assembly, to the U.S. House of Representatives. The federal Voting Rights Act requires that the new boundaries be drawn in a manner that provides minority communities with opportunities to elect representatives of their choice.

Based on the 2010 U.S. census results, the 435 congressional seats will be re-apportioned according to population shifts among the states. New York will lose two seats, from 29 down to 27. Texas will gain four seats, while Midwestern states like Michigan, Iowa, Illinois and Ohio will each lose one seat.

At the state and city levels, boundaries will be redrawn to reflect changing demographics. Currently the redistricting effort is led by the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, which is comprised of four legislators and two non-legislators. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a number of good government groups want the process to be more independent of the legislature. So far, though, they have not succeeded in changing the existing system. At the same time, though, several civic groups are calling for keeping communities of shared interests and backgrounds in the same districts so they can elect candidates who best represent them.

However they are drawn, the proposed districts must be approved by the state legislature and the governor. Meanwhile, the districts in three counties of New York City — the Bronx, Kings and New York — are subject to additional review and approval by the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Some other rules also apply. Districts must be compact and no more than twice as long as they are wide. A district has to be contiguous, meaning that all of its parts much touch or be connected by a bridge or tunnel. If a district covers two boroughs, no other district may cover the same two boroughs.

Read the rest of the article at Gotham Gazette

Nariv Shah outside of his restaurant. (Photo: Sarah Kate Kramer)

Jackson Heights, NY—When Nirav Shah arrived in the U.S. in 1996 to attend college, he pictured himself headed for a career on Wall Street or in the high tech industry.  But a few years later, Shah, who grew up in Mumbai, India, started working for his aunt at her Indian sweets shop and restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens.  Shah now owns the flagship store of the business his aunt started, Rajbhog Foods, a small Indian food empire with 14 locations around the country and a catering business that provides vegetarian meals to airlines flying between Newark and South Asia.

When Shah’s aunt, Lata Mody, opened Rajbhog in 1977 she was part of a wave of new immigrants who helped create ‘Little India,’ a tightly packed neighborhood near the Roosevelt Avenue subway station that served as both a commercial hub and a residential neighborhood for New York’s growing Indian population.   Today, the area might just as easily be called ‘Little Pakistan,’  ‘Little Bangladesh,’ or ‘Little Tibet.’

In recent years immigrants from across South Asia have moved in, and like Shah and his family, many have gone into the restaurant and food business.  Within just a few square blocks it is possible to taste authentic flavors from virtually every corner of South Asia, and to buy ingredients and kitchenware to make South Asian food at home.

Feet in Two Worlds recently visited the area of 73rd and 74th Streets in Jackson Heights with Andrew Silverstein, the co-founder of Streetwise New York, a company that specializes in tours of immigrant New York.  Listen and meet some of the characters behind the food:

Subscribe to the Fi2W Podcast with iTunes or Podbean ¦ Download this episode

Patel Brothers

A delivery in Jackson Heights

Kosher certification at Rajbhog

Sweets at Rajbhog

Box of sweets at Rajbhog

Owner Nariv Shah at Rajbhog

Dosa at Dosa Delight

Dosa at Dosa Delight

Seasons Greetings (for Eid)

Kitchen at Kebab King

Bread Oven

Mumtaz Hussain and A. Uddin at Kebab King

Kebab King

Kebab King

Street-level Henna Application

Delhi Palace Sweets

Tibetan food at Phayul Restaurant

Dalai Lama in Phayul

Entrance to Phayul Restaurant

Slideshow by Sarah Kate Kramer

If you go on your own food tour of Jackson Heights …

Rajbhog Sweet and Snacks, 72-27 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, NY 11372.  Phone: 718-458-8512. Open 7 days a week, 10AM to midnight.

Entirely vegetarian, vegan and kosher Indian desserts and savory dishes, flavors meant to evoke a home cooked meal.

Phayul Restaurant, 37-65 7th Street, 2nd Floor, Jackson Heights, NY 11372.  Phone: 718-424-1869.  Open 7 days a week, 10AM to 10PM.

Tibetans are among the newest arrivals in Jackson Heights, and Phayul Restaurant is one of the most popular places in the neighborhood to sample Tibetan cuisine.   Enjoy momos (dumplings) under the gaze of the Dali Lama’s portrait, and sip traditional butter tea (an acquired taste for many).   Many of the regulars here are from Tibet and Nepal.  One customer said that as a native of a mountainous part of the world he likes the restaurant’s location on the second floor with a view of the street below.

Kebab King Diner, 73-01 37th Road, Jackson Heights, NY 11372.  Phone 718-457-5857. 

Cab drivers on their way to pick up a fare at LaGuardia Airport are known to stop at Kebab King Diner for a savory lunch or dinner grilled on a stick.  The second floor dining room with its carved wooden chairs, tables and high ceilings transports you to another continent and another century (the middle of the last one).  The food here is hot and flavorful, and the portions are ample. From the sidewalk you can peek through a window and see nan bread being baked in a stone oven.

Dosa Delight, 35-66 73rd Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372.  Phone 718-397-1000. Open 7 days a week, 11:30AM to 10PM.

The dosa is a South Indian specialty.  It’s a giant thin crepe made from rice and lentil flour, stuffed with a savory filling.  A number of restaurants in Jackson Heights feature dosas on their menus, but at Dosa Delight it’s the specialty.  The entire menu is vegetarian, and there are many vegan choices as well.

Patel Brothers, 37-27 74^th Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372.  Phone 718-898-3445.

The motto of Patel Brothers Supermarket is “Celebrating Our Food … Our Culture.” At this bustling maket you’ll find families pushing strollers and Indian women in saris doing their food shopping.  Cars double parked outside often have New Jersey or Connecticut license plates, an emblem, perhaps, of the migration of successful Indian-Americans from the city to the suburbs.  The store offers an exhaustive supply of fresh vegetables, spices, flours made from beans and chickpeas, cooking utensils, and much more.

More Food in Two Worlds coverage:

Podcast: Filipino Pop-Up Restaurant in NYC Offers Menu with Attitude

Food Manufacturing Expo Helps the Hand That Feeds New York City

Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Sirus Fund.  Food in Two Worlds podcasts are supported in part by WNYC, New York Public Radio.

Peter Lew at Occupy Wall Street. (Photo: Elton Lugay)

A month ago, they looked like a lost tribe of Klansmen who wandered into New York. Today, the so-called “hippies” of the Occupy Wall Street movement have metaphorically hung out a sign  proclaiming: “All races welcome.”

People of color and immigrants are now coming to Zuccotti Park in greater numbers, including a South Asian who trades on Wall Street and whispered conspiratorially to this reporter: “Actually, I’m kinda on the other side.”

One of them was Peter Lew, who used to have a thriving home improvement business. When the “out of control” economy ground to a stop, so did his main source of income.

Lew now counts himself among the proverbial 99 percent which the rapidly growing OWS movement says are left out by unjust economic policies that have resulted in joblessness, defaulting mortgages and the decimation of small entrepreneurial businesses.

“I come here when I can,” said Lew, a Brooklyn artist-teacher.  “This is my third day.”

He’s one of many. In a video, the group “South Asians for Justice” said they were at Zuccotti Park because “there’s a lot of things going on in this country we’re fed up with.”

“I’m inspired seeing all these young people going out there, sleeping there…people who have no connection to movements or activism and that are just coming,” said Sonny, one of the leaders of South Asians for Justice.

A community from Chinatown has organized a “field trip” to Zuccotti Park this Saturday. The invite said it would make for an “educational and interesting” discussion for Chinese students.

It took a while for people of color and immigrant communities to get on board the Occupy Wall Street bandwagon, even though immigrants are well represented among those who lost their homes as a consequence of massive layoffs and jobs cuts across the nation. In one of the first meetings of OWS, some people of color felt they were being excluded, their voices drowned out in brainstorming sessions over tactics and structure. It wasn’t a good start for a movement that claimed to speak for the 99 percent of people ignored by the powers- that-be in government and on Wall Street.

In an October 12 meeting at Washington Square Park, certain groups felt they were being “marginalized.” An entry in the People of Color OWS website read:

“Arrived there and surprised to see other working groups. Not asked to speak. Thousands were there. Felt excluded and marginalized. During open forum made announcement about group and was interrupted. Question: How do we make sure our voices are no longer marginalized.”

The People of Color OWS group wrote that in a climate of austerity, it is the “black and brown folks” who are the first to lose their jobs, and whose children’s schools are the first to lose funding.

While OWS organizers acknowledged how the movement may have unintentionally left out immigrant communities at first, things have changed considerably, said OWS press coordinator Kanene Holder. There is now a People of Color Caucus within OWS, she said. And the third edition of the Occupy Wall Street Journal is available in Spanish.

Jason Ahmadi at Occupy Wall Street. (Photo: Elton Lugay)

“Our goal is to make sure they are involved,” Holder said. “This is a progressive movement dedicated to allowing all voices to be heard, including those from minority populations.”

She recalled how the oversight was noticed by two white men who complained there were certain groups “not given priority speaking up during general assemblies.” Through outreach, Holder maintains organizers are addressing the concerns that OWS “lacked diversity.”

“We’re aware of the issues,” she said.

“There was definitely a general under-representation of immigrants and people of color with the initiators of OWS,” recalled Bernadette Ellorin of the grassroots organization Bayan USA.  “This is why an OWS People-of-Color Caucus was initiated, which we are involved in.” The group was created October 1,  nearly two weeks since OWS came together loosely on September 17.

Holder explained why the concerns of people of color is a particular focus of OWS.  “People of color usually languish in the shadows of liberty and justice and hence our issues are sometimes extremely urgent or dire, including deportation, warrantless searches due to the Patriot Act or stopping and frisking, as well as the other issues,” she said.

Immigrants play a “crucial role” in elevating the OWS discourse to the international context, Ellorin added, especially since it is the global economic crisis that drives joblessness, poverty, and forced migration all over the world.

“We represent the people that are left out of the economy and without representation in government,” said OWS spokesman Jason Ahmadi.  “We do not deny anybody.”

A Yoni Ki Baat performance in Chicago. (Photo: Tyler Core/tylercoreshootspeople.com)

In this Feet in Two Worlds Podcast, Indian-American reporter Aswini Anburajan interviews Vandana Makker, one of the founders of “Yoni Ki Baat,” on the importance of exploring women’s sexuality through a cultural and immigrant lens. 

 Subscribe to the Fi2W podcast on iTunes or  Podbean ¦ Download this episode

India may be the original home of tantric and other exotic Eastern practices but the subject of sexuality in everyday life is still taboo.  Yoni Ki Baat, a performance series conceived by South Asian immigrant women, has attempted to change that dynamic through a series of staged vignettes that are modeled after Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues.” Like Ensler’s famous set of stories that tackle subjects ranging from women’s sexuality to rape and domestic violence, the stories of Yoni Ki Baat go from erotic to humorous to thought provoking.

Yoni Ki Baat, which literally translates to “a gift” in Hindi, was born out of the South Asian Sisters collective in San Francisco, a group of second generation South Asian women who were inspired by Ensler and wanted to put a specific cultural spin onto the Vagina Monologues.  The first performance occurred eight years ago and since then Yoni Ki Baat has transformed into a grassroots movement, performed by South Asian women across the country.  Other ethnic groups have also embraced the idea and created their own set of stories connected to women’s sexuality and a specific culture, be it Italian or Middle Eastern.

Fi2W podcasts are supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundationwith additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Sirus Fund, and are produced in association with the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and CUNY-TV.

The dollar van that travels between Manhattan's Chinatown and Queens' Chinatown. (Photo: Sarah Kate Kramer)

When Fi2W heard about Streetwise New York, a new company offering tours of “immigrant New York,” our interest was immediately piqued. Could tour director Andrew Silverstein really tell us anything we didn’t already know?  

To find out, we sent reporter Cristina DC Pastor and  audio producer Dimple Patel on a Streetwise tour.

I couldn’t count the times I muttered to myself,  “I didn’t know that.”

It began with the dollar van. You can’t go wrong with the dollar van if you’re on the Lower East Side and need to go to Queens to satisfy an Asian buffet craving. A cab is too expensive for most and the train too stressful for some. Turns out, a dollar van from one Chinatown to the next is reasonably comfortable.

We found our van—now 2 bucks per passenger—at the corner of Elizabeth and Hester Streets in old Little Italy, where Vietnamese immigrants are slowly encroaching. (“Saigonizing,” some call it.) After a short wait time for more passengers, our tour group was on our way to New York’s largest borough.

The smiling driver regaled us with stories about where to find the best banh mi in Elmhurst, how he came to the U.S. in the 1980s after living as a refugee in the Philippines and learning English there. In that sentence, he mentioned my country of origin! This tour of Queens suddenly became more personal.

Bollywood music for sale in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Islamic wares for sale in Jackson Heights, Queens.

74th Street in Queens.

A musical staircase in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Calling cards for sale in Jackson Heights, Queens.

A botanica above a Dunkin´ Donuts in Jackson Heights, Queens.

A street vendor in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Meson Asturias in Jackson Heights, Queens

A family in Elmhurst, Queens.

In Queens, the multiple satellite dishes often indicate subdivided apartments in one-family homes.

Elmhurst, Queens.

A van that travels from Manhattan´s Chinatown to Elmhurst´s Chinatown.

In a market in Chinatown.

Mahjong players in Columbus Park.

A musician in Chinatown

A musician in Chinatown.

Tasting Welcome.

The transfiguration church in Chinatown.

Old friends.

Greetings.

DVDs for sale in Chinatown.

Man looking out of his window in Chinatown.

A strip of jerky in Chinatown.

Jerky in Chinatown.

Jerky in Chinatown.

Ramen restaurant housed in an old synagogue.

Streetwise NY

Economy Candy

El Castillo de Jagua coffee shop, on the Lower East Side.

Economy Candy

Economy Candy

Slideshow by Sarah Kate Kramer.

Queens had been my home for five years after arriving in the U.S. in late 1990s. But like many new settlers, work and other obligations prevented me from getting to know the borough intimately. Taking the train to work and back home was the routine and on weekends there was just the occasional Queens mall shopping excursion. On this five-hour Streetwise New York tour, listening to tour guide Andrew Silverstein’s fascinating factoids about my first American neighborhood, I finally began to learn and absorb Queens’ history.

Queens, after World War I, was a vast farmland with plenty of areas for potential housing. Middle-class German and Dutch families in Manhattan were drawn to the wide spaces and the borough’s looming possibilities for commerce. The 1920s and 1930s saw a building boom with rows of garden apartments rising in what we now call Jackson Heights.  At the center of each housing complex were trees that gave the residences the luxurious feel of European apartments.

“Gardens were built in the middle of the apartment buildings to attract the WASPs, the Fifth Avenue crowd,” Silverstein said. To this day, leafy garden apartments hold court on 37th Avenue and 80th Street, though they don’t house the upper echelon of the city’s wealth.

The developers of this enclave were quite snobby, with some buildings posting signs like “No Jews, no blacks, no Catholics.”

“When they said ‘No Catholics,’ they were actually referring to new immigrant Catholics like the Italians and Irish,” explained Silverstein.

Listen to Andrew Silverstein tell the story of the Eagle movie theater in Jackson Heights, Queens:

[Visit post to listen to audio]

The 1965 family-based immigration law opened the floodgates to new immigrants, many of them working-class Hispanics and Asians finding their way from California to New York and into Queens. The population growth soon put the housing stock in Jackson Heights over capacity. Silverstein brought our tour group to Elmhurst to show how many of the borough’s newest immigrants live: in cramped, subdivided one family homes.

Homes in Elmhurst, Queens, with multiple satellite dishes. (Photo: Sarah Kate Kramer)

“You can tell from the multiple mailboxes or multiple garbage cans,” he said, pointing to a house with three satellite dishes. A single-family unit, said Silverstein, can be home to a couple of quiet, middle-age university professors, or a pack of 40 immigrants sleeping in shifts.

One would think this kind of perilous housing condition would attract regulatory attention from City Hall, but they don’t always get there in time, said Silverstein. In 2005, a fire on Denman Street in Elmhurst killed three young children and their 87-year-old grandfather. The family was one of many living in a single-family home that had become crammed full of immigrant families. When telling this story, Silverstein made a connection to the squalid tenement housing of immigrants in the early 20th century on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

“Stories like this are quite common. You don’t know how many people actually live in one house,” said Silverstein. “Affordable housing is a big problem.”

The plants grown by homeowners tell another story. Asian homeowners often plant bamboo in their tiny front and backyards. Greeks grow grape vines, and Latinos cultivate vegetable plants like hot peppers and tomatoes.

“Where I used to live in Jackson Heights, there’s still the grape vines from the Greeks who moved out over 25 years before,” said Silverstein.

Listen to a snippet of the tour in Jackson Heights, in which Silverstein talks about Orlando Tobon, the real-life travel agent who was featured in the film Maria Full of Grace:

[Visit post to listen to audio]

On reaching the commercial district, Silverstein pointed to storefront signs advertising phone cards, remittance services, immigration lawyers and notary services—or notarios.

The notary public, as we know it, is quite different from notarios outside the U.S.  In Mexico, for example, a notary public is one of the most influential types of lawyers who is involved in important legal procedures. Not so in the U.S. where their role is generally reduced to rubber stamping official documents.

“In Mexico City in 2005, there were only 243 notarios publicos in the entire city of over 9 million people,” said Silverstein.

This is why, according to him, some Latino immigrants fall victim to fradulent ‘notarios’ who pass themselves off as immigration lawyers and collect money from vulnerable people even though they’re not licensed to practice immigration law.

Again: I didn’t know that.

We talked about how food chains from immigrant countries have found a niche in Queens’ vibrant neighborhoods. “Pollos a la Brasa Mario” from Colombia, “Pollo Gus” from Ecuador, and “Jollibee” from the Philippines are among the many imported chain restaurants specializing in fried chicken. They serve immigrant communities with food that’s familiar and eases the loneliness of New York in winter.

A street vendor on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. (Photo: Sarah Kate Kramer)

The abundance of ethnic street-food in Queens is well known, but this tour provided undercover information about the vendors. It’s common to hawk goods without a permit, but Silverstein told us it matters what side of Roosevelt Avenue you are on to avoid police attention. Roosevelt Ave. is the dividing line between two police precincts, one that hammers on vendors with no permits, and the other that just looks the other way. On the side where a women sell elotes (Mexican corn) and pinchos (kebabs), the authorities apparently think there have more important things to do, then to write summonses to people who sell food grilled over a heap of coals in a shopping cart.

Streetwise New York can be reached at 347-327-6063. Silverstein knows where the clean public toilets are – and they’re not all in McDonalds.

Fi2W is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Sirus Fund.