The Changing Face of Northeast Queens

The signs, indeed, seem to be everywhere.

Recent U.S. Census data tracking demographic shifts over the past decade confirmed what many longtime residents, accustomed to an influx of new neighbors and business owners on major retail corridors such as Northern Boulevard, have long suspected.

The Little Neck-Douglaston area is a much more ethnically diverse place today than it was 10 years ago.

For the first time since 2000, the federal government recently released demographic data covering everything from race to the number of vacant properties across 195 New York City neighborhoods.

However, one of the most striking revelations from the data for northeast Queens was the comparatively large shift in the ethnic makeup of the neighborhoods of Little Neck, Douglaston and Douglas Manor.

The data includes, for the first time in a decade, hard figures backing up what many Little Neck shoppers already noticed in the form of an increasing number of Korean churches, shops and other places of business.

The numbers tell the rest of the story: in 2000, the U.S. government counted 5,686 Little Neck-Douglaston residents identifying themselves as Asian. 

In 2009, the census count included 7,452 — an increase of about 24 percent.

The story on non-Hispanic whites followed an almost diametrically opposed path. In 2000, there were 16,289 whites in the varied census tracts making up the Little Neck-Douglaston-Douglas Manor neighborhood. 

By 2009, that number declined to 14,238, in a reduction of almost 7 percent from close to a decade earlier.

Overall, the population of an area stretching roughly from Alley Creek to the west, the Nassau County border to the east, Little Neck Bay to the north and the Grand Central Parkway to the south, was 24,793 — an increase of only about .02 percent, or 437 individuals.

According to Susan Weber, a social demographic analyst at Queens College in Flushing, the recently released census data provides a rare demographic snapshot of smaller communities across the U.S.

"For almost a decade, you couldn't look at small data, so that's why it's such a big deal," she said.

Included in the Census data is information regarding on a whole slew of neighborhood characteristics such as the current median income for Little Neck-Douglaston households ($80,840) , number of rental units (1,833) and even the number of local same-sex couples (44).

However, there was at least one Little Neck resident who suggested that, for all of historic demographic shifts to occur in the past decade, perhaps they happened so slowly as to be imperceptible.

"I love my neighborhood," said Miriam, a resident of the Valorie Arms on Little Neck Parkway. "I haven't noticed any changes."