Forest Hills, Queens

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Austin Street, the main shopping area in Forest Hills, Queens, New York.

Forest Hills is a neighborhood in central part of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered to the north by Rego Park, to the east by Flushing Meadows Park, the Grand Central Parkway and Kew Gardens, to the west by Middle Village and to the south by Forest Park. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 6.^[1]

1 Neighborhood
2 Demographics
3 Statistics
4 Education
- 4.1 K-12 Schools
- 4.2 Colleges
5 Notable residents
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Neighborhood

The neighborhood is home to a mix of middle to upper-class residents, the latter of whom often live in the neighborhood's prestigious Forest Hills Gardens area. Forest Hills has historically had a very large Jewish population with more than 10 synagogues located in the area.

An east view down Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills.

The community was founded in 1906, but before that it was known as Whitepot. In 1909, Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, who founded the Russell Sage Foundation, bought 142 acres (0.6 km²) of land from the Cord Meyer Development Company. The original plan was to build good low-income housing and improve living conditions of the working poor. Grosvenor Atterbury, a renowned architect, was given the commission to design Forest Hills Gardens. The neighborhood was planned on the model of the garden communities of England. As a result, there are many Tudor-style homes in Forest Hills, most of which are now located in Forest Hills Gardens. However, there are currently a number of Tudor homes in particular areas of Forest Hills outside of the Gardens.

The neighborhood contains areas of private houses with little commerce, such as the Gardens area; dense commercial districts full of stores and large apartment complexes; and streets with the six-story brick apartment buildings common throughout Queens. The main thoroughfare is the 12-lane-wide Queens Boulevard, while Metropolitan Avenue is known for its antique shops. The commercial heart of Forest Hills is a mile-long stretch of Austin Street, which contains many restaurants, boutiques, and chain stores. Forest Hills is also home to a large working to middle-class community consisting mostly of Bukharan, along with Russian and Persian, Jews (Mostly from Iran) and a variety of other Asian and Hispanic immigrants, residing mostly north of 65th Avenue around 108th Street. On 62nd Drive, the last block before 108th Street ventures north into Corona, Queens, is a NYCHA low-income housing project that caused controversy among the residents in the more prestigious areas in Forest Hills when first constructed.

Station Square

Forest Hills was once the home of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, played at the West Side Tennis Club before it moved to the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park. When the Open was played at the tennis stadium, the tournament was commonly referred to merely as Forest Hills just as The Championships, Wimbledon are referred to as Wimbledon. In the 2001 motion picture The Royal Tenenbaums, Luke Wilson's character plays a tennis match at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills. Gene Hackman's character is also shown cruising on the premises.

Forest Hills is also home to the main offices of JetBlue Airways Corp., a US low-cost carrier.^[2]

Two monuments are erected in Forest Hills Gardens:

A tribute to the victims of World War I, the "Great War".
The mast of Columbia, the winner of the America's Cup in both 1899 and 1901.

[edit] Demographics

As of the 2000 census, there were 41,417 people residing in Forest Hills. The population density was 27,396 people per square mile (10,582/km²). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 73.1% White, 20.1% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 1.62% African American, 0.12% Native American, 2.39% from other races, and 2.61% from two or more races. 9.35% of the population were Hispanic of any race. 41.6% of the population was foreign born, 47.4% came from Asia, 34.6 from Europe, 14.9 from Latin America and 3.1% from other.

[edit] Statistics

Area Code: 718/347
ZIP Code: 11375
Time Zone: Eastern (Standard Time: GMT -5 hours, DST: GMT -4 hours).
Global Coordinates: Latitude 40.72 & Longitude -73.85

The Forest Hills Housing Co-ops are located on 62nd Drive and 108th Street.

[edit] Education

Forest Hills, like all areas of New York City, is served by the New York City Department of Education.

[edit] K-12 Schools

Forest Hills High School

Forest Hills pupils attend several different elementary Schools, including:

Junior High students in Forest Hills pupils attend either J.H.S. 157 Stephen A. Halsey (commonly referred to as Halsey) in Rego Park or J.H.S. 190 Russell Sage (known as Sage) in Forest Hills.

Recently, New York City high school students have begun applying to the high schools of their choice, as there is no longer a zoning policy for Forest Hills High School. Famous graduates of Forest Hills High School include Jerry Springer and the founding members of the Ramones. Students from all over New York City may apply to high schools in other parts of the city. In addition to Forest Hills High School, a large percentage of students from both J.H.S. 157 and J.H.S. 190 gain admission to other high schools in New York City. Many J.H.S. 157 students also attend the Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School.^[3] Traditionally many more students from J.H.S. 190 choose to study at Stuyvesant High School and Townsend Harris High School, in addition to the Bronx High School of Science.^[4] Many of the students from outside the district accepted to attend Forest Hills High School are those who applied to either the school's Law & Humanities program, or the Carl Sagan program in accelerated math and science. FHHS has also began admitting students by audition to their Academy of Instructional Music and Performing Arts in 2005.^[5]

[edit] Colleges

Bramson ORT College is an undergraduate college operated by the American branch of the Jewish charity World ORT. Its main campus is in Forest Hills, with a satellite campus in Brooklyn.

[edit] Notable residents

Notable current and former residents of Forest Hills include:

Hank Azaria, actor and voice artist.^[6]
Burt Bacharach, composer, pianist and singer
Walter Becker, musician best known as a member of Steely Dan
Art Buchwald, political humorist
Michael A. Burstein, award-winning science fiction author
David Caruso, Actor noted for his roles in CSI Miami, and NYPD Blue.^[7]
Dale Carnegie, author and teacher of public speaking
Carol Channing, actress (in the 1950s during her time on Broadway)
Earl Douglas, aka Black Earl, former Opie & Anthony flunkie and current executive producer of the Ron and Fez show on XM Satellite Radio.
Geraldine Ferraro, politician.^[8]
Art Garfunkel, singer-songwriter.^[9]
Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman
High Pitch Eric, member of Howard Stern's Wack Pack
Alan Hevesi, former Comptroller of New York State.^[10]
Steve Hofstetter - Comedian/Radio Personality.^[11]
Donna Karan, fashion designer
Melinda Katz, the New York City Councilwoman who represents Forest Hills
Helen Keller, blind and deaf woman who became an inspiration to people with disabilities
David Krumholtz, actor
Michael Landon, actor and director
Lea (singer) , singer
Stan Lee, Chairman Emeritus of Marvel Comics, and creator of Spider-Man and other comic book icons.
David Leonard, guitarist, singer-songwriter
Min Xiao-Fen, Chinese pipa player
Carroll O'Connor, actor
Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, fictional comic book hero who lives with his Aunt May in a house in Forest Hills.
Susan Polgar, former Women's World Chess Champion
The Ramones, punk rock group
Wilhelm Reich, psychiatrist known for his ideas about Orgone
Ray Romano, actor-comedian
Paul Simon, singer-songwriter
Jerry Springer, talk show host
Anthony D. Weiner, Democratic congressman for New York's 9th congressional district, which contains Forest Hills.