Where Astoria Meets the East River

I fell for Astoria the first time I visited and stayed overnight. My friends lived at Steinway and 21st Ave above a laundromat, which was great in the winter and brutal in the summer. It was a 10-minute walk from the subway, but I didn’t care. When I moved to NYC in 2007, I lived in that same friend’s apartment for two weeks and thought I had made it.

Located across the East River from Manhattan and north of Brooklyn, I always reference that scene in Home Alone 2 where Kevin has just arrived in NYC and is in a cab going over a bridge. That’s the 59th Street bridge; he is leaving Astoria/Long Island City and heading into Manhattan. Good scene. That’s Astoria.

We’ll revisit Astoria again, so stay tuned. Or better yet, go visit yourself. The neighborhood is changing, as it happens, and there are still plenty of cool, authentic spots to enjoy.

Photo made August 30, 2015, in Astoria using a Canon EOS Rebel T3i.