The New York Times today published a guide to ethnic enclaves in New York. The neighborhoods featured include Little Korea, Chinatown, Bay Ridge where Arab immigrants have settled and another inhabited by those from Bangladesh.
The Pan-Arab enclave of Bay Ridge runs from 65th and 77th Streets to the north and south, and Seventh Avenue and Colonial Road to the west and east. People from Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Morocco and elsewhere have settled here. Businesses catering to these immigrants have thrived.
“Every time there is a closed store, an Arab will get up and open it,” Ms. Sarsour, executive director of the Bay Ridge-based Arab-American Association of New York, said. “They’ll just look around and see what’s missing. They just open stuff!”
Chinatown in New York, as it has in other urban areas where large populations of Chinese Americans have settled, has expanded beyond its original Chinatown. In New York, Chinatowns have sprouted up across five boroughs. Chinese in New York now make up the city’s largest immigrant population after Dominicans.
The area around the Long Island Station in Murray Hill has been transported into a Little Korea. The area features plenty of Korean restaurant, bars, bakeries and karaoke spots. It has become known for its Korean Restaurant Street.
74,000 Bangladeshi immigrants now live in New York City, that’s an increase of 20 percent since 2009. The area near the intersection of Church and McDonald Avenues is home to 80 Bangladeshi-owned businesses.
“I feel like I’m living in my own country,” said Mr. Lovlu, executive editor of a Bengali newspaper in the city. “You don’t have to learn English to live here. That’s a great thing!”
You can read a lot more about each of these neighborhoods and other ethnic enclaves in the New York Times .