Crew Gardens (Kew Gardens)

Kew Gardens in Queens is close to both LaGuardia and JFK airports. Many airline personnel (flight attendants and pilots) live in Kew Gardens; by at least 2000, the nickname “Crew Gardens” was being used for Kew Gardens.
   
   
Wikipedia: Kew Gardens, Queens
Kew Gardens is a neighborhood in central Queens bounded to the north and east by the Jackie Robinson Parkway (formerly Interborough Parkway), the Van Wyck Expressway, and Queens Boulevard, also to the east by 127th Street, to the south by 85th Avenue, and to the west by Babbage Street and Park Lane South. Forest Park and the neighborhood of Forest Hills lie to the west. Jamaica lies to some extreme parts of the South East and Briarwood along the south. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 9.
 
Much of the area was acquired in 1868 by Albon P. Man, who developed the neighborhood of Hollis Hill to the south, chiefly along Jamaica Avenue, while leaving undeveloped the hilly land to the north.
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Diversity
Kew Gardens is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the country. A large community of Jewish refugees from Germany took shape in the area after the Second World War. The neighborhood attracted many Chinese immigrants after 1965, about 2,500 Iranian Jews arrived after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and immigrants from China, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel, the former Soviet Union, India, Bangladesh, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, and Korea settled in Kew Gardens during the 1980s and 1990s. Currently, Kew Gardens has a growing African American and Latino population, as well as Bukharian Jews from Uzbekistan, alongside a significant Orthodox Jewish community. Most recently, Guyanese people from Ozone Park and Richmond Hill have moved to Kew Gardens. Other groups of West Indians such as people from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Jamaica, among others have moved to Kew Gardens in lesser amounts. Many immigrants from Central America, and South America call Kew Gardens their home.
 
The neighborhood is also teeming with airline personnel because of its proximity to New York’s two largest airports. The increase of the Korean population followed the renovation and rededication of the First Church of Kew Gardens, which offers Korean-language services. The local public school, P.S. 99 Queens, has a substantial Hispanic and East Asian population. Kew Gardens is also economically diverse: it is predominantly lower class to upper middle class, but also sees residents at the more extreme ends of the spectrum. Even the local cuisine reflects this diversity in Kew Gardens with Russian, Italian, Indian, Pakistani, Uzbek, Mexican and Peruvian dining available to residents and visitors. In recent years, young professionals and Manhattanites looking for greenery, park-like atmosphere and spacious apartments have moved to the area. Kew Gardens continues to change as these families move in.
 
New York (NY) Times
Kew Gardens Journal; Home Away From Home For the Airline Crews
By SARAH KERSHAW
Published: June 25, 2000
Hans Krause was in the air, somewhere over Virginia, when he heard about the pub. Another pilot, who flies for United, told him there was a place in New York City where the beer was cheap, the customers were airline and the bartender had a huge collection of bras, hanging on a beam above the bottles of vodka and whiskey.
 
So the next time Mr. Krause, 32, a pilot for Trans States Airlines, landed in New York, he dropped his things off at the crash pad in Kew Gardens, Queens, that he shares with 13 other pilots and wandered into Yer Man’s Irish Pub on Metropolitan Avenue, main street for people in the airline industry.
 
Mr. Krause lives in Florida, but he spends three or four days a week in New York. He is among the scores of flight attendants and pilots who have apartments or second homes in Kew Gardens, which is close to both La Guardia and Kennedy Airports. The neighborhood is so full of airline employees that residents call it ‘‘Crew Gardens.’’
 
New York (NY) Times
If You’re Thinking of Living In/Kew Gardens, Queens; Small-Town Feeling at a Busy Crossroads
By AARON DONOVAN
Published: October 15, 2000
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The neighborhood is served by the E and the F subway lines, the Long Island Rail Road and the Grand Central, Van Wyck and Jackie Robinson (formerly the Interborough) Parkways. It is roughly halfway between John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports—and is sometimes called ‘‘Crew Gardens’’ because it is host to many pilots and flight attendants, who can often be found at night at the neighborhood’s bars.
 
Village Voice 
What Color Is Your Parachute?
Her Boss at United Got $3.2 Million. She Got Shoved Out the Door.
by Andrew Friedman
November 13th, 2001 12:00 AM
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Sheila Adams takes this in from her apartment in Kew Gardens, which she shares with five other flight attendants, three of whom lost jobs. There are flight attendants in the apartment above them, and flight attendants next door, and so many flight attendants in identical brick buildings up and down Lefferts Boulevard and Metropolitan Avenue that the places feel like college dorms. This is why the Queens neighborhood has come to be called Crew Gardens.
 
New York (NY) Times
Hard Times in Borough of Airports; As Airlines Cut Back, Queens Loses Jobs and Business
By SARAH KERSHAW
Published: November 24, 2001
John Dupre, a mechanic for United Airlines, moved out of his apartment in Queens this month after his job at Kennedy International Airport was eliminated. The airline was transferring him to Indianapolis, and he said he had no choice but to go, leaving behind his friends and his favorite haunts on Metropolitan Avenue.
 
’‘If I don’t take Indianapolis, which I don’t want, that means I’ll get laid off,’’ he said.
 
Mr. Dupre’s departure has left his five roommates in Kew Gardens, flight attendants who have already lost two other roommates to airline layoffs, scrambling for replacements and doubting they can afford next month’s rent.
 
He is leaving a neighborhood that traditionally housed so many airline workers it was nicknamed ‘‘Crew Gardens,’’ and where pizza parlors, dry cleaners and pubs may lose hundreds of customers by the time the airline industry completes a huge round of layoffs.
 
Google Groups: rec.arts.marching.drumcorps
Newsgroups: rec.arts.marching.drumcorps
From: “Smitty & Kandi Lancaster”

Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 01:23:27 GMT
Local: Tues, Nov 26 2002 9:23 pm
Subject: Re: OT: Living In NYC
 
Jan,
I thought it was “crew gardens” for all the airline folks who shared places there.  Daughter shared a four bedroom with 20 other flight attendants when she first graduated.  Note to those that don’t get it—all 20 aren’t there at the same time—just fly in/out.
Kandi
 
amNew York
City Living: Kew Gardens
By Patrick Verel | Special to amNewYork
May 18, 2006
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Its location, roughly halfway between LaGuardia and Kennedy Airport, has earned it the nickname “Crew Gardens,” thanks to the concentration of pilots and flight attendants living there.
 
Google Books
Queens: What to Do, Where to Go
by Ellen Freudenhein
New York, NY: Macmillan
2007
Pg. 154:
“CREW GARDENS”
Don’t be surprised to see stewardesses dressed in dark work suits dragging rolling carts down tree-lined Lefferts Blvd. The largest airline carrier at JFK Airport, JetBlue, has established its headquarters in Kew Gardens. Many airline pilots and stewardesses live here, which is why its jokingly called “Crew Gardens.”
 
Another Flight Attendant Writing About Flying
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Crew Gardens