Springfield Gardens, Queens
Photo Gallery: Belt Pkwy
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Above, the classic Great Depression
era stone arched overpass carrying Farmers Boulevard over the
Belt Parkway. Farmers, and the two boulevards following it, give
away the bucolic, agrarian history of the Southeastern Queens
neighborhoods now known by the floral names of Springfield Gardens,
Laurelton and Rosedale. Although suburban locales, all three
areas have suffered from the lack of decent public transportation,
sewage and storm drainage, not to mention their less than desirable
proximity to JFK Airport and the constant criss-crossing of various
Long Island Railroad spurs, which offer these communities little
in the way of viable transportation, and adversely affect, as
do most railroad right-of-ways, the property values and quality
of life of the properties neighboring the tracks. Therefore, instead of bright, cheerful, grassy suburbs, they have all struggled through the latter 20th century as lower income, high crime areas, not thought of by better off neighborhoods as much more than slums. |
| Above faces east and below, the west. Shot 7/2000. |
