Astoria is a multicultural, densely inhabited neighborhood with a population around 154,000 in the northwestern portion of Queens consisting predominantly of low-rise residences and small businesses. It’s an intact, relatively low-crime area with a close commute to Manhattan and transport connectivity to the rest of the city. It contains both quiet, tree-lined streets and commercial hubs like 30th Avenue with large cafes and bars that could be part of Manhattan night life.
In recent decades, all those elements have made its gentrification inevitable. Astoria has gone through a radical transformation from a Greek and Italian working-class neighborhood to something utterly different.
Sixty years ago, first-generation and immigrant Italians were the dominant element in Astoria’s life. Many Italian restaurants, delis, bakeries and pizza shops can still be found there. So can numerous Greek tavernas and food markets, as the 1960s also saw a large increase of Greeks, and in the ‘70s Cypriots and Maltese began moving to Astoria. The area became a hub of Greek life with the traditional St. Demetrios Cathedral serving as a vital center of Hellenic culture. Additionally, there is a small park with a statue of the ancient Greek Playwright Sophocles (“Antigone,” “Oedipus Rex”); a Hellenic Cultural Center that offers theater, music and other performances; and HANAC Inc., an organization founded in 1972 that provides various services to the Greek community and beyond, focusing on the needs of dependent populations. Still, many Greeks have left for Bayside and other more suburban neighborhoods.
Muslims began to settle in Astoria by the 1980s. In fact, by 1990, Steinway Street between 28th Avenue and Astoria Boulevard was filled with many Arabic shops, restaurants and cafes. The area is unofficially called “Little Egypt” due to many Egyptian shops and lounges that opened on those streets.
By the early 21st century, Astoria was one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in Queens, with people from around 100 countries living there as of 2015. The average rents that had once been reasonable jumped about 21 percent in recent years from $3,307 to $4,034, and by 2023 median household income was 23 percent more than the citywide median income, and the poverty rate is much lower than the citywide average.
There also has been a development boom with high-density towers beginning to replace one- or two-family homes. In some luxury buildings — e.g., The Rowan on 31st, Hallets Point, Astoria West — people live in their own cultural bubble in the middle of Astoria, cut off from the locals and their concerns.
Community leaders and local politicians have made efforts in recent years to combat the growing affordability crisis in Astoria. New York City Councilor Julie Won, a Korean immigrant, has been one of Astoria’s most vocal advocates fighting for affordability while simultaneously advocating for economic growth. Still, the luxury buildings proliferate and young professionals continue to move in, as Astoria ranks high among the city’s most gentrified neighborhoods.
Astoria has gone through a political transformation in the last couple decades. In the 20th century, it was represented by moderate, mostly ethnic and establishment Democrats like the affable former U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley. Today, the neighborhood is known by some as the pejorative “the People’s Republic of Astoria.” It’s the only area in the country represented at the local, state and federal level by democratic socialists like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, its congressional representative, and Zohran Mamdani, once Astoria’s assemblyman and now the city’s mayor. (Mamdani was replaced in the New York State Assembly by a democratic socialist).
In the past, Astoria never had a particularly extensive history of socialism like the Lower East Side, though some Greek socialists and communists settled there in the 1980s. So how did Astoria become a democratic socialist enclave? The answer lies in radical demographic change, the Democratic Socialists of America’s talent for organization and Mamdani’s gift for campaigning.
Astoria has many young professionals, some who have relatively high incomes, who find Mamdani’s and AOC’s challenge to the establishment appealing. Astoria has been the center of Mamdani’s political rise, and he was supported there by young people, renters and a large volunteer base. Even if some of the new mayor’s solutions will be impossible to achieve, these constituents like Mamdani’s emphasis on affordability, his social media-literate communicative style and his highlighting of global justice issues — for example, his vocal support for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Mamdani clearly represents an Astoria whose character has changed but is hopefully becoming a neighborhood where the past has not been swept away and some of sort of balance and equity is preserved.