 Flushing Main Post Office on Main Street | |
 Interactive map of Main Street | |
| Owner | City of New York |
|---|---|
| Maintained by | NYCDOT |
| Length | 3.9 mi (6.3 km)[1] |
| Location | Queens,New York City |
| South end |   I-678 /NY 25 inBriarwood |
| Major junctions |  Grand Central Parkway inKew Gardens Hills I-495 inQueensboro Hill |
| North end |  NY 25A inFlushing |
Main Street is a major north–south street in theborough ofQueens inNew York City, extending fromQueens Boulevard inBriarwood toNorthern Boulevard inFlushing. Created in the 17th century as one of Flushing's main roads, Main Street has been lengthened at various points in its existence.
Main Street runs relatively north to south with two to three lanes in either direction, and serves as the major road forFlushing, Queens. From the north, it begins atNorthern Boulevard inDowntown Flushing, also known asFlushing Chinatown, one ofNew York City's largest Asian enclaves.[2][3] Just south ofRoosevelt Avenue and theLong Island Rail Road overpass,Kissena Boulevard (formerly Jamaica Road) branches off from Main Street at a triangle, before traveling on a parallel course. After passing throughKissena Park, Main Street intersects with theLong Island Expressway north ofQueens College.[4][5][6][7]
South of Queens College, it intersects with Jewel Avenue near the neighborhood ofPomonok.[4][5][6][7] The stretch of Main Street inKew Gardens Hills south of theLong Island Expressway is home to a large Jewish community, including manyOrthodox,Ashkenazi, andBukharan Jews.[2][8][9] At the south end of Kew Gardens Hills nearJamaica, Main Street intersects withUnion Turnpike and theGrand Central Parkway service road. Westbound Union Turnpike feeds into theKew Gardens Interchange, connecting to the Grand Central, theVan Wyck Expressway, theJackie Robinson Parkway, andQueens Boulevard.[4][5][6][7] Near its southern end, two entrance ramps branch off from the center of Main Street, feeding into the southbound Van Wyck. The two one-way spurs of Main Street run for three more blocks before ending inBriarwood, at adjacent intersections with Queens Boulevard.[4][5][6][7]
The most congested area of Main Street is at its northern end inDowntown Flushing, between Sanford Avenue andNorthern Boulevard. Other congestion points include the intersections with the Long Island Expressway; the Union Turnpike/Grand Central Parkway (GCP) interchange, from 73rd Avenue south to the GCP; and its southern terminus, at Queens Boulevard.[7] The growth of the business activity at the core of Downtown Flushing, dominated by the Flushing Chinatown, has continued to flourish despite the COVID-19 pandemic.[10]
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For much of its early history Main Street was a quiet, small-town street. In the beginning, it did not extend south of thePort Washington Branch of theLong Island Rail Road.[11] The intersection of Main Street and Northern Boulevard, built in the 17th century, is one of the oldest modern intersections in the United States.[12] As of 1891, it continued four blocks south to Franklin Avenue, as another street called Jaggar Avenue.[12][13]
The street was extended toCedar Grove Cemetery in 1920.[12] By 1932, Main Street's south end was Reeves Avenue, at the former Spring Hill Golf Club.[11] In 1938, an extension opened to theGrand Central Parkway.[14] By 1940, the areas around Main Street's northern end, near Flushing, were largely developed. Kew Gardens Hills was built around Main Street afterWorld War II.[11] On November 23, 1954, the extension south toQueens Boulevard and theVan Wyck Expressway was opened.[15]
In the 1970s, in the wake of the1976 fiscal crisis, more real estate became available. The area was quickly settled byChinese andKoreans.[3] By the late 2000s, the area around Main Street was considered a very diverse community.The New York Times compared it to the classicalMain Street and contrasted its character againstWall Street inManhattan.[2] In the 2020s,Downtown Flushing is undergoing rapidgentrification by Chinese transnational entities.[16]
The primary public transportation on Main Street is theQ44 bus route, running from theJamaica Center area through the entire length of Main Street before continuing tothe Bronx.[6] In 1999, the Q44 was converted into a limited-stop service, supplemented byQ20 local bus running from Jamaica toCollege Point.[6][17] Prior to 2010, the now-defunctQ74 bus served the southern portion of the street between 73rd and Reeves Avenues. The route, which ran betweenKew Gardens – Union Turnpike station and Queens College, was eliminated in 2010 due to budget cuts within the MTA.[18][19][20] TheX51 express bus served a portion of the street between Elder Avenue near Kissena Park and Horace Harding Expressway, before being discontinued in the 2010 cuts due to low ridership.[18][21]
Many buses travel through or terminate on the section of Main Street located in Flushing. These buses travel through:
And these buses terminate there:
Several other buses intersect with the street at other major streets along the route.[6]
The Main Street corridor, along with the parallelKissena/Parsons Boulevard corridor and the 164th Street corridor, was studied by theNYC Department of Transportation in 2015 for the implementation ofSelect Bus Service (SBS) between Flushing and Jamaica. This would convert the Q44 route into abus rapid transit line.[7][22][23][24] As part of the proposal, abus only lane was proposed for installation on Main Street between Reeves Avenue and Northern Boulevard, as well as on parts of Hillside Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard. After backlash from local businesses, the bus lanes in theQueensboro Hill section of Flushing and inKew Gardens Hills were dropped from the SBS proposal.[7][22][24][25] However, the Q44 route was approved for SBS conversion in June 2015, and was implemented on November 29, 2015.[22]
In October 2016, theNew York City Department of Transportation announced that southbound traffic on Main Street between 37th Avenue and 40th Road would be converted to abusway restricted to buses and local delivery vehicles. This would allow bus speeds to be maintained during the construction of widened sidewalks.[26] The busway was implemented in 2017, resulted in a 23 percent increase in bus speeds.[27][28] The southbound traffic restriction was made permanent in 2018.[29]
In June 2020, mayorBill de Blasio announced that the city would test out a northbound busway on Main Street in Downtown Flushing.[30][31] Almost all Main Street business owners expressed opposition to the busway in a survey,[32] leading aNew York Supreme Court judge to place aninjunction in November 2020.[28][33] In January 2021, the busway was introduced on the northbound lanes of Main Street and Kissena Boulevard between Sanford Avenue and Northern Boulevard.[27][34][35]
On theNew York City Subway, theE, F, and <F> trains of theIND Queens Boulevard Line serve the street at theBriarwood station, where the street intersects withQueens Boulevard and theVan Wyck Expressway.[5][7]
The Downtown Flushing section of the route contains its busiest transit hub, revolving around theFlushing–Main Street terminal for the New York City Subway's7 and <7> trains atRoosevelt Avenue.[4][36] TheLong Island Rail Road serves the area at itselevated station one block south.[4]
Flushing High School is located a few blocks away from the northern terminus.[4] TheQueens College campus, which also housesTownsend Harris High School andJohn Bowne High School, is located between Reeves Avenue (near theLong Island Expressway) and Melbourne Avenue.[6]Archbishop Molloy High School is located at the southern end of Main Street.[5] An Orthodox Jewish girls' high school, Shevach High School, is located on Main Street between 75th Avenue and 75th Road.[37]
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Several branches ofQueens Library are located on Main Street, including the large Flushing branch atKissena Boulevard which was rebuilt in the 1990s.[3][4][12] TheKew Gardens Hills branch is near the south end of Main Street.[5]
Notable points of interest include:
There are four other Main Streets in the four other boroughs of New York City:
Of the five Main Streets in New York City, Queens's is the busiest and most notable.[2][11][12]
The three developers have stressed in public hearings that they are not outsiders to Flushing, which is 69% Asian. 'They've been here, they live here, they work here, they've invested here,' said Ross Moskowitz, an attorney for the developers at a different public hearing in February...Tangram Tower, a luxury mixed-use development built by F&T. Last year, prices for two-bedroom apartments started at $1.15m...The influx of transnational capital and rise of luxury developments in Flushing has displaced longtime immigrant residents and small business owners, as well as disrupted its cultural and culinary landscape. These changes follow the familiar script of gentrification, but with a change of actors: it is Chinese American developers and wealthy Chinese immigrants who are gentrifying this working-class neighborhood, which is majority Chinese.
Media related toMain Street (Queens) at Wikimedia Commons