Planes are the soundtrack of East Elmhurst. The neighbourhood sits on the northern edge of Queens, right beside LaGuardia Airport, and jets come in low over the rooftops toward the runways along Flushing Bay all day long. It is a residential area of row houses and small apartment buildings, with a long history as a middle-class African American neighbourhood and more recently a destination for Latin American and other immigrant families.
Malcolm X lived here in the 1960s, and his house in East Elmhurst was firebombed in February 1965, just a week before he was assassinated in Manhattan. Not far away in Corona, the jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong lived in a modest brick house for nearly thirty years until his death in 1971, and it is now a museum with his furniture, records and recordings of his voice. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, a little to the southeast, hosted two World's Fairs, and the giant steel globe called the Unisphere still stands there, along with the tennis stadiums of the US Open.
Riding in is all about traffic. The Grand Central Parkway, the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and the approach roads to the airport are among the busiest in the city, with tight merges, potholes, sudden lane changes and taxis jostling for space. After the open roads of Vermont and the Berkshires, the density can be a shock. Keep your wits about you, cover the brake, and do not expect anyone to leave space.
The reward is food. Jackson Heights, right next door, is one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in the world, and its streets are lined with restaurants serving Indian, Nepali, Tibetan, Colombian, Mexican, Ecuadorian and Thai food, among many others. You can eat momos, arepas and tacos within a few blocks. Fuel is easy to find on Astoria Boulevard and Northern Boulevard.
For an evening view, ride a few minutes to the waterfront along Flushing Bay, where a promenade looks out over the boats and the airport runways, and watch the planes landing against the Manhattan skyline as the lights come on.