Little Manila Avenue (Queens)
Present name:None
Location:At the southwest corner of 70th Street and Roosevelt Avenue
Honoree: This co-naming honors the Filipino community in the New York City area. The beginnings of Woodside’s Little Manila date back five decades. After the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the U.S. became open to skilled workers from around the world. In the 1970s, New York hospitals faced nursing shortages and recruited from the Philippines, bringing many Philippine nurses and their families to Queens. Those who worked at Elmhurst Hospital settled in the surrounding neighborhoods, including Woodside, where the Filipino community has since thrived. By the 1990s, 72% of Philippine immigrants in New York were registered nurses. During the early months of the COVID-19 crisis, the Filipino community was severely impacted—not only were many working in the health care system, but Little Manila was physically situated epicenter of the pandemic. . Presently, 54% of New York Filipinos live in Queens. In 2009, 13,000 of the 85,000 residents of Woodside are of Philippine descent, thus making up 15% of the neighborhood’s population. An estimated 86,000 Filipinos and Filipino Americans reside in NYC, making them the third-largest Asian group in New York today. (Van Bramer)
LL:2022/54