Subway commuters will recognize the complex's name from its 21st Street–Queensbridge station along the IND 63rd Street Line (). The entrance to the station is on the eastern side of the complex on 21st Street.
In many aspects the buildings of Queensbridge are very similar to most government-built housing projects of the era. They are a worn grayish brown which now suffers noticeable deterioration and weathering. Each building is painted red to about four feet up from the ground, giving a united feel to the entire complex because a uniform red "layer" is always close, throughout the complex.
On each of the corners in Queensbridge, the New York City Housing Authority has posted signs indicating the project's name and management: "Queensbridge North (or South) Houses NYCHA." These signs come in several varieties depending on their age. The oldest signs, erected in the early nineties, are simply orange and blue, with the newer signs featuring graphics, like those of many other projects.
Access to buildings in the complex is by key or via a new intercom system. The halls of Queensbridge’s buildings are comparable to most municipal buildings, and are dilapidated and lined with worn light blue tiles. Apartments are painted white and are fairly small, even by New York City standards.
Within the last few years, the elevators have been rebuilt and now stop at floors 1-2-3-4-5 and kitchens have been completely renovated and now have frost-free refrigerators. Three thousand bathrooms were renovated with new tubs, toilets, vanities, floor tile and lighting in 2000. This followed a renovation in 1986 when 1000 of the bathrooms were renovated by Arc Plumbing, a firm for which the salesman to NYCHA was John Gotti.
During the 1950s, the management changed the racial balance of Queensbridge by transferring all families whose income was more than $3,000/year, a majority of whom were White, to middle-income housing projects, and replacing most of these tenants with African American and Latino families. In addition to providing safe and sanitary housing to many low income African American and Latino families, this policy also promulgated racial segregation in public housing.
The buildings in the complex are divided by a series of paths and small lawns. Also in the complex are several basketball courts and play areas lined with benches. Across Vernon Boulevard lies Queensbridge Park, which has a fully-lit baseball diamond, running paths, lawns and areas for picnicking. That park, home to the Queensbridge Little League, is the primary place of recreation for tenants of the project. Queensbridge Park is the venue for numerous summer-time live concerts with music ranging from R&B; to Latin.
During the 1950s and up through 1970 Queensbridge Park was called "River Park," after the East River that runs next to it. There was also a smaller park placed conveniently right under the 59th street bridge called "Baby Park". Baby Park was closed due to debris falling from the bridge during maintenance work which is ongoing in 2007. Baby Park was replaced by a new playground for same age range between 40-41 Avenues within Queensbridge Park itself.
Other noted artists associated with Queensbridge include Prodigy and Havoc of Mobb Deep, Cormega, Tragedy Khadafi, Nature, Screwball, Capone of Capone-N-Noreaga and Big Noyd and Nas Bars N Hooks, Prince A.D., Lakey the Kidd, Infamous Mobb (Ty Nitty, Godfather Part 3,Twin Gambino aka. Big Twinz) In regards to the Queensbridge music scene, XXL columnist Brendan Frederick wrote:
At a time when you can buy screwed & chopped albums at Circuit City in Brooklyn, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that hip-hop was once a local phenomenon. More than just a voice of the ghetto, hip-hop at its best is the voice of specific blocks, capturing the distinct tone and timbre of an artist’s environment. Since the 1980s, New York City’s Queensbridge Housing Projects has been documented perhaps better than any other geographic location. Starting with super producer Marley Marl’s dominant Juice Crew in the ’80s all the way through ’90s mainstays like Nas, Cormega and Capone, the Bridge has produced the highest per-capita talent of any ’hood.
Category:Neighborhoods in Queens Category:Public housing in New York City Category:Buildings and structures in Queens Category:Populated places in New York with African American majority populations Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1939
de:Queensbridge fr:Queensbridge ja:クイーンズブリッジ団地 pl:Queensbridge sv:QueensbridgeThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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