Immigrant- Run Businesses Flourish
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

"Our businesses are top notch," Borough President Helen Marshall said at a joint meeting of the Borough Cabinet and th Queens Chamber of Commerce last week at the LaGuardia Marriott. With her cabinet and community board district managers present, Marshall said, "Today we have here everybody who helps our borough to grow."

Citywide, the number of businesses grew by almost 10 percent in the decade 1994-2004, according to a recent study by the Center For An Urban Future. But business growth was particularly impressive in Queens.

In Flushing, business growth was more than five times greater than anywhere else in the city, rising by an astounding 54.6 percent from 1994 to 2004. Jackson Heights also showed an increase in business growth by 14.3 percent.

The report, released on February 6, credited the rise in economic strength to the new historic growth of immigrants in New York City, saying new arrivals in neighborhoods like Flushing and Jackson Heights are opening businesses at a faster rate than native-born residents.

The report's author, Jonathan Bowles, said immigrants have "become real engines of growth. They're creating an incredible amount of new businesses," said Bowles, director of the Center For An Urban Future, according to a report in the February 7 edition of Newsday.

Between 1990 and 2000, the number of selfemployed, foreign-born individuals increased by 53 percent, while the number of native-born, selfemployed individuals dropped by 7 percent, according to the report.

Marshall, pointing to the growing Queens population, also reiterated her call for expert health care for its residents. Referring to the hospital study she commissioned, she cited the unequal distribution of health services for the borough's growing population. 2.3 million people and counting.

Regarding school construction, she said, "When I leave office every child in Queens will have a seat or have one in design or construction. Boy, does that make me happy!" With continued growth, Marshall also cited the growing need for more affordable housing, saying, "One of the biggest problems with housing is the high cost."

The cost of housing rose by 6.5 percent in the New York region last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The increase was the greatest since 1989. New York City is also in the middle of its biggest residential boom in 30 years with 30,927 permits for new units of privately- owned housing issued in 2006, falling just short of the 31,599 issued in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

One of the ongoing projects Marshall cited is Arverne East in Far Rockaway. A 47-acre redevelopment located south of Rockaway Beach Boulevard between Beach 46th and Beach 32nd Streets, Arverne East will feature 1,600 housing units and 300,000 square feet of commercial space. There are also plans for a hotel, a school, parks and a cinema complex.

Water's Edge and Arverne-by-the-Sea, already completed, are nearby and part of a concerted effort to rebuild the waterfront area in Far Rockaway. Marshall said one of the things about the Rockaways that she is most struck by is the beautiful ocean view there.