Ridgewood In Queens, NY Walking Tour

Filming Dates: Tuesday October 1st and Wednesday October 2nd, 2024

This is by far the longest video I have ever made on Rumble! For this video, I toured around Ridgewood in Queens, NY and it's one of my favorite neighborhoods to visit. Ridgewood is known to be Bushwick's twin neighbor with the Brooklyn-Queens meeting border on Myrtle Avenue. Ridgewood is surprisingly one of the best neighborhoods to live in New York and in the whole United States. Some articles say that it's one of the best neighborhoods in the world to visit and live in as a residential community. Ridgewood borders with Maspeth, Glendale, Middle Village and Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bushwick and Williamsburg's eastside section "East Williamsburg". Ridgewood has very good alternative and hipster vibes, it attracts artists and families, a working class community, a middle class community, converted warehouses, brick and stone homes, gentrified buildings and businesses, medical offices, plenty of stores and restaurants. To me, Ridgewood is like Bushwick, but way better. The commute to Brooklyn neighborhoods and Manhattan isn't too bad from Ridgewood, but the traffic during rush hour is not always a good experience to start with, because traffic sometimes get crazy as usual for school and work commutes.

Ridgewood is home to a history with generations of Europeans and other ethnic groups living here. The Mespachtes Indians originally settled to the area as the early Native American settlement. The Dutch settlers moved in during the 1600s and 1700s. The Vander Ende-Onderdonk House is a historic house owned by Dutch settlers. This historic home is New York City's oldest Dutch stone home. Some parts of Ridgewood used to be a part of Bushwick with its Dutch name "Boswijck" before the British settlers came here calling the neighborhoods as Bushwick and Ridgewood. The name "Ridgewood" comes from the area's rolling terrain and high elevation offering views of the surrounding areas in the settlement. Many German immigrants came here in the mid to late 1800s (19th century). Then, a couple of Irish, Italians, Poles, Romanians, Serbians, Bosnians, and Greeks moved in between the 1900s to 1960s. More Poles, Greeks, Romanians, and Serbians remained in Ridgewood when North Brooklyn started to gentrify in the mid 20th century. Then, immigration from Latin America and Central America grew exponentially since the 1980s to present day 2024. The Latin American ethnic groups in Ridgewood are mostly Puerto Ricans, Ecuadorians, Colombians, Mexicans, Venezuelans, Guetamalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, and some Peruvians. Ridgewood and Bushwick used to have the same zip code until 1980, when Ridgewood got its first own zip code as a Queens neighborhood.

Gentrification arrived in Ridgewood around 2014 after new developments and residents moved to gentrified North Brooklyn communities. Many homes and apartments were bought by luxury plans and Ridgewood has started gentrifying more in recent years with hipsters and wealthy transplants moving here from expensive parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn for affordable rent. Ridgewood became a trendy neighborhood and it's one of the neighborhoods that can make Queens look attractive for those moving in and having opportunities here. Street art in Ridgewood is very interesting compared with Bushwick, Brooklyn. A lot of creative art murals can be found in this neighborhood. Music venues, bars, restaurants, and stores have also became trendy in Ridgewood. Since Ridgewood is gentrifying, it's probably going to make Glendale and Maspeth gentrify as well with new street art, developments, stores, and more people making those neighborhoods look trendy. However, Ridgewood has a few bus routes connecting with Brooklyn areas (Downtown Brooklyn, East New York/Spring Creek etc.) and other Queens areas (Richmond Hill, Maspeth, Long Island City, Forest Hills, Jamaica etc.) as you can look for any place to go between various of both bus and train routes there.

Background song: Calvin Harris - We'll Be Coming Back (ft. Example) (Extended Mix)