The South Ozone Park Idea...

Crossing the Van Wyck Expressway on the way to work, or racing to the airport via Air Train JFK the quiet area of South Ozone Park is often overlooked as people go about their daily lives.

“How do you live here? There is nothing around.” Tanda asks incredulously, following the others and me as we walk past a house that could easily pass for a miniature farm.

“This way.” I state crossing the empty street.

As we near my house, Mili states, “Wow, you really do live in the middle of nowhere. You even have a tiny forest thing here.”

“That isn’t true, there is a library and uh…a CPW around here.”

“Why is it so quiet?” Mili asks. “And no one is outside, you’re neighborhood is weird.” It’s not hard to see why the neighborhood is generally regarded as the middle of nowhere, especially when riding a bus that is packed at Kew Gardens, yet empty before it even nears my house; or even when driving past the local pharmacy or market.

Occasionally a car might, just might drive down the block, (not today) other than residents leaving their homes, or the school bus picking up the little girl next door, or a safe ride service picking the little old lady across the street for her weekly doctor appointment. Around here, we have more air traffic than gridlock.

[I stood here (in the middle of the street) for five minutes hoping at least one car would come...]

So what do the residents of the middle of nowhere do in their spare time?

We sit on our front steps and watch the planes fly by so low over our homes that they could potentially land on our rooftops (if they were flat).