New York, for years, has been a melting pot culture and heritage from all over the world, one of which belongs to the Philippines. With a growing Filipino community living in the Big Apple, the presence of Filipinos is definitely hard to miss as local culture is penetrating the NYC scene—from food to art and everything in between.
To celebrate it, a street corner at Woodside in Queens, New York is about to be co-named “Little Manila Avenue.” A report by the Sunnyside Post states that “the NYC Council Parks and Recreation Committee voted 15-0 Tuesday in favor of co-naming the southwest corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 70th Street ‘Little Manila Avenue’ through legislation sponsored by Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer.”
This movement to co-name the street corner started on June 12, 2020. A month later “Our Little Manila” campaign was launched with an online petition that garnered more than 3,000 signatures.
A Filipino hotspot, the particular Woodside area has been known as “Little Manila” to many with it being home to restaurants, stores, and other Filipino establishments. According to Sunnyside Post’s story, Filipinos have been migrating to the area in the 1970s with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965. Currently, 86,000 Filipinos and Filipino-Americans are residing in New York, with almost half of the count can be found in Queens.
“People were talking about renaming the area Little Manila and I wanted it done,” Van Bramer told the Sunnyside Post. “I wanted to honor the Filipino and Filipino American community who are an important part of the Woodside community.”
Check more the “Little Manila Avenue” co-naming here.