With A Booming Economy Back Home And Anti-Illegal Immigration Demagoguery Here, No Irish Need Apply

The Queens Chronicle reports that the Irish immigrants of Queens are returning to Ireland:

Martin, 29, an illegal Irish immigrant who has been here for seven years, has had enough. He came to America looking for a better life, but has not been able to obtain legal status in this country. He will soon join the growing trend of Irish immigrants moving back to Ireland, where they can reap the benefits of a booming economy and legal citizenship.

“I’ve had enough of being a subject here. I have to find a life somewhere,” said Martin, who requested his last name be withheld.

Statistics show Martin is one of many Irish immigrants who are opting to return home as a result of the current immigration situation in the United States and the burgeoning economic state back home. According to Ireland’s Department of Social and Family Affairs, 132,000 Irish have returned since 2001, with more than 61,000 returning between 2002 and 2004.

In Queens, the flight of Irish immigrants has become very apparent. Neighborhoods like Woodside and Maspeth, formerly known as predominantly Irish enclaves, have taken on new identities, as Hispanics, Filipinos, and Koreans move in.

Maria, a 22 year old Irish immigrant who also requested her last name be withheld, is a bartender in Astoria and plans to study nursing at LaGuardia Community College. She came here a year and a half ago because she wanted to travel and see the world. She knows, however, that many who came to America for similar reasons will end up moving back.

“People are moving to Ireland because of the legal system in this country. The government doesn’t want to give us any legality or citizenship,” said Maria, adding that the irony of the situation is that, “there’s no such thing as a true American and I feel like this government has forgotten its roots.”

The article adds that that whole “Leave No Paddy Behind” thing hasn’t worked out so well:

Siobhan Dennehey, the executive director at Emerald Isle Immigration Center, said that while many immigration reform movements have lobbied to legalize the Irish, their exhaustive work has gone unanswered, possibly because the Irish are often overlooked as an immigrant population.

“The automatic assumption is that if you’re Irish you don’t have an immigration problem, which is quite far from the truth,” Dennehey said, adding that her colleague once told her, “our Irish ancestors helped build this country, build the roads, but we can’t drive on them, we can’t reap the benefits of which we’ve sown. That’s the Irish story.”

Dennehey also said that the public protests and marches supporting the legalization of the Irish have possibly done more harm than good, uncovering undocumented workers who had previously lived under the radar. “There has not been any positive sign,” said Dennehey, who cites the lack of improvement in legalizing immigrants and the Irish economy’s success story as reasons for the mass migration back across the Atlantic.

Now It Begins

The New York Press may have jumped the gun back in 2005 by saying that “by summer 2006 much of Coney Island will be gone, and gone forever”, but it looks like that prognosis finally will come to pass:

Close the Zipper and shoo the Spider.

Those amusement rides — along with go-carts, batting cages and carny games — have been ordered out of a Coney Island site as redevelopment begins.

“Everybody’s heartbroken,” said Eddie Miranda, who has owned the W. 12th St. rides, including the Zipper and the Spider, for eight years. “We were all hoping for one more season.”

Eight renters received notice last week from their properties’ new owner, developer Thor Equities, telling them to be out when their leases expire Dec. 31.

Six tenants are in the Henderson Building on Stillwell Ave., a turn-of-the century structure that once housed a dance hall and hotel. The other two are are along W. 12th St. and Stillwell Ave. Combined, they operate more than a dozen businesses.

. . .

The redevelopment plan calls for a new promenade on Stillwell Ave. along with residential, entertainment and amusement components, Thor Equities spokesman Lee Silberstein said.

“The effort to transform Coney Island and recapture its past glory involves the demolition of a number of existing structures,” Silberstein said. “Therefore, to allow the new development to proceed in a timely manner, occupancy agreements with some of the tenants are not being renewed.”

Then again, it could just be a matter of perspective:

Some beloved Coney Island boardwalk mainstays — facing the bulldozer because of a proposed $1.5 billion renovation project — are getting a reprieve, The Post has learned.

Thor Equities — which purchased 10 acres of waterfront land hoping to create a glitzy amusement complex — said yesterday that 11 boardwalk businesses would be allowed to remain open at least one more summer.

Thor spokesman Lee Silberstein said the attractions — including Ruby’s Bar and Grill, Cha-Cha’s and Shoot the Freak paintball — will be given the opportunity to move into the proposed complex.

Location Scout: Coney Island.

Then Again, If You Need A Map To Tell You Where To Look, Maybe Brooklyn’s Not Exactly Right For You

The Brooklyn Paper reports that real estate powerhouse the Corcoran Group is being accused of housing discrimination:

In a report released Tuesday, a coalition of 220 fair housing organizations charged Corcoran with ignoring black clients, offering more detailed financial options and incentives to white home-seekers and directing these white clients to white neighborhoods.

A “gentrification map” is a key piece of evidence in the National Fair Housing Alliance’s federal discrimination complaint filed this week with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“This racial steering tactic is reminiscent of discriminatory conduct from the 1970s,” said Shanna Smith, president of NFHA. “Then, real-estate agents would [trigger] white flight by showing . . . where an African-American family had bought a house. The twist here is that the agent used a map to tell whites where they should [move] to.”

The map was uncovered in a sting operation at Corcoran’s Brooklyn Heights office on Montague Street.

Four white investigators posing as yuppie homebuyers were flashed the doctored street map — complete with hand-drawn boxes and red arrows identifying neighborhoods considered to be “changing” for the better as well as established enclaves of young professionals.

A Corcoran Group employee directed the undercover agents to Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights and majority-black Prospect Heights, which fell in to the category of “changing.”

Four black investigators, posing as buppies, weren’t shown the map.

. . .

In a statement, the company said it condemned the conduct alleged by NFHA and would conduct an internal review of the individual agents involved.

The question is what investigators did to pose as yuppies . . . that would have been a fun one to plan!

Closing Of CBGB Completes “Cultural Rape” Of The East Village

CBGB has closed:

Last night was the last concert at CBGB, the famously crumbling rock club that has been in continuous, loud operation since December 1973, serving as the casual headquarters and dank incubator for some of New York’s most revered groups — [Patti] Smith’s, the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Sonic Youth — as well as thousands more whose blares left less of a mark on history but whose graffiti and concert fliers might still remain on its walls.

After a protracted real estate battle with its landlord, a nonprofit organization that aids the homeless, CBGB agreed late last year to leave its home at 313 and 315 Bowery at the end of this month. And Ms. Smith’s words outside the club, where her group was playing, encapsulated the feelings shared by fans around the city and around the world: CBGB is both the scrappy symbol of rock’s promise and a temple that no one wanted to see go.

. . .

“It’s the cultural rape of New York City that this place is being pushed out,” said John Nikolai, a black-clad 36-year-old photographer from Staten Island whose tie read “I quit.”

Added Ms. Smith outside the club, “It’s a symptom of the empty new prosperity of our city.”

Meanwhile, the Daily News Don McLeanizes CBGB with a maudlin headline — “The Night Music Died”:

The birthplace of punk, CBGB, where bands such as the Ramones and Talking Heads got their start, threw its own headbanging funeral last night.

With rock poet Patti Smith offering the expletive-laden eulogy to the grungy Bowery icon, Mohawk-wearing mourners took one final twirl in the mosh pit.

“You know what’s sad? Turning New York City into the suburbs,” Smith said. “The whole thing’s sad. This is just a symptom of the empty prosperity of our times.”

You know what is actually sad? Fetishizing Manhattan and turning punk rock into a museum piece . . .

That’s Water Street, Brooklyn, Not Water Street, Manhattan

DUMBO may not have a lot of amenities, but it is home to a rising number of lawyers:

“We’re getting more conventional tenants,” said Chris Havens, director of leasing for Two Trees Management, the area’s main property owner. “Four years ago we had two law firms. Now, we have eight. Though some of the firms moving here have a little bit of edge and are a little more informal.”

Of Dumbo’s 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, roughly half is rented by artists and the rest is now being used for office space, Havens said. “We’re still renting to artists. The change is that these are people who are selling art.”

Court Street has hundreds of attorneys, Havens said. “Costs are really going up there. So, if they’re not running back and forth all day to court, then they can come down to us.”

Three financial firms recently leased space at 45 Main St., including a consulting group that has offices in Lower Manhattan, an investment banking firm with offices in Rockefeller Center and a Brooklyn Heights-based asset management company. Also, a Scandinavian bank opened backup trade space.

“That wouldn’t have happened five years ago,” Havens said. “The buildings weren’t as renovated. Dumbo didn’t have the reputation.”

Location Scout: DUMBO.