Hunters Point, Queens

At the southwestern tip of the once-independent Long Island City, Queens sits Hunters Point, a small semi-industrial neighborhood of surprising variety. It's a sleepy and out-of-the-way place that has begun to slowly boom despite how much it feels bracketed by daunting barriers on all sides: the East River, the Long Island Expressway/Newtown Creek (which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brooklyn), the Queensboro Bridge entryway and the sprawling mess of the Sunnyside Railyard.

The waterfront -- once the terminus of the Long Island Railroad, the area's original claim to fame -- has already grown an attractive park with tremendous views of Manhattan and is rapidly producing soulless and artless new residential towers. Huge riverfront sites have been cleared for construction and you can only imagine what the area will look like in a few years.

New Waterfront Residences

108th Precinct on 50th Avenue at Vernon

The main thoroughfares are Vernon and Jackson and their gritty, lightly industrial edges of low-rise factories and warehouses are now dotted with bistros, cafes and ethnic restaurants. MOMA's PS 1 is the neighborhood's most famous landmark.

PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, 21st Street at 46th Avenue

Hunters Point Historic District, 45th Avenue near Jackson

Immaculately preserved 19th century brick and stone rowhouses are in full effect on the neighborhood's northern side, while the southern end has a less masterplanned mish-mash of workers' homes featuring run-down Victorian ornamentation, clapboard, wood, brick and masonry.

Fixed up Tenements and Workers' houses near Vernon Blvd.

From an unacademic point-of-view, no ethnic group seems to dominate, but there are obviously many Hispanics, many ethnic whites, a noticeable number of young hipster and professional whites, and a mixture of everyone else.