Roosevelt Avenue was nationally recognized for its cuisine when Good Magazine named it one of "America's Tastiest Streets".[3] It’s also well known for its diversity of cultural representation, ranging from Indian to Latin American,[4] while in the 2020s, Downtown Flushing is undergoing rapid gentrification by Chinese transnational entities.[5] More than three hundred languages are spoken along the street, and the neighborhoods it passes through are described as the most ethnically diverse in the world.[6]
The corridor is served by the following subway lines:
The 7 and <7> trains run on the elevated IRT Flushing Line tracks above the street with ten stations until it reaches Flushing – Main Street, its eastern terminus.[7] The rail line opened in 1917, when Roosevelt Avenue was formed from the combination of other streets into one main avenue.[8][9]
The G train stops at the Greenpoint Avenue station located at Greenpoint Avenue and Manhattan Avenue.
The following bus routes serve Roosevelt:
The Q32 runs between Queens Boulevard and either 81st Street (Jackson Heights), or 82nd Street (Midtown, Manhattan).
The Q48 runs between 108th and Main Streets. Flushing service heads west on Roosevelt non-stop from Union Street to Main Street before switching to LaGuardia Airport.
The Q53 runs between Broadway and 61st Street, where it terminates.
The Q47 runs between 69th Street and either 74th Street (LaGuardia Airport), or 75th Street (Glendale).
The Q33 runs between Broadway and either 82nd Street (Jackson Heights), or 83rd Street (East Elmhurst).
Most Q29 buses run from 83rd Street to 82nd Street, where it terminates.
The East Elmhurst-bound Q49 runs from Broadway to 74th Street.
The Q12, Q15 and Q26 run between Bowne and Union Streets. In addition, Main Street is a drop-off stop for the Q26 to Flushing, and a pick-up stop for the Q15 to Beechhurst.
The Nassau-bound n20G runs from Bowne Street to Main Street.
The westbound Q19 and Q66 buses run from Prince Street to Main Street, where service originates.
The B24 is the only bus route to serve Greenpoint Avenue, from 47th Street to West Street (Greenpoint), and from Manhattan Avenue to 48th Street (Williamsburg). Greenpoint service runs east on the avenue non-stop from Franklin Street to Manhattan Avenue before switching to Williamsburg.
^Ngu, Sarah (January 29, 2021). "'Not what it used to be': in New York, Flushing's Asian residents brace against gentrification". The Guardian US. Retrieved August 13, 2020. The three developers have stressed in public hearings that they are not outsiders to Flushing, which is 69% Asian. 'They've been here, they live here, they work here, they've invested here,' said Ross Moskowitz, an attorney for the developers at a different public hearing in February...Tangram Tower, a luxury mixed-use development built by F&T. Last year, prices for two-bedroom apartments started at $1.15m...The influx of transnational capital and rise of luxury developments in Flushing has displaced longtime immigrant residents and small business owners, as well as disrupted its cultural and culinary landscape. These changes follow the familiar script of gentrification, but with a change of actors: it is Chinese American developers and wealthy Chinese immigrants who are gentrifying this working-class neighborhood, which is majority Chinese.
