Astoria is mostly two and three family houses, brick or vinyl sided, on a regular grid. The blocks are quiet and the streets are wide enough to park a truck without closing them.
The commercial streets run through those blocks and they do not look alike. is the main one. North of 28th Avenue it is a long line of Egyptian and Middle Eastern businesses, cafes, groceries and hookah bars. Much of the signage is in Arabic. Further south it turns into chain stores and older storefronts.
and are the more local ones. The elevated line crosses both. Astoria has had a large Greek population since the 1960s. There are still Greek bakeries, churches and restaurants along and 31st Street.
is the northern end of that run, near the last stop on the N and W. The buildings there are lower and there is more sky.
West of there the streets reach the river. Astoria Park sits under the , a steel arch railway bridge finished in 1916. The park has a long lawn along the East River with the bridge at one end and the Triborough at the other.
is on 36th Street, back in the middle of the residential blocks. Paramount built it in 1920. It is one of the few working studio lots on the East Coast. The is on the edge of the same lot.
