I live in an urban area in Queens, New York City, in an area called Elmhurst. There are many interesting things in my neighborhood which is both good and bad in my perspective. The happy side of where I live is that there are many places where food is available for purchase and it’s extremely convenient. When I mean that stores are convenient, I mean that there is a store literally every corner I turn. The most prominent stores are obviously delicatessens and the rest are either Chinese food restaurants and supermarkets. When it comes to obtaining specific foods, Dunkin Donuts, Mc. Donald’s, and Popeyes fried chicken is also close to my house. Queens Center Mall is 15-minutes away from my house when walking. I can practically purchase anything I have in mind just by walking, other than that, the second paragraph will be the drawbacks of the area I’m living at.

First things first, there are dogs and cats everywhere around the neighborhood. The neighborhood is constantly bombarded with dog feces and leftover cat food. The dog feces left on the sidewalks is becoming a trend, I feel like it all started when a person decided not to pick up after their dog and another person gained their influence. The unsanitary factors of the sidewalks in my neighborhood is getting worse than ever. I personally always look where I walk and yet I stepped on dog poop twice after strolling around the neighborhood. Another issue is the lack of personal home maintenance, people disregard others and have their cars literally parked onto the sidewalks. People love plants where I live, I wouldn’t mind plants if they weren’t 12foot tall sunflowers tilting down to the path where I must walk past every morning. You can literally go blind if you don’t look where you’re going for 5 seconds since there are broken bamboos waiting to snipe your eyes. One last thing which I find obstructing is the lack of sky view. There are powerlines on top of many more electrical lines which block the view of the beautiful sky. On nice sunny days, I take photos of the sky and have trouble getting the picture right without having thick black lines in the picture.

Now moving away from the unsatisfactory, I live close to two bus stations, one heading towards flushing and one to the 7 train which is also 15-minutes away from my house. My main route to school is walking to the station which is also 15-minutes away where I can take the m and r train. The area around the station holds a Queen’s Library, Chinese supermarket, Subways restaurant, pizzeria, and other small restaurants. Sometimes I’ll grab some groceries before heading home after leaving the station. Other than the things in which I dislike, the most important attribute of a good neighborhood is how convenience the area is. At the end of the day, everywhere we live will have its up and downs. I hope my boring passage will help you gain a better understanding of where I live.