Carlo’s Pizzeria in Middle Village, Queens is closing in on nearly 50 years of service, and can be still be found on the same stretch of Metropolitan Avenue, from where it served its first slice.
“My father opened the shop in ’66,” said Frank Caruana, the current head pizzaiolo at the shop. “Myself, I’ve been here for over 30 years.”
Paisley Bridal, a bridal shop, in Middle Village, Queens, seems out of place on a business strip mostly populated with small chain businesses and run of the mill New York City take out restaurants. But, Nicole Vega, 31, the owner, has made it work.
“When I first opened up, some of the older people who’ve lived here forever, would say to me ‘Aw, sweety, you’ll be done in six months,'” said, Vega.
As I walked around my beat I started noticing something. There are a lot of cemeteries in my CD: Linden Hill Cemetery (Ridgewood,) Mt. Olivet Cemetery (Middle Village,) St. Johns Cemetery (Middle Village,) Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery (Middle Village and Glendale,) Knollwood Park Cemetery (Glendale,) and Mt. Hope Cemetery (Glendale.)
Many of them have beautiful headstones and statues. This is my favorite shot of one in Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village.
A memorial statue at Lutheran All Faith’s Cemetary in Middle Village, Queens on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015. (NYCity News Service/Kazi Awal)
John Youngaitis, 60, is the the last of his kind in New York City. He learned Taxidermy by apprenticing for his father and has done it his entire life.
John Youngaitis standing next to one of his more impressive pieces in Middle Village, Queens on Friday, Sept. 18 2015. (NYCity News Service/Kazi Awal)
We’re student journalists at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism who are covering neighborhoods in Queens and we hope you will check here often for news about the people who live and work in them, photos that show what’s going on in these communities, announcements of upcoming events, interviews with people who have something to say about these neighborhoods and surveys that solicit your comments and observations.