24th Ave, Ditmars | Steinway

24th Avenue, Astoria Queens. How I love thee. Seriously, this is a great street with some serious benefits and equally as serious pitfalls. Let's get the bad out of the way. First, unless you are a serious summer alcoholic (or an aspiring one), you don't want to live anywhere near the Beer Garden between 29th and 31st streets. It is noisey, there are cabs everywhere, and did I mention noisey. Next issue is the subway. Once you are out of Manhattan, the N/W express becomes very un expresslike and as much as Asotria and the surrounding Steinway areas have to offer in terms of bars and nightlife, it gets old quick and you WILL find yourself travelling into Manhattan and Brooklyn several times a month for entertainment. Also n that note, the N connects to Manhattan in midtown - yucky yuck for weekend plans. That means you'll wind up riding it all the way down to at least Union Sq, which can take an ENTERNITY! OK, enough complaints. The positives: It's a very friendly and clean street. People know each other by name on their immediate block. You are a close walk to Ditmars which offers a lot of food and shopping (think: sundries, not botiques - although a few have started to pop up). On 24th specifically, you can walk straight down to Astoria Park, which is an awesome place to hang out and play ball in the summer. The end towards the park is more residential, while the closer you get to Astoria Blvd, there a few corner shops, etc. Very safe and quiet at night. One of the greatest nabes in all of Queens.