Overview
Sunnyside is a neighborhood in the western part of the borough of Queens, New York City, bounded roughly by Queens Boulevard and the Sunnyside Yard to the north and Calvary Cemetery to the south. It lies between Long Island City and Woodside on the elevated No. 7 line, whose 40th, 46th and 52nd Street stations function, in the neighborhood’s own account, as its three town squares.
The neighborhood is best known for Sunnyside Gardens, a planned garden-apartment development built between 1924 and 1928 by the City Housing Corporation and designated a city historic district in 2007. The designation, which requires Landmarks Preservation Commission approval for changes to fences, windows, doors and the interior courtyards, has made Sunnyside one of the few places in the United States where the replacement of a garden gate can be the subject of a public hearing, and frequently is.
The neighborhood’s main commercial streets are Queens Boulevard, Greenpoint Avenue and Skillman Avenue, the last of which hosts a Saturday greenmarket and, in the view of many residents, most of the neighborhood’s arguments. Sunnyside falls within Queens Community Board 2, whose committees meet monthly in a public school cafeteria on 43rd Avenue and whose minutes are among the most widely read documents in the neighborhood.
Local Character
Sunnyside residents regard themselves as the reasonable middle of Queens: less expensive than Long Island City, quieter than Woodside, older than either. They describe their neighborhood as “a village,” a word they use precisely, and they govern it accordingly. The density of residents who attend community board meetings, write letters about community board meetings, or decline to attend community board meetings on principle is, by any informal measure, among the highest in the city.
The neighborhood’s signature civic concern is the street. Any proposal to close, narrow, decorate or march upon a block of Skillman Avenue is reviewed with an attention otherwise reserved for questions of war. Block-party applications are scrutinized for their sanitation plans. A 2019 proposal to install a single bicycle corral outside a café on Skillman Avenue generated four months of hearings and a petition with signatures from two adjacent zip codes.
Sunnyside has a long and proud history of hosting the city’s newer arrivals, and residents take the view that anyone may live there and anyone may speak at a public meeting, provided they observe the time limit. Most do not.
Notable Residents
- Lowell Pruett, founder of Slop Nation, who in October 2026 sought a permit to march along Skillman Avenue in defense of the term “A.I. slop.”
- Rosalind Ferrante, chair of the Transportation Committee of Queens Community Board 2 since 2017, who tabled the application.
Articles
- Queens Man Launches Movement to Reclaim ‘A.I. Slop’ as a Term of Pride, Pending Community Board Approval — site of the proposed Queens SlopWalk
Articles
- Queens Man Launches Movement to Reclaim 'A.I. Slop' as a Term of Pride, Pending Community Board Approval — Organizers have requested one lane of Skillman Avenue for three hours on a Saturday, and the right to be called what they are.