From budoviking
Queens is indeed the place to be for a young 20 something in NY with a modest income. Brooklyn is the hipster hood, but the rents have sky-rocketed over the past few years. And Manhattan...well, we could have a long discourse on the lux-boxes in the sky. The boy lives in Astoria, which is close enough, but still affordable and you nailed the ethnicity- old school Czech, Polish, Greek and Italian infused with Latino, Middle-eastern, African- 31 flavors and then some. It is as it should be. :-)