A New York City street in Woodside, Queens has been petitioned to be co-named “Little Manila Avenue” to honor its Filipino community.
Our Little Manila Bayanihan (OLMB), a group of Filipinos in the city community, started the co-naming campaign to have a street sign that will be installed at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and 70th Street in Woodside, Queens, NYC.
The campaign, which started on July 21, 2020, has obtained 2,121 signatures, as of today, July 30, with an original goal of 1,500.
The organizers plan to submit the petition to Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who has already expressed his full support.
With all the Pinoy restaurants and stores in the stretch of Roosevelt Avenue, it became unofficially called “Little Manila.”
“The street co-naming will bring visibility to the Filipino community’s contributions to New York City. There are no records of “Little Manila” elsewhere in NYC and this would make it the first,” said OLMB on their website.
The Pinoy advocates aim to be recognized as an essential part of the Big Apple due to the active presence of Filipinos in the healthcare system and the mounting businesses in the street.
“Our hope is that Little Manila will be recognized as more than an ethnic enclave that adds to the diversity of the borough and the city, but home to a community who has been an integral part of the care and thrivance of fellow New Yorkers,” added OLMB.
Xenia Diente, a Filipino-American who is one of the members of OLMB, said the petition has received universal support from both Filipinos and people of other backgrounds.
“For the Filipino community of the greater New York City area, Little Manila is their home away from home: a dynamic portal in which members of the Filipino community maintain their connections to their loved ones both locally and internationally,” said the Pinoy advocates group.
Our kababayans were recorded to set foot in Woodside since the 1970s, many as registered nurses and up to this day, about 86,000 Filipinos were estimated to be residing in NYC with about 54 percent living in the borough of Queens.
If you wish to join the petition of naming a street in New York as “Little Manila,” kindly fill-out the form.
Around the globe, significant Filipino contributions are being recognized like the Pinoy comedy King Dolphy who was honored with a Google Doodle on his birthday.
Filipino highschooler Maxine Kirsten Magtoto podcast was honored by the New York Times for her Modern Divergence opinions segment.
SEND GOOD LUCK in the comments below for the approval of the petition to co-name a street in New York as “Little Manila” to honor Filipinos in the community!
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