Malba: Getting Away From the City Without Ever Leaving

The perfectly manicured lawns and the quiet, winding streets of Malba call to mind a suburban paradise – so strongly, in fact, that it’s easy to forget that the small Queens neighborhood is in the biggest city in America.“People are drawn to Malba because it’s like living in the country, but you’re 15 minutes from Manhattan,” the president of the Malba Association, Kathleen Georgio, said. “When I go home, it’s very peaceful, very quiet.”Malba consists of a small group of about 400 homes nestled at the foot of the Whitestone Bridge. The community has been an oasis from fast-paced city life since it was founded nearly a century ago and has many of the benefits of living in the city without a lot of the stress.“It’s living in the city, taxes are low, but you really have a Long Island lifestyle,” Francine Berger of Carollo Real Estate said.While Malba’s roads, once guarded by a gate, are now public, the community maintains a tight-knit cohesion reminiscent of a different era. Dinner dances, hot dog parties, and several clubs bring Malba residents together regularly.“People stay active in the community, and everyone really knows and watches out for one another,” Ms. Georgio said.Today the Malba Association is the driving force behind most events and changes in the community. Soon after it was formed in 1908, the association obtained the titles to Malba’s beach, streets, and community development program.All residents of Malba must either join the association and pay dues, or pay an equivalent yearly assessment. The association has two meetings a year, and Ms. Georgio said the whole community comes to discuss issues affecting the area.“It keeps people in the know,” she said.The association pays for Malba’s private security and gardener, and tackles projects such as the resurfacing of streets, the planting of trees, and construction in the area. The Malba Association is a source of pride for many residents.“I think it’s excellent,” one resident, Charlotte Leff, said. “Without the association, the neighborhood would not be as nice as it still is.”Despite its efforts to keep Malba serene and close-knit, the association cannot prevent a steady influx of new arrivals.“We get encroached upon,” Ms. Georgio said. “We’re getting overcrowded, overstressed. Developers take down one house and put up a building that houses four families.”Ms. Leff has lived in Malba for 38 years and said newcomers have completely changed the look of the neighborhood.“When I moved here, there were old trees, and everyone had grass in front of their houses. It was a neat-looking and old-fashioned neighborhood,” Ms. Leff said. “Now they’re ripping down old homes and putting up start-up homes. Now you see metal fences and brick walls. That’s not conducive to saying hello to your neighbor.”One of the effects of redevelopment is the neighborhood’s diversity of architectural styles. There are colonials, wide-line ranches, and contemporary houses, Ms. Berger said, among others.One thing they have in common are steep prices. A five-bedroom Tudor colonial corner property is currently on the market for $2.25 million.“It’s a very high-end, expensive area,” Ms. Berger said. “There are a lot of mansions. Houses go for 1 million and up, and 1 million would buy you a small colonial.”For many, high prices are well worth the payoff – the opportunity to live in a sleepy, suburban paradise, just a 15-minute drive from the city that never sleeps.

Malba: Getting Away From the City Without Ever Leaving

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