[3rd&Brown]

Astoria?

It's not even the coolest neighborhood in Queens. It's not ascendant in any way, really.

It's always been just a nice, stable neighborhood convenient to Midtown Manhattan (which by the way, is also terrible...as in boring.

Most NY neighborhoods that are "cool" essentially extend from their predecessors. Williamsburg is 1 stop east of the East Village on the L train. East Williamsburg is east of Williamsburg. Bushwick east of East Williamsburg and Ridgewood east of Bushwick.

Heading in the other direction, down Flatbush Avenue you pass through Downtown Brooklyn (newly "hip", thus an exception), Ft Greene, Park Slope/Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts, Kensington, Ditmas Park, Flatbush, etc. (These are essentially gentrifying in subsequent order...the Kings Theater in Flatbush being the latest affirmation it is becoming an "it" neighborhood).

East on the A, you go through Ft Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy, to converge back in Ridgewood Queens at Broadway Junction ish. I wouldn't be surprised if Cypress Gardens didn't become "hot" in the next couple years, as there are already murmurs about parts of East New York (the northern bits near Easter Parkway) getting hot as well.

South on the F and B,D you essentially go through Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, South Park Slope, Greenwood Heights, Sunset Park, etc.

Nobody is leaving the Upper East Side, Sutton Place, or Roosevelt Island to move to Astoria. And if they are, they are not people who anyone considers trend setters.