Hicksville's Asian population explodes

In the heart of Hicksville, Billy Joel's hometown, the new Asian influence is hard to miss.

Around Route 107, the main business corridor, Indian restaurants and ethnic grocery stores have sprouted, offering goat biryani, seasoned seaweed and other delicacies.

There's also a community bank catering to South Asians, and a growing variety of Asian-owned businesses, from beauty parlors and travel offices to clothing stores.

A local celebration of Diwali, a traditional Indian festival, is expected to draw up to 8,000 revelers this fall. Most of them will be from the area -- another sign of major change.

An emerging community

One out of five Hicksville residents is now Asian, according to the latest census figures. While the hamlet's population overall has flatlined, at slightly more than 41,000, the number of Asians has more than doubled in the past 10 years, the majority of them Indian.

Community leaders say many are coming from urban areas, drawn by the emerging ethnic business district, relatively affordable housing and decent schools. A Hindu temple built in 2005 has itself become a magnet.

"We have a good quality of life here," said Subodh Batra, an engineer who moved to Long Island from New Delhi 18 years ago, ultimately settling in Hicksville in 1996.

Batra, 62, and his family -- wife Prabha, 60; son Rahul, 32, and daughter Megha, 31 -- are all U.S. citizens now. He serves as treasurer of the Northwest Civic Association and is a member of the Hicksville Community Council board.

Hicksville's central location and easy access to transportation were key reasons for moving there, Batra said. That's close to what Little India magazine, which bills itself as the nation's biggest publication for Indian-Americans, concluded early on, in 1997.

"Hicksville is fast becoming a favored spot for Indians because of its proximity to the Long Island Rail Road and hence easy commute to Manhattan," the magazine reported, also noting "reasonable" taxes in the Town of Oyster Bay.

The trend hasn't slowed since then, with Hicksville now ranking as one of the region's most significant South Asian commercial centers, along with Jackson Heights, Queens, and Edison, N.J., according to Mohinder Singh Taneja, North Hempstead Town's diversity outreach director. Taneja said Hicksville began transforming in the late '90s as South Asians flocked to the suburbs.

"Sometimes, the rent in Queens was higher than the mortgage in the suburbs. . . . Whenever they find a good school, a good house, then they move," Taneja said.

Businesses follow suit

Businesses catering to the surging ethnic population soon followed.

Long Island's Asian population jumped by 518 percent between 1980 and 2010, eclipsing the percentage growth of Hispanics, according to census data.

North Hempstead, for example, is now nearly 15 percent Asian. The town's first Asian American Festival held last year in Port Washington drew a big crowd.

"Everybody was surprised that 5,000 residents went," said Minsun Kim, president of the Korean Parents Association of Long Island.

Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto praised the Asian community's "strong entrepreneurial spirit, as evidenced by the flourishing businesses they are establishing."

Those businesses "contribute to our tax base," Venditto said in a statement, adding that there's little downside to the changing demographics.

Nobody knows how many Asian businesses have popped up in North Hempstead and Hicksville in recent years, but most observers agree the growth has been substantial.

Habib American Bank, which targets South Asians, was established in Manhattan in 1983 and now has six branches. The Hicksville location is the fastest-growing, said chief executive Saleem Iqbal.

Hye Jin Han, chief operating officer of H&Y Marketplace, a Korean supermarket that expanded from Flushing, Queens, to Hicksville in 2007, said she "anticipated the growth."

While the market caters to Koreans, Chinese and Japanese -- offering specialties like Korean pears and live eels -- Han said non-Asian customers have been a "bonus."

The latter includes Margaret Dailey of nearby Plainview. "I come twice a week," said Dailey, who is in her 80s. "I like the produce -- the fruits and vegetables."

For Shaheen Sweets and Restaurant, which specializes in gourmet food from India and Pakistan, the Hicksville location made sense. "There's a community growing here," said Shan Hamid, 34, who runs the 10-year-old, family-owned restaurant.

Temple for worship, more

Another draw: growing temples that double as community centers.

Hicksville's Asa' Mai Afghan Hindu Temple opened in 2005, an offshoot of the crowded Flushing original.

On a recent Friday afternoon, the temple was bustling with activity.

Children gathered for traditional Indian dance classes on the lower level, while about 150 people celebrated a wedding in the banquet hall. Upstairs, devotees prayed.

Each year, the temple's Diwali festival draws thousands, including elected town officials, said Prianka Kakkar, 44, a mortgage broker from Sands Point who sits on the temple's governing board.

She said Hicksville proved to be an ideal location: "It was close to the trains, central to our Queens devotees."

But then a funny thing happened. Many of the commuters decided to stay.

"Everybody followed the temple," she said.

With Jennifer Barrios