30 years ago this summer, Martin Scorsese returned to his birthplace of Queens, New York, to shoot his next project in the neighborhood of Astoria. The director was born in the borough in 1942, and now he would capture some of its streets on film, albeit disguising them as those of East New York, Brooklyn, circa 1955. Over what was likely just a few production days of the May-August 1989 shoot, Astoria and its surrounding areas served as the backdrop for a number of scenes in the flashback first act of Scorsese’s mafia movie Goodfellas.

Through its six Academy Award nominations (1 win), preservation in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, and constant airings on cable networks, Goodfellas came to be regarded as one of the greatest films of all time after its release in September 1990, quietly immortalizing the streets of Astoria in the process. Of course, nothing remains unchanged for too long in New York City, and in reality, many of these locations have met their end or otherwise been made unrecognizable. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Goodfellas’ filming, I revisited its known Astoria locations — and tracked down some others that remained unknown — to see what has changed and what has managed to survive over the past three decades.