EASY access to Manhattan is but one draw. In the same breath, most people mention food. Costco, the warehouse club, has opened in Astoria, but many local residents still prefer to buy their lamb chops at neighborhood butchers and handpick their produce out of vegetable stalls. And if kitchens are too small or work schedules too hectic, there is always some place to eat out or take out. ''My wife and I never eat in, maybe once every three or four months,'' said Daniel O'Shea, a doorman at Lincoln Towers on the Upper West Side. ''We eat very well.''

Astoria is a family-oriented place where three generations in Sunday best dine out after church and afternoon birthday parties feature Snow White costumes and pony rides up a leafy street. Schools, where new immigrants often make up more than 10 percent of the student body, have been overcrowded, but new construction has helped somewhat. Public School 234 and Intermediate School 235 (the Academy for New Americans) opened this fall on 29th Street.

Neighborhood public schools score higher than city averages on standardized tests. P.S. 85, the Judge Charles J. Vallone School, at 30-15 29th Street, for instance, had 70.7 percent of fourth graders passing language arts tests and 71.6 percent passing math. Astoria also has Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Islamic schools.

At the secondary level, the Frank Sinatra High School of the Performing Arts, promoted by Tony Bennett, who was born Anthony Benedetto in Queens, is temporarily housed in Long Island City until a multimillion facility can be built adjacent to the Kaufman-Astoria Studios.

Another plus residents often cite is security. ''I feel safe here,'' said Karen Imas, publication manager of the Council of State Governments eastern region, who moved to the neighborhood a year ago after growing up in Forest Hills. Statistics from the 114th Precinct confirm that crime reports so far this year are down 7.65 percent from last year and 65 percent from 10 years ago.

Not that Astoria is without problems. Noise and pollution from power plants are the top complaints received by City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., whose father served on the council before him and whose grandfather was the judge. The mayor kicked off a citywide noise reduction campaign, Project Silent Night, in Astoria Park last year. The governor has promised to replace the aging Charles Poletti Power Project on the northern end of the community by 2008.

Bounded by 34th Avenue, 49th Street, the East River and Bowery Bay, Astoria today is a renter's market, long on apartments but short on houses to buy. What co-op apartments are to be found in Astoria are usually one-bedrooms in converted rental buildings. One weekend this month, an open house for a post-war, two-family brick attached home for $449,000 was the only offering in the New York Times classifieds. It drew more than 60 shoppers despite a rainy Saturday.