No, there's still plenty of old stuff there, and the newer buildings are mainly on lesser used side streets. And storefronts are easily enough altered for scenes. Astoria was picked because it was the closest they could find resembling some of the streets.
The reason was - now get this for a dollop of stupidity - Arthur Avenue (formally Belmont to non locals) restaurants and various merchants (there's tons of bakeries and butchers and other such businesses) were concerned about shooting interfering with business, interefering with traffic, pedestrians, deliveries, etc.
I mean, goodness, it does function as a loving tribute to a golden era in a much changed neighborhood, and there's plenty of tourists already going there, so this would just be more publicity. Sheesh, Astoria survived filming, why couldn't it?
Idiots, they're friggin idiots.
I miss muh 10458,,,