Sunday, January 14, 2007

Fighting the Jamaica Plan

City Planning is dragging their feet downzoning parts of Queens while the upzoning of certain areas, such as Jamaica and Dutch Kills, is taking priority. Gotta shove 'em all into somewhere...why not Queens?

Jamaica Estates Fights Hillside Ave. Rezoning

"Audience members also questioned the absence of community facilities in the plans such as hospitals, sewer treatment plants and parks."

Hey now don't you people go worrying about that. After all, what's the worst that could happen? Astoria survived the blackout, didn't they? And that wasn't caused by too many buildings...it was weather eroded wires. :::wink:::

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can what I've been hearing about Jamaica be true? That there was some stupid ill- thought -out plan to up the density along Hillside Ave. and lining it with structures of innapropriate height? Did somebody say up to 6 stories tall? I must have gotten it wrong! Can anyone clarify this? And all on top of that hideous redux of the old court house on Sutphin Blvd. fiasco that Beep Marshall is in favor of!

Anonymous said...

Is it not funny (or sad) that the areas that are targeted for the greatest density in Queens are places that have a large population of people of color and or working class people.

The entire borough should share in the burden equally. Every neighborhood should share in the pain.

Anonymous said...

Hey, they are going to have fun going to work in the city. The E train is already overcrowded.

How many people from city planning ride the E train?

Anonymous said...

Actually, that is not true, City Planning did get downzoning for elite areas, where many of the pols and their favored minions live.

Sort of like landmark designation back in the 70s. Once the elite made it past the bar, the canon is closed.

Anonymous said...

There's nothing new about gentrification and prejudice. In the old days (1950s) people fled Brooklyn and the Bronx to "escape" neighborhoods where low income projects to house "colored people" were being built. I believe they still call this "white flight"! At that time, everybody moved to Weschester or Long Island (let's just politely say) to find a better life. Now that these "burbs" are taxing folks out of their homes, everybody seems to want to come back to NYC. It's far better to pay $2,500 in NYC versus $9,000 in real estate taxes in the suburbs, isn't it? So, now there's a land rush here and developers are looking to squeeze in as many housing units that they can fit onto one building lot! Since there aren't many of those undeveloped lots available, they tear down older structures on large building lots. Then, when they run out of sites in "the better neighborhoods" for their tear-downs, they come to the "ghettos" in search of new oportunities and properties to develop. Hence, they're currently looking at Jamaica as a new source to 'Strip-mine" for real estate gold! And where will all of the "poorer folk" ("people of color") go? Remember the phrase, "Urban renewal....Black removal!"? You guessed it! Pushed out to the (now) unwanted housing in Nassau County etc. that former owners are selling (at cheap prices 'cause nobody wants 'em) to come back to NYC. The 60 year cycle is now complete! What rampant and vicious racism lies behind all of the overdevelopment that's going on in Queens! So Ms. Beep, you various politicos and, oh and let's not forget, you greedy developers, stop insulting our intelligence by promising us "affordable housing". There's an old saying, "If your not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"! I don't see any "affordable housing " on the horizon....do you? Only a bunch of double-talking thugs eager to add to their good life at your expense!

Anonymous said...

People should really check out the hideous and illegal McMansions being built in Jamaica Estates, with no one fighting against it. Seems that the so-called "Association" actually likes the idea. Shows that people are spending "money" to live in that great area! It doesn't matter that grassy areas and trees have been replaced with concrete and pavers, causing flooding to adjacent homes, that neighbors' properties have been impinged on by these homes, with no one stopping it, that the size and scope of these homes has been given blessings by the NYC Dept. of Building, when they know they are totally illegal. With all the houses which have been torn down (it's an epidemic), being replaced with oversized, illegal homes, you would think Jamaica Estates would have been interested in what's happening in their own backyard. They're worried about Hillside Avenue? Give me a break!

Anonymous said...

There were always 2 main kinds of Jamaica in the old days. Black -Jamaica (south of Hillside Ave.) and Jewish-Jamaica (to the North particularly in "The Estates") where the better-off aspired to live. The latter paid no attention to the former, (probably hoping to avoid them) and thought that their "enclave" was immune and well protected from any "intrusion". They lived in a private world segregated from reality! Then bad taste" moved into their midst and ruined their 'hood". This is the price often paid for smugness, isolation and caring only about "your spot". Payback is a bitch!.

Anonymous said...

Wrong. In the "Old Days", the days of Fred Trump Senior, there WAS no "Jewish" Jamaica north of Hillside Avenue. The neighborhood was just about exclusively non-Jewish. For many decades, residents in Jamaica Estates have not felt they were safe. living in a secluded enclave. For as long as most residents can remember, there have been burglaries, muggings, car thefts, etc. And FYI, Jamaica Estates has received NO favors in return for the proposed Jamaica Plan going through. As a matter of fact, a portion of the Estates has been zoned R-5 for decades, and more recently, developers have taken advantage of that fact to buy up one family homes and build multiple family dwellings, most of them even worse than the McMansions.