Will Michael Carfagna ever transform Jackson Heights into the Park Slope of Queens?"It's going to take someone with deep pockets and with a vision," he said. "And if you find them, put them in touch with me."
Mr. Carfagna, perhaps best known for designing the "Billy Burg, Meet Jack Heights" and "More Park, Less Slope" bus shelter ads that ran in Williamsburg and Park Slope, respectively, aims to close the price gap between the trendy areas of Brooklyn and the Queens neighborhood he's called home since 1985.
The Broker Who Would Make Jackson Heights The Next Park Slope
The low prices are almost as much a deterrent for new buyers as the lack of awareness, he explained. Often Mr. Carfagna's clients assume there is something wrong with his properties – "How can it be so inexpensive?" they ask – or they're wary of making an investment. When residents want to sell, "no one's showing them the money," he said.
Still, the area's first Starbucks opened this year, and Mr. Carfagna is optimistic. He has plans for more ads in Washington Heights and Inwood; he might even have a real live Jack Heights show up at neighborhood events.
So this guy wants to take an area that right now is affordable to people of all stripes and turn it into a white yuppie paradise. This is the typical racist gentrification scheme that has been encouraged by the Bloomberg administration, who is at war with everyone who makes less than a mint.
6 comments:
well wade?
These greedy assholes are making me absolutely sick!Jackson Heights has long been a bastion of affordable housing for immigrants (The Indians, the Colombians, the Dominicans, and now the Mexicans). It has been the first stop in this city (in this country,for that matter) for the aforementioned groups. To turn it into Park Slope/Williamsburg is reprehensible and appalling. Don't expect us to take this lying down!
These greedy assholes are making me absolutely sick!Jackson Heights has long been a bastion of affordable housing for immigrants (The Indians, the Colombians, the Dominicans, and now the Mexicans). It has been the first stop in this city (in this country,for that matter) for the aforementioned groups.
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Wow, we should have had you in the 60s when the area went from solidly middle class and started to slip into immigrant slum.
The point is just because an area has a character in your lifetime does not mean that it was the same character before you were born, or the same after you are gone.
There are more dimensions to a neighborhood then making it a tweeder paradise (read immigrant slum or a disfunctional community full of clubhouse target groups which are encourage to move there through a careful marketing campaing (hello Terri!)).
Indeed, as in the case of Queens, if it is stuck with that, no one will want to live there ultimately including (gasp) the tweeded.
Isn't a yuppie mecca what they had in mind when JH received municipal landmark status?
The more vibrant and colorful folk can be found south of Roosevelt Avenue and north of 82nd Street!
Yeah, share the bed bug love!
Excuse me, Christian, but Ummm, Jackson Heights has provided affordable housing to all people regardless of race or ethnicity. I remember growing up and seeing middle income city dwellers have apts in the neighborhood. As a matter of fact, JH used to be predominately Jewish, Elmhurst was predemominately American,Irish and/or European descent. So as far as I'm concerned the issue is that it should continue being affordable. Thats all...
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