Tuesday, July 7, 2009

"Jack Heights" making a comeback


From the NY Times:

The bloggers deemed him “a pregnant Mr. Peanut” and the whole business was quickly forgotten.

But Michael P. Carfagna, who created the character as a vehicle for MPC Properties, his Jackson Heights-based real estate brokerage firm, was not prepared to give up on a potentially profitable spokesman.

This summer, Jack Heights has re-emerged as the star of a neighborhood-themed comic strip, to appear on a locally distributed map of Jackson Heights businesses. He received a sprucing-up, courtesy of a local cartoonist. And plans call for tie-ins like T-shirts, hats and buttons.

“We may actually have a Jack Heights man running around,” Mr. Carfagna said in a recent interview, adding, “I’m the only one I know of who has a trademark in a neighborhood.”

The revamped Mr. Heights has grown cherubic cheeks, sprouted a bushy mustache, and gained a button nose and a skinny necktie. (Fingers, alas, are still AWOL.) He sports two-tone spats and cuffs on his sleeves. And he has a lot of nice things to say about his namesake neighborhood.

“We have some of the best food in New York City!” Mr. Heights exclaims in one panel. “We have gorgeous, prewar buildings with communal gardens. ... Oh, and we’re 12 minutes from Midtown Manhattan!”


That's stretching it just a bit. A mascot with scoliosis... hmmm.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bring back "Train Meadows" and throw him under it.

Anonymous said...

Yes, some of the buildings are beautiful over there, but a lot of it is pretty slummy. Try picking someone up at the 74th Street/Roosevelt Station. It's scary how many near accidents occur there due to the arrogance and ineptitude of the car service drivers. Also, the pedestrians pay no attention to the lights. And it reeks. You can keep it.

Sid? said...

Unfortunately, the area appears to be a lost cause . . . as the poster above indicated, however, the buildings are extremely nice

Anonymous said...

Scary looking for a mascot. They must really be getting desperate to push the neighborhood to the midwest boobs as the next up-and-coming Park Slope, Williamsburg or Long Island City.

Anonymous said...

and the neighborhood has Al Queda terrorists.
good place if you can speak Hindu, Urdu or Bengali and can deal with the anti American and sexist crap

Anonymous said...

I would imagine that every neighborhood has Al Qaeda terrorists these days, so let's not hold that against them. Hinduism generally isn't linked to Al Qaeda, but there are a number of fundamentalist Muslims living there as well.

But it is funny how we are told we must be accepting of other cultures, even when that culture is misogynistic and isolationist.

Anonymous said...

The people who are pushing Jackson Heights to the "Billy Burg" crowd, and bragging about the lower real estate prices are not doing so because they want to keep Jackson Heights prices lower. The greedy bastards are trying get Jackson Heights property prices on par with Williamsburg etc.

Anonymous said...

Interesting... my comments on this post keep getting deleted.

And all I'm trying to do is point out that Indians/Bangladeshis are not the same thing as Al Queda [sic] terrorists.

Does the censorship policy now apply even to facts and correction of misinformation?

Anonymous said...

The point was already made: "Hinduism generally isn't linked to Al Qaeda". So why do you need to say it again?

Anonymous said...

Because he's a troll.