It has been awhile since I have written to all of you, but I am still around and keeping an eye on my community of Jamaica.
You folks need to really start to do something about this garbage problem here in Jamaica. You need to really enforce littering laws for businesses and individuals. You need to really crack down on property owners of vacant lots and slum lord buildings. It seems that Jamaica has such poor leadership and political figures (past and present) who are either corrupt (former Senator Shirley Huntley), lazy (Assemblymember Vivian Cook) or plain useless as Queens Borough "piece of shit" Helen Marshall, who has practically sold out Queens like some cheap crack whore to the highest bidder. Some of you other Rogue Gallery politicians seem to be just plain lazy and not give a shit. I see that Senator Malcolm Smith is going to have a couple of town hall meeting (which I attended one last year), but they just seem to be a great photo opportunity, saying things that sound good to the people but actually not accomplishing anything and not addressing or solving our problems. As far as local politicians who have actually reached out to me and help me with the garbage problem have been Assemblymember Rory Lancman and Councilman James Gennaro and they are not even in my district. I do have to say that Laurel Brown from the Jamaica Bid has done an excellent job in improving the downtown area, especially as far as garbage/litter.
Sorry but I don't have much faith for pretty much the rest of you jokers. Why you have all let Jamaica for decades go down the drain is beyond me. This community can be such a great place to live but not with all the bullshit that is going on. For example the brick road area on 164th Street with all the shops there are just plain shit. One ghetto crap place after another with junk shops and beauty supplies stores thrown into the mix. If this street was anywhere else, this would be a very hip place with outdoor cafes/restaurant, boutique shops, etc. As it stands it is just a mishmosh of shit, it does not even have a African-American flair. What a waste. So why is nothing being done to change that or are you all happy attracting low class ghetto people and low class 3rd world immigrants who add to the garbage problem and bring NOTHING to the table. Don't believe me take a look at the stretch of Hillside Avenue between 168th Street and 171st Street, one big filthy third world piece of shit.
As far as garbage below are places that I have been complaining about for a couple of years that are still not being taken care of (pictures are attached):
1. 170-19 89th Avenue (Empty Lot): There is always garbage piled in the front of it and on the sidewalk as well as the wooden fence has been falling apart for some time. Of course the owner bought the property a few years ago, torn down the house there and has done nothing with it and does not take care of it.
2. 168-07 89th Avenue (apartment building): I have been complaining about this notorious slum lord building for a couple of years. They always have overflowing garbage cans without lids on the sidewalk, garbage all over the place. I have seen live rats and dead rats all over there. I just recently reported this for the 100th time to Sanitation and this was their response:
Request #: 2013WB5254405
168-07 89 AVENUE
The Department of Sanitation investigated this complaint and found no violation at the location.
Really, because the photos I took say another story.
3. 88-24 170th Ave (house with junk car with no license, no tires on a slanted driveway. I have reported this a few times and NOTHING.I noticed on Hillside Avenue going west of Sutphin where there are a lot of empty car places, another big metal part of a gate was just lying all over the sidewalk. Who knows how long this has been. I rarely go in that area but was driving by the other day and saw it.
So what are you all doing to do about this???????????????
Joe Moretti
41 comments:
It's the people that are the problem.
You can spend all the city money you want trying to clean this rats nest up, but the people will continue to trash it. Why should they care, they have no skin in the game.
It's not the garbage,it's the people.
We need to have a protest rally on the steps of Boro Hall
Yes, we are all aware that the people are the culprits for the garbage/litter problem. But if the politicians and city agencies do not address the issue and enforce littering/illegal dumping laws then the people will continue to do what they do. When you start fining individuals and property owners (especially property owners) and making them responsible for their actions, then they might think before littering or not taking care of their properties. So yes the people are to blame for their actions but the politicians and city agencies are to blame for their lack of action. There has to be a no tolerance agenda for this issue, otherwise it will continue again and again.
Maspeth Mom says..
Who made Jamaica junky?
Its the people who live there...just like my neighbors who throw their dirty, germy cigarette butts into my yard...LOWLIFES!!!!!!
You would think our electeds would make an effort to clean up Sutphin around the LIRR station. IT'S DISGUSTING and seedier than the streets of Watts during the riots!
CLEAN UP JAMAICA!
Let's encourage ghetto tourism in Jamaica.
It's an opportunity for mild mid westerners to free their stodgy spirits and "get down"!
The Lake Wobegoners will never be the same.
Once you're "Black" you can never go back!
There have been MANY rallies at boro hall for all sorts of things...resulting in ZILCH!
That poster is right...IT'S THE PEOPLE who are responsible for this....crapping all over their own nabe!
Ghetto begets more ghetto!
You're not wasting my tax dollars to teach these "people" some manners!
Let them live in their own filth.
No one is saying to use your tax dollars to teach these "people" some manners. What I am saying is to enforce the littering laws for both individuals and property owners who litter and do not take care of their properties. They get fined enough, they will think next time. Only when the consequences out weigh the people's actions, will behavior stop. I am saying enforce the laws that are already in place and the local politicians need to be more active about cleaning up the community, which they have not. Between sanitation and all of the police officers that patrol Jamaica, it can be done.
Uh....time to move Joe...this nabe has been written off!
Too many "bros" and not enough "pros" living there.
WTF is the Greater Jamaica Development Corp. doing about it?
It seems to me that they've been trying to "rescue, develop, improve" the area for more than 3 decades.
Where are the lasting results?
BTW, what does the executive director (and staff) draw in salaries for their incompetence?
Maybe 1/4 of these "people" are on welfare?
Go and fine them and see what you get.
"Enforcement" never happens
in "working class, have-not or ghetto", nabes.
That's reserved for the "good" Queens nabes, where if you put out your garbage too early you get fined.
Do you see this kind of shit happening in Jamaica Estates...the "good" part of Jamaica?
Absolutely not! It's civilized there.
Somebody in government has instructed DOS to (quietly) "fughettaboutit" south of the border of Hillside Ave.
If property owners can take responsibility for their sidewalks and lots and the conditions improve, I think that it is less likely that people will continue to litter. The people who litter have no affection for their own neighborhood and when they see other litter on the ground, they follow suit. It becomes second nature.
People have to be caught in the act to be ticketed by sanitation (assuming a sanitation worker is even around and does their job properly). So the best way is, as Joe said, to go after the property owners. Of course it is not fair that a property owner would have to pick up after other people's litter, but then who else will do it?
I don't think the neighborhood is so far gone that change can occur, even if it is little by little. Couldn't the elected officials at least start an awareness campaign or mail letters to the citizenry with firm language about penalties?
The car is a Nissan 240sx and is worth money. The home owner might be restoring it. What's wrong with keeping it on private property ?
Everyone can't afford a new "Mommy" gas guzzling suv like the rich people have in my nabe North Flushing.
What's wrong with it is that its a zoning violation to keep a car with no plates or tires on your residential property. It's known as dead storage.
"So what are you all going to do about this???????????????"
___________________________________
Here's what "they" are going to do about this: "they" will all appear in the audience of Colden Auditorium at Queens College this Tuesday, January 22, when Helen Marshall babbles her annual "dog and pony" show (aka "The State of the Borough" address"). "They" will all sit in the audience oohing and aahing at the photos she projects up on the screen on the stage. Photos which tell the Eloi that Queens is Heaven on Earth. "They" will applaud her babble, written by Borough Hall staffers, even though she can hardly pronounce half the words that gurgle out of her mouth. (BTW, a fun activity is to write down on the program all the words and phrases that she flubs. A special prize this year for the audience member who comes up with the most flubs: a free trip to Green-Wood Cemetery.) Of course, Joe, she will not project on the screen these photos of yours we see here on the Crapper's site. The wonders of living in one Queens neighborhood after the other will be projected on the screen including . . . Jamaica! Hey, you wanna have some fun, Joe? And any one else? Here's a free "cordial" invite for you to attend:
Free Dog and Pony Show tix. Helen Marshall's Swan Song.
Joe - everybody - dont miss it: Tuesday 10AM, Colden Auditorium, Queens College. Free Parking
A Hoot and a Holler. Especially when she poses with her taxpayer-funded $80,000.00/year photographer telling her where to stand. You haven't lived if you've never attended.
Can't attend @ 10AM because I'm lucky enough to have a job and have to report to work. Why isn't the "Queens State Of The Union" held at night so the working class can attend ?
Maybe have it on the weekend ?
Just my 2 cents...
Oh please come to the Chinese shanty town ghettos in Flushing; It makes those images of Jamaica look like Disneyland.
Anonymous said...
Uh....time to move Joe...this nabe has been written off!
funny, they talk like that in vallonia when someone complains on astorians.com
pretty cool = midwestern bumpkins telling astorians what they can and cannot say about their community.
Holding it at night, on the weekend?
Having the "rabble" sit amongst the "elite"? Are you nuts? Then you would know what "they" are up to.
In my 33 years in NYC, I've lived, worked, commuted and went to school in Jamaica and the surrounding areas.
Simply put, many people that live there have no respect and always expect "someone else" or the "city" to take care of every little itty bitty problem. The common excuse is "mind your own", "I ain't livin here", "I dont own no property" etc.
Who the hell would welcome these people into their neighborhood? I've lived in many poor neighborhoods and the people that live there sure as hell don't own the property. Yet they clean and try to maintain the area as best as they can. They respect each other and do their part for the greater good.
In the end, it's about your own self and respect and not about what others are doing.
I agree, Flushing today looks worst than those pics of Jamaica.
The pics of all the litter reminds me of the way all of N.Y.C. looked in the 1970's but Flushing today looks like our not too distant dark future. One big overcrowded slum...
Some of you who post are amazing with your comments: "time to move", Jamaica is a lost cause" or "Flushing is worse". First this is not a contest of who has the worst area, this is a post about my community of Jamaica and even though it is "not as bad as Flushing" does not mean what is going on is acceptable. Second, for those who hide behind Anonymous and just bitch, do some of you actually take any kind of action, whether it be contacting your officials or city agencies (and not just once), attending community board meetings, getting involved in your community, reporting wrongs when you see it or just picking up a piece of litter when you see it and throwing it in a garbage can. Yes, you can make a difference if you persevere, even though it may be a slow process. I have been fighting for a long time to have Major Mark Park on Hillside Avenue and 175th cleaned up of the trash and the homeless that have squatted there. Well now the park is clean. The city cleans it every day, the police have moved the homeless out and there is a police presence there to check it out. So yes you can make a difference, but you must take an interest and be pro-active and let your voice be heard many times and loud. Recently in Jamaica we have gotten a very clean and non-ghetto gym, Blink, on Jamaica Avenue, some recently new nice sit down restaurants with great service: Nu Urban Cafe (great food, atmosphere and service with a jazz night and R&B night)on Linden Blvd/Farmers, A Plate of Soul on Merrick, Rocoto Restaurant (amazing Peruvian/Italian/American food, very nice owner and a great date place) on Hillside/178th, P.P. Boy (Jamaica's 1st Sushi Restaurant - very casual) on 161 St and don't forget some longer running places such as Sangria's Spanish & Portuguese Tapas Bar & Restaurant (amazing sangria) on Sutphin, O'Lavrador (another Portuguese & Spanish Restaurant) on 101st Ave/138th and the amazing vegetarian Restaurant Anna Brahma on 164th/84th. All have great food and service, nice atmosphere/clean and cater to a more upscale non-ghetto crowd. So yes change can happen, but you have to make an effort and do something besides just bitching and doing nothing. Everything is not as hopeless as you think, only if you play the victim and do absolutely nothing. Change starts with YOU.
Joe Moretti,
Please contact me. I want to help.
jon AT triumphofcivicvirtue DOT org
# 3 - Unregistered, unlicensed vehicle is a DOB complaint.
F.Y.I. Posting anonymous doesn't make me less civic minded than you Joe Moretti. I know what I have done to make my nabe a better place. I don't need to toot my own horn here to impress anyone.
what is giving out a ticket going do to? Most of the animals down there hopped a fence to get here, so a ticket for littering means little, especially when they have a fake name and no docs.
Flushing is indeed crappy looking.
Jamaica is far worse. It's crappy AND dangerous.
You don't get
drive by hip-hop culture shootings in Chinatown-Flushing.
Joe
Hate to say this but Queens people will not lift a finger to help you. They will bitch and complain (even drones have some vague knowledge of self respect) but if you stand up you will simple disturb the torpor that characterizes this boro.
Look at it this way: where else would you find the 2nd and 3rd stringers in this position of power and authority. They are the once responsible for this. Everyone time a pol walks into a room self respect flies out the door and the bowing and scraping begins that would embarrass the Sun King.
When you are the offspring of the world's peasant stock, you know little of civic virtue or what to expect of government. Any family will always have a few that will make something out of themselves, while the rest stay back in their miserable villages. This, my friend, is increasingly Queens.
For generations people have tried to reform things, and have gotten nowhere. The boro look good for a while when it got developed with new buildings, but soon slipped back in the cesspool of corruption and the lowest common denominator that made it a laughing stock for generations.
The future is bleak. It is fated to become one large ghetto filled with the ugliest architecture outside of the 3rd world, and a seething peasantry that only cares about bread and circus and would cut the throat of anyone for a handful of change.
The LIC waterfront tells us the ultimate fate of the borough: it will be swept away by Manhattan East.
Queens will become one large urban renewal project and will have as much remaining as ancient Rome.
Wow, all this just blocks from the $40 million child learning center at the Library.
The library board of developers certainly know which community to park cash.
today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Just sayin'
And what's with that shuttle bus to the casino??
The people boarding it look like they don't have two nickels to rub together! Another part of Jamaicas downfall ....EXPLOITATION.
Come to Jamaica. Known for:
1. The Social Security-Is-Going-Broke Building.
2. Stylish "athletic" footware brought to you by the Sneaker Pimp "boutique".
3, "Let's settle this outside" instant justice. And now
4. Easy, convenient transportation for "gaming" afficionados.
Uh buddy,
there are no "midwestern bumpkins" in Jamaica like there might be in Astoria.
It's a different location, with very different problems.
And nobody is criticizing anyone's right to say what they want about the ills of their community.
I'm only saying that "money talks and bullshit walks".
That's the way politicians generally look at community activists who can't back up their words with money or voting power.
So how would you personally change this lousy system?
If it can't be changed you have a choice between sticking it out surrounded by crap, or moving.
If you choose to rail against corruption, then you've got to learn to work real smart.
Poor Jamaica Estates!
The stigma of being associated with Jamaica must give its residents indigestion.
The same goes for Broadway-Flushing.
Being associated with downtown Flushing causes its residents heartache.
As the late Bette Davis had said, "WHAT A DUMP"!
True dat!
Mention either Jamaica or Flushing, and people will assume that you live in a nabe that's surrounded by shit.
And they're absolutely right!
Pass me my bottle of "Absolut", please. I need a lift.
Get the highly paid NYC Public Advocate Bill Bilasio to get out to Jamaice and start fighting for the public.... That's his job
Perhaps he can get the ball rolling??
I have actually met with Public Advocate Bill Bilasio's office and then someone from his office came out and I took them on a tour and they took photos, but then Sandy came along and I have not heard much from them. But at least it was a start.
WOW...how impressive!
Di Blasio conducted an inspection...a dog and pony show...complete with taking pictures.
I'll bet his photographer deleted them from the camera after the tour was over.
He's running for mayor, Joe.
But, BRAVO...keep on squeezing his balls until he cries, "Uncle", and actually does something.
That's the only way you can ever get a politician to do anything for you.
You've started the process. Keep the heat on!
The rest of you apathetic, pathetic,, Queens cowards should grill your pols like Ball Park Franks until they pop. Only then would you see some results.
These bastards work for you. Never forget that!
You are the boss, so stop kissing their runny bums!
Joe,
I'm interested in helping. Please contact me at atraff@yahoo.com.
Thank you.
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