While riding my bike Sunday morning, I encountered several garbage strewn places (many illegal dumping and most of the spots have been reported numerous times).
Take a good look at our community:
1. Our Post Office (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) at the corner of 164th St & 89th Ave.
2. Post Office Parking Lot at 164th St & 89th Ave. This has been piling up since last week and I wondered how long it would stay like that.
3. Lot next to 170-18 Liberty St, or as I like to call that block, “Ghetto Row”.
4. What appears to be an empty house at 103-24 171st St.
5. The next two photos are a house at 104-11 171st St that I have reported several times.
6. The next three photos are an empty half built building next to Mike’s Towing at 115-45 Merrick Blvd right across the street from the Northeastern Conference of Seventh Day Adventists Administration Building and a few blocks from the beautiful Roy Wilkins Park. It is obvious this has been an illegal dumping ground for a long time and obvious nothing has been done about this.
7. And here again is the notorious empty James Fobb house at 107-58 108th Ave, which has been reported for two years now.
8. The bus stop at Merrick Blvd & 108th Ave, a major spot for dropping off household garbage.
9. Over flowing garbage cans at SE corner of Jamaica Ave & 170th St. A constant problem.
10. The SW corner of Jamaica Ave & 170th St.
Now does anyone reading this think that this is totally acceptable? Would any of this be acceptable in a majority white area? So why is this acceptable in a community of people of color? Is it that people of color do not deserve to live in a nice area, is that it, but white people are.
Again this is a combination of some of the majorly low class ghetto people we have in our community, a major lack of enforcement by DOS, poor leadership from our top officials down to our community boards and upstanding citizens of our community either ignoring this, thinking this is the norm or not doing something as small as reporting these places to 311 and calling your local officials.
Yesterday, I was at a screening of the film: Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes put together by Art, Food & Soul and presented at the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning. Afterwards I talked to several of the people in attendance, many young and open-minded artists in our community who want a better Jamaica and they talked about the conditions of our community and what it looks like and they were not happy about it at all.
And this is why the perception of Jamaica is the way it is. The perception is REALITY!
So why is NOTHING being done about this? Why I am constantly reporting on these conditions, many that are the same areas over and over again?
Joe Moretti
Jamaica, NY 11432
15 comments:
Thanks Joe for exposing The Real Jamaica.
I was by the Jamica LIRR station last week and could not believe how run down and disgusting that area still is.
And it's not just the trash and cheap storefronts , it's the filthy people walking around asking for money, drunk and drugged, cursing, etc
What's with the new "shopping mall" under the LIRR overpass? Who was the brainless idiot who thought of that?
More money wasted on a neighborhood with no direction or control...
Jamaica's decline started in the mid-sixties, and it has been a war zone/shit hole ever since. The poor will always be with us, and they will always live somewhere, and those places will always look like Jamaica. I say this having traveled the country and seen "Jamaicas" all across it.
Jamaica's decline started in the mid-sixties, and it has been a war zone/shit hole ever since. The poor will always be with us, and they will always live somewhere, and those places will always look like Jamaica. I say this having traveled the country and seen "Jamaicas" all across it.
YES TRUE, BUT I REMEMBER WHEN MIDTOWN LOOKED LIKE JAMAICA, AND THE EAST VILLAGE, AND PARK SLOPE AND QUEENS LOOKED LIKE THOSE PLACES DO TODAY.
THE DIFFERENCE IS LEADERSHIP. THE HACKS DO NOT HAVE THE LIFE AND DEATH CHOKE HOLD ON THE REST OF THE CITY THE WAY THEY DO ON QUEENS.
WHEN WE GROW A SET OF BIG ONES WE CAN TOSS THEM OFF OUR BACKS AND FORCE THEM TO DO THEIR JOB.
THEY WORK FOR US!
if you are sick of the garbage then move. jamaica is a dump. the residents there dont care. stop blaming the leaders.
Anonymous said...
if you are sick of the garbage then move. jamaica is a dump. the residents there dont care. stop blaming the leaders.
IT IS A LOT EASIER TO PULL THE LEVER THAT SAYS 'REPUBLICAN' THAN TO MOVE.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
if you are sick of the garbage then move. jamaica is a dump. the residents there dont care. stop blaming the leaders.
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A very typical does not solve anything answer (your thinking is why things are the way they are).
Yes, people cause such conditions, but if leaders, elected officials and the city does nothing to stop this, then it continues. So yes some of the residents and others caused it, but it is up to leadership to see that it gets taken care of and does not happen. So the leaders are definitely to blame 100%. Actions must have certain consequences and if there are no consequences set, then you not only have chaos, but behavior continues over and over again.
Wow, you sound like you are Jamaica elected official or work in one of their offices, trying not to be held accountable.
Some of you are a bunch of whiny do nothing type of people.
The poor will always be with us, and they will always live somewhere, and those places will always look like Jamaica.
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Its not about poor. Poor is an excuse. Like you said, poor has always been with us. Poor was never this dirty though.
You can be poor and still know how to use a trash can and how to wash yourself.
Jamaica looks like this because savages live there, not because there are poor people.
What I see in many of those overflowing public gargage receptacles is bags of household garbage. When you live in an illegal conversion, often part of the deal is that you have use public garbage cans, so you don't draw attention to the landlord.
what is up with those weeds?
am probably getting lyme disease from them. good place for rats to roam free.
Keep up the good work Joe.
Maybe it's time for Joe to start organizing a cleanup of the area. Showing photos of the problem doesn't solve the problem. Taking action solves the problem, and if Joe loves Jamaica so much, he should take the initiative, get a few friends together on a Saturday or Sunday morning, and start cleaning the places up.
Anonymous said...
Maybe it's time for Joe to start organizing a cleanup of the area. Showing photos of the problem doesn't solve the problem. Taking action solves the problem, and if Joe loves Jamaica so much, he should take the initiative, get a few friends together on a Saturday or Sunday morning, and start cleaning the places up.
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For you information all of the the photos I take are sent to DOS, the Health Department, elected officials and other city leaders, plus a complaint is filed with 311 and DOS as well.
I have a blog where I report on issues with Jamaica, held a protest with media coverage and do my fair share of cleaning up, especially right where I live. BUT it is not my job nor do I have the time to clean up after people, especially when it comes to vacant lots, apartment buildings and private properties, that is where the city needs to issue fines and enforce laws.
So I just do not "show photos" as you suggested, there is a lot of time and effort involved. So know the story before you spout off.
For you information all of the the photos I take are sent to DOS, the Health Department, elected officials and other city leaders, plus a complaint is filed with 311 and DOS as well.
I have a blog where I report on issues with Jamaica, held a protest with media coverage and do my fair share of cleaning up, especially right where I live. BUT it is not my job nor do I have the time to clean up after people, especially when it comes to vacant lots, apartment buildings and private properties, that is where the city needs to issue fines and enforce laws.
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If you're actually waiting for somebody else in government to take care of the problem, you are wasting your time. In many instances in this city, filing complaints is just not enough to make the problem go away. You have to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself. It's a sad but true reality.
There are plenty of people in other communities around this borough who are just as frustrated and angry with trash in their neighborhood—and they don't wait for someone else to take care of the problem for them. They complain, as is their right to do, and then they organize, devote time and resources and get the job done.
Look at what the Juniper Park Civic does. Every month they get a bunch of people together and clean something up in their part of town. They send complaints to their elected officials just like you do, but they don't wait to take care of a problem in their community. They know better than to wait for the city to get around to do the job.
You are under no obligation to do any volunteering whatsoever, but if you are as passionate about your community as you say you are—if you are as frustrated with conditions being what they are—then you should find the time and find the people and help clean up your neighborhood!
Juniper civic does not trespass on private property to lean it up, as you're suggesting Joe do.
Joe already said he cleans up from time to time. But he does not own a waste hauling company.
Furthermore, the people who can best organize clean ups are the electeds. They know who to contact at each agency and can more easily get the word out to people who want to pitch in. I get literally dozens of unsolicited press releases from them daily. When I get an announcement that a cleanup has been organized by one of them, I'll post it. So far it's all fluff.
Fir now, stop telling people who are actually trying to do something about the problem that they should be doing more. No, YOUR ELECTEDS SHOULD BE DOING MORE.
Jamaica needs hipsters, they bring money and gentrification. City Rib is the start, open a Starbucks on the other end and convert some warehouses to lofts. Gold.
Jamaica's decline started when Sam Newhouse moved his ABC news service out from above the butcher shop
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