Karina Hurtado-Ocampo, 26, born and raised in Jackson Heights, remembers getting out of the subway station at 74th Street in Queens and seeing the long lines, at the two taco carts, that would continue far down Roosevelt Avenue.
The abundance of street food was characteristic of the neighborhood, and many knew the vendors by name.
It’s a working-class, 24-hour neighborhood, Hurtado-Ocampo explained, and the residents could buy from the vendors no matter when they got home from work.
Now the vendors have been replaced by a pizza chain store. It’s just one piece of the rapidly changing neighborhood, but it prompted Hurtado-Ocampo to start taking photographs, to document her home and community lest it be lost forever.
“You grew up in the space, and all of a sudden the memories that were once there and the physical reminder of those memories are no longer there,” said Hurtado-Ocampo at the opening of Right to Remain, an exhibition of photos taken by people documenting their own communities across various neighborhoods.
The photos are on display Oct. 5–19 from Wednesdays to Sundays, 1 p.m.-7 p.m. at 11-27 44th Road in Long Island City, Queens.
Communities across the country are fighting to remain in the neighborhoods they helped create, and in New York City it will be a test of the de Blasio administration’s commitment to community-oriented development.
15 comments:
I remember my Flatbush/ Pigtown neighborhood of the early 60's mostly white,crime free ,well maintained homes and mostly stable families. Very little crime and everyone knew everyone. That changed in the late 60's with blockbusting.
I remember a charming little downtown shopping area called Main St. Flushing.
It's laughable that some Latina is bemoaning the fact that her shithole Third World neighborhood is changing given that the "Vibrant and Diverse" have destroyed so many once-beautiful middle-class communities!
When you are a chronic renter, there is no right to remain.
Im telling you from experience that Flatbush and Main Street looked like shit in the 60s and 70s.
Maybe your white comfort zone is what you miss? Theres plenty of those in Kentucky
Ah shucks.
Perhaps if many of the residents were here LEGALLY they could get a real job and buy a real home and then complain about the crap they see on the main thoroughfares instead of lamenting its passing.
This is America. Get used to it.
Sounds like a lecture, exhibit, or forum on this should happen somewhere in the borough.
How about at the Steinway Mansion? Costa wants to make it a community place.
Of course his idea is to use it as a backdrop for a John Liu Fundraiser.
right to remain? shit. most of them in that area dont even have the right to be here in the first place.
I remember 1950. I want the Jackson Heights way-back machine set to that year, please.
"When you are a chronic renter, there is no right to remain."
When a house costs $600,000 and up in western Queens only those with an income of $150,000 and up can afford to buy or the chinese.
"When a house costs $600,000 and up in western Queens..."
Not too long ago brothers and sisters, parents and children used to purchase two family homes together. It worked then, why not now? Or are we as a society above pooling our resources to advance?
That's how many Asians do it.
I have no pity for her "lost memories."
neighborhoods that don't change stagnate. Change is always hard... the old time residents complain...the new residents move in because they like the neighborhood, and don't (usually) intentionally change it.. but things happen. The tenaments i grew up in, became slummy, and then, changed again and got rehabbed, and are nicer now than when i lived in them...good goes bad, and then someone sees beyond the bad, and buy and upgrades and makes good again. this is how it is in cities.
Flatbush did suck in the 70's,most of the white folk were forced out. Seems that trend is reversing.
"Not too long ago brothers and sisters, parents and children used to purchase two family homes together. It worked then, why not now? Or are we as a society above pooling our resources to advance?
That's how many Asians do it."
A two family home will now cost $700,000 to $1,000,000+. So it would take 4 working adults to pool their money together for the $5,000 to $8,000 a month mortgage. Lets not forget the $100,000 to 200,000 down payment. As for the chinese, they just illegally convert and collect repulsive amounts of rent. The reality is a single person in NYC does not begin to reach "middle class" unless they TAKE HOME 80,000 per year. What would say a family of four need to start to become "middle class", 150,000+. Who with that kind of money wants to buy into border line slums and send their children to a public school with achor babies and homeless shelter kids.
What makes the most recent ethnic group to reside in a neighborhood so entitled to "remain" there? Talk to the Lenapes, Dutch, English, Germans, Jews, Italians, blacks, and Puerto Ricans before you start bitching about having a right to remain.
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