Friday, February 16, 2007

The Jamaica Jinx

Wow. It seems as though the people of southeastern Queens aren't quite ready to accept the platter of crap that city planning is trying to feed them:

Community Reaction To Plan United: Change Is Needed, But Not This Much

Residents Urged To Stay In Jamaica Plan Loop

Photo from the Queens Chronicle

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Right on folks! Don't let them push a pile of crap in your faces and tell you it's a Godiva chocolate bar!

georgetheatheist said...

Godiva chocolate just doesn't taste the same to me anymore since I found out that it is corporately owned by Campbell Soup...'s true.

Anonymous said...

There is a radio announcer, Dave Ross, that has a great technique: when he hears something interesting, he repeats it really slowly with a comment of two. Lets try it!

If there is anything anyone can agree on, it is that developing the commercial sector of downtown Jamaica along Hillside and Jamaica Avenues is a beneficial move

Oh, and who is ‘anyone?’ Never met even ‘someone’ with that name. The word ‘developing’ is fairly loaded as the last time I was there, it looked pretty fully developed to me. Happened sometime around the 1880s or so. Besides, do the residents of the area think that city services are already adequate? Has anyone asked them if the city has enough slack that it can sustain additional strain on these services? Or what would happen to their services if resources are diverted to these new projects?

The current zoning plan from the Department of City Planning (DCP) is expected to generate 3,400 housing units, 9,300 jobs and nearly 3 million square feet of commercial space

And the plan includes an increase in [blank] school desks, [blank] subway trains, and [blank] hospitals, and [blank] sanitation … no? Well, it seems like no one can discuss this until the plan is finished, right?

“This will have a positive overall effect in the area,” Comrie said. “It will give an opportunity for community businesses to keep up with the rest of the city by allowing them to have greater density and ensuring that the Jamaica area is commercially viable.

Huh? What? Sorry, Larry, but Jamaica ‘keeping up with the rest of the city’ by ‘greater density’ is one of those things that sounds nice by makes no sense if repeated ssslllloowwwlllyy.

Graziano’s proposal attempted to neutralize the extreme effects of the DCP’s plan by highlighting the areas that need the growth and addressing those that cannot sustain it.

Graziano’s proposal is intended to “allow for new density but not overwhelm the community.”


I have to disagree. The downzoning of northeastern Queens is pushing development into other areas, like Jamaica.

Statistics show that northeast Queens consistently lags behind the rest of the borough in development and growth, so since 'some' development is good (whatever the hell that means), northeast Queens should share in the wealth, right?

As in Williamsburg, once the developers come into a community and get an zoning agreement, it becomes Swiss cheese with all the variances.

Anonymous said...

The subways are so crowded now that the people actually get on at Sutphin to take the train to Jamaica to get a seat to come back to the city.

Obviously none of the people behind this scheme take the subways.

We challenge them to do so and let everyone know about the 1000s more they are adding to the mix. Let's have some fun: bring along a reporter (and some cops for your own security)