From The Peopling of New York City
This is the data that I gathered using New York Times real estate ads: the points that I find relevant to our topic will be in bold. By the way, the abbreviations aren't mine, it's what the paper uses.
The two most important things, I think, from this data is the period from 1930 to the fiscal crisis during which Jackson Heights and Elmhurst were connected in the ads. They were separated after the city declared bankruptcy. Further, we see the development of selling Jackson Heights as a 'historic district' in the 80s (after fiscal crisis), with the rise of the phrase "offering by prospectus only" and the overtones of trying to appeal to a relatively higher class set of residents. It's important to note that ads from 2007 also emphasize the "historic district" of Jackson Heights quite strongly as well as "offering by prospectus only". Leora has the period from 1940-1960, by the way: it's not because I skip 4 & 5 when I count.
Jackson Heights Real Estate Ads
March 5th, 1902.
Recorded leases & mortgages, real estate transfers, boarders wanted, real estate wanted, furnished rooms, public notices. All categories West Side, East Side, Brooklyn, Bronx. No Jackson Heights. No Jackson Heights because it didn't exist yet.
September 16th, 1911
All categories West Side, East Side, Brooklyn, Bronx. No Jackson Heights. No Jackson Heights because it didn't exist yet.
January 16th, 1921
(with picture of aerial view of apts with garden) New apts with steam heated garages. Sunshine in every room, good environment, large rooms, enclosed porches, built-in garages. Your present rent will but an apt if you ware paying $100 a month… Visit Jackson Heights Today and become your own landlord. Social and business references required. 22 minutes from 42nd St.
October 1st, 1930
(Apts, Queens & Long Island, Unfurnished). Jackson Heights-Elmhurst. 2 rms, $50-55-50 with electrical refrigeration.
(Jackson Heights, Elmhurst Apts). Children’s playgrounds, incinerator, elevators. Block from Jackson Heights subway station, bus stops at corner. Granada Corp. A phone call to our office will bring a private car to your house and escort you direct to the apt.
May 5th, 1964
(Apt, Queens) 15 min Manh. BRAND NEW FURN APTS. ALL SIZES. NEAR WORLD’S FAIR. AIR CONDITIONED. BEAUT FURN. Short Leases to Suit your needs.
Jackson Heights-Elmhurt vicinity. Short term leases. $425 month or weekly rates.
March 1st, 1970
(Houses, Queens). To settle estate. Well located 2 family brick 2 modern kitchens. Full basement. Pvt driveway, garage. Walk to subway. Only $38,990. Walk to everything
December 1st, 1975
(Houses, Queens). Good location, 2nd mortgage available. Jay Realty.
6 lrge rms, full bsmnt, gar, $27,990. Lewis and Murphy.
Excellent terms, $37,000 Agent (phone #)
(Apartments) Free gas, modern elev bldg, air conditioned, garage on premise.
No fee studio $200, eat in kitchen, elev bldg, nr transp & shopping
June 16th, 1976
84-10 34th Ave. The Boswell. 1 Bedrm, 3rd Fl….$250 2 Bedrm, 5th Fl….$299 Available Immediately. Parking spaces also available. No fee.
No fee. 74-02 43rd Ave. Studio $215. Jr 4 Rooms $295 2 Bedrooms $325. Free gas, modern elev bldg, air conditioned, garage on premise.
(Houses, Queens): June 17th – No fee, 1 Blk Subway THIS HOUSE IMMACULATE. Hollywood kitchen, gas heated. $52,000.
March 1st, 1978
37-52 80th St nicely furnished 2 ½ room apts. Free G&E. Daily, weekly, monthly rentals. Immed occup.
New 6 rm apt, 3 Bdr, Beaut. Furn. Available Immediately.
(no houses listed) fiscal crisis.
September 3rd, 1982
(Apts. Unturn) Subway & Shops. Outstanding buildings and pvt homes. 2 ½ new kit jumno $325… 4 ½ 2 mstr BRs $450.. LIVE RIGHT
1 blk subway, no fee, air cond and free gas. Apts available immediately call Cent 21.
November 22nd, 1987
By owner. $38,000. Brick semi-attach. Cash flow $3,000/month. Many extra working fixtures. Open House Sat-Sun 12-5 PM. 3229 86th St.
Takeover 3000K mortgage. Price $435K.
English Tudor…owner anxious to sell.
Exclusive. SPACIOUS ALCOVE STUDIO. Estab co-op, concierge, new windows, new appliances, amazing closets (WTF ha ha ha) garage, Mt only $213
Exclusive sales agent: Palker Properties. Offering by prospectus only.
Pre-war specials. The Towers ($245,000)
Greystones *call now for brochures on one-of-a-king specials coming in*
Affordable Pre-war 1 bdr… shopping & schools, good value.
September 7th, 1997
(Co-ops and condos). Upper Ditman/Airport Location! *C*O*N*D*O*S* Offering by prospectus only. Barclay Gardens. Fully renovated
Beautiful 2 BR apt with new kitch in historic area just 15 minutes from Manhattan by subway. Well-maintained co-op bldg with CCTV security, $45,000
… historic district 3 BR with terr….$56,000
…lndmrk Bldg… lovely garden.
May 2nd, 2002
(Apt Unfurnished) newly renovated 3 BR para. Subway. $16,000. Princs only.
February 18th, 2007
(Co-ops & condos). Historic district. Open houses. Offering by prospectus only.
The Warwick, HURRY, WON’T LAST. Open house, huge one.
Historic district, sunny, converted 2 BRM, $265K
Sharing physical space in New York is at once intimate and passive, life-altering and seemingly inconsequential. When discussing the struggle over space - particularly in a place like Jackson Heights - it is necessary to distinguish between the sharing of physical (or geographic) space and the intangible connection provided by common cultural memories. As is acknowledged by the Jones-Correa piece “Intimate Strangers: Immigration to Queens,” geographic boundaries in neighborhoods can and are often perceived differently by different groups of residents. As a result of this, physical neighborhoods do not necessarily encompass one unified ‘community,’ as is often assumed: this point is an essential one when analyzing space in Jackson Heights. Middle class white residents of Jackson Heights often deny that the south side of Roosevelt Avenue is part of Jackson Heights, while the South American community in the area consider themselves to be in Jackson Heights when frequenting that side of the street (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998: 165). Clearly, the physical space - in this case, the south side of Roosevelt Avenue - is the same, yet claims vary as to whom it should be associated with. The middle class, native white community in Jackson Heights had come to think of their community as just that - ‘theirs’ - and thus didn’t want to be affiliated with immigrants who came bearing their own cultural sense of memory-based spaces and communities.
This ambiguity about who’s space is whose, and the notion that geographic proximity and map borders do not necessary form communities, is very important through the lens of Jane Jacobs’s beliefs about the demarcation of public and private spaces. Areas are safer, she argues, when public and private areas are demarcated clearly. She further points out that having ‘eyes’ on the street (attached to people, of course) makes sidewalks safer. Restaurants and other places of business and recreation create incentive for people to be around and on the sidewalks, therefore generating a safer area. Safer, according to some middle-class native white groups such as Action Jackson, circulating fliers which criticize businesses which “‘have not complied with landmarking regulations and have impacted negatively on our community’” (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998: 173). These regulations were designed in 1995 to diminish the importance of immigrant businesses by means of imposing “physical conformity” upon awnings and (non-English) signs outside stores (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998: 173). This is something which violates the sanctity of the lines between public and private space: the struggle over space, with potential legislation like this, becomes an attempt to censor different languages and aspects of culture from private store fronts which display on public sidewalks. This ambiguity between what is public and what is private - and questions about who has the right to dictate what ‘belongs’ where on our physically shared sidewalks - is something that, Jacobs would probably argue, makes our sidewalks less secure, despite the presence of stores and restaurants to attract ‘eyes’ to the streets.
The importance of physical proximity can be denied by people who claim that they simply can avoid, for example, the south side of the street of Roosevelt Avenue, because that, according to some, is not part of Jackson Heights. On the flip side of the coin, shared physical space can fuel muttered hostility, if not open prejudice, with groups such as Action Jackson and common muttered complaints about how ‘Nobody learns English anymore’ and ‘It [the neighborhood] looks like a foreign country’ (as opposed to when it was ‘our’ community) (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998: 175). These sentiments (as well as those commonly acted upon in civilian-populated war zones abroad) helped fuel as fear amongst immigrants after the events of September 11th. Perhaps most striking about K.C. Williams’s article “Fear, Desperation, and Hope in Jackson Heights” was how many people asked about when the curfew would be, and were so sure that there would be one imposed. As Williams points out, this is nothing close to what would cross the minds of most people who were born in the United States. The struggle for space was highlighted in this article, too, by the point about how “Some younger woman had returned to class [in Jackson Heights] a week after the attacks wearing slacks and blouses they had purchased quickly at $ 10 stores...” (Williams 2002: 4). This compounded with the story of Mrs. Begum, whose daughters had been terrified and infuriated that she had been allowed to walk the streets on her own after the attacks, demonstrates a very significant and somewhat sinister point about the struggle over space. Even if people under every day circumstances associate themselves less with people in their physical proximity and more with those sharing their cultural and memorial space (whether these people be white native-born middle class residents or Latin American immigrants whose community is based on cultural space and memory rather than geographic space), under differing circumstances (like those in the aftermath of September 11th), people are often more responsive to the perceived and/or actual dangers of sharing physical space with those with whom one shares little or no cultural space and community.
Important People, Organizations, and Institutions
- The Jackson Heights Beautification Group contributed to Jackson Heights’s political debate over space by attempting to establish the old (white-owned and maintained) apartment buildings as a historical district (Jones-Correa 1998: 32).
- Edward MacDougall named the 325 acres of undeveloped land that he bought Jackson Heights, and tried to create a suburban “distinct and unified community” (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998: 163).
- The Jackson Heights Community Development Corporation try to protect the interests of groups that are underrepresented in the politics of Jackson Heights (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998 168).
- Reverend Austin Armistead was the pastor of the Community United Methodist Church until 1995, and he preached about diversity and encourage “inclusive practices” in the neighborhood (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998: 169).
- Dr Ronald Tompkins took the place of Reverend Armistead by holding services in four languages and bringing people from all over together to pray (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998: 169-70).
- Community School Board 30 in Jackson Heights attempted to rezone the area in order to bus white children out to other areas for school (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998: 170).
- Action Jackson is a group that tried to de-legitimize immigrant stores in the area by advocating racist-based legislation regarding regulation of store signs and awnings (Bazzi, Doane, Kasinitz 1998: 173).
- Forest Hills Community House is located in Jackson Heights and is a school established for helping immigrants (most of whom do not speak English) become oriented to navigating through life in New York (Williams 2002: 1).
