Is Jamaica, Queens an OK place to live? (New York, Merrick: high crime, houses)

[eek]

note: most of the stuff on hillside is 1200/month at least.

[Coolhand68]

Originally Posted by Pookie Jenkins

Nothing wrong with Jamaica. It has a higher than average crime rate but that doesn't involve or affect 95% of the population. Some may also consider it shabby but most of Queens (all the outer boroughs, really) looks old, shabby and run down. People on this board will tell you to move to other areas and avoid Jamaica except for school because 1) most of them think any neighborhood that's more than 50% black = ghetto warzone where guns are blazing at all hours of the day, crack is sold on every block and any non-minority is automatic prey and 2) people who are unfamiliar with east Queens think Jamaica is the same neighborhood as South Jamaica.

It's insulting to me how people on here can say with a straight face that Flushing is a perfectly good neighborhood to relocate to but Jamaica is a Brownsville/ENY level of bad. Both areas (Jamaica and FLushing) are largely suburban working-class communities with an urban "downtown" center and a diverse (though majority one group) population. Mod cut: language

Sorry but most of Jamaica is considerably more dangerous than Flushing and it earned a reputation as the Queens version of ENY/Bed-Stuy long ago. While there might be some improvements, it's still the WORST neighborhood in Queens along with Far Rockaway.

Most of Queens is not shabby and run down. Check out Forest Hills, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, Whitestone, College Point, Bayside, Douglaston, Glen Oaks, Bellerose and a few others.

[jacktravern]

Originally Posted by Coolhand68

Sorry but most of Jamaica is considerably more dangerous than Flushing and it earned a reputation as the Queens version of ENY/Bed-Stuy long ago. While there might be some improvements, it's still the WORST neighborhood in Queens along with Far Rockaway.

Most of Queens is not shabby and run down. Check out Forest Hills, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, Whitestone, College Point, Bayside, Douglaston, Glen Oaks, Bellerose and a few others.

Good post. Jamaica , while not in the class of a ENY/Brownsville,Mott haven, is nowhere in the realm of a Flushing. Flushing, more often than not is what you call QUIET. WHat people in NYC seem to not take into account is appearances. True murder is down all across the city, but that doesnt mean certain hoods arent still prone to something as simple as a bunch of youths constantly hanging out in front of buildings drinking, loitering, being loud,ect... Many folks here dont like to say, but that is just common aspects of poor neighborhoods
Again these things may not be an issue to those in their teens or 20's,especially if thats all you know, but once you hit a certain age, alot of folks dont care to be in that type environment. They just wanna get to and from their car/subway stop w/o having to confront or pass any undesirables along the way and Jamaica still gives you plenty of that

[Pookie Jenkins]

"First off "MOST of Queens (all the outer boroughs, really) looks old, shabby and run down". Really? Perhaps you can tell us what most of those shabby neighborhoods are?"

Williamsburg, Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside, Jackson Heights, Crown Heights, Bushwick, East Harlem, most of the Bronx etc. Some of the hottest areas in the city real estate-wise are partially or wholly run down-looking.

"Second, while I said Jamaica is getting better, I still would not recommend it over Flushing. At least not yet. Nor would I recommend south of the railroad tracks yet, although I agree with you Jamaica is certainly not Brownsville."

Okay but you notice the tone of this post versus the Flushing one, right? It's telling.

"Walk around the area west of Sutphin Blvd near the courthouse. You will see house after house with bars on their windows and doors."

Yeah, but those homes weren't built yesterday. If Jamaica was so unsafe there wouldn't be growing numbers of Indians, Arabs, Asians, Hispanics and even white people.

"I also heard of cars on the street with all four of their wheels being stolen right from under them. During the daytime!"

Well people "hear" a lot of negative things about certain neighborhoods it doesn't mean its true or that it happens regulary.

[Pookie Jenkins]

"Sorry but most of Jamaica is considerably more dangerous than Flushing and it earned a reputation as the Queens version of ENY/Bed-Stuy long ago."

As I already pointed out, Jamaica and South Jamaica aren't the same neighborhood. The latter is more so the one with the negative repuatation. And obviously you haven't been to Jamaica anytime recently if at all. It's much, much more diverse and working-class/economically stable than ENY which is still basically full of impoverished squatters and hardly anything else.

And as I said already if Jamaica is dangerous and the worst neighborhood in Queens then why are other groups aside from the "riff-raff" moving there? Hillside Avenue near the F train looks like the United Nations.

"Most of Queens is not shabby and run down. Check out Forest Hills, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, Whitestone, College Point, Bayside, Douglaston, Glen Oaks, Bellerose and a few others.:

Lol, these are the cream of the crop in Queens. Most of the rest of it looks pretty dated (no hate, I love the Q-borough).

[Henna]

Originally Posted by LINative

^

Walk around the area west of Sutphin Blvd near the courthouse. You will see house after house with bars on their windows and doors. I also heard of cars on the street with all four of their wheels being stolen right from under them. During the daytime!

I don't think bars on windows or doors on houses in a neighborhood necessarily indicates it's not a safe area to live. It might indicate that the owners feel that the bars will protect them from break-ins. I know many, many, many people in NY with bars on the windows that lead to fire escapes. I would not make an assumption that because they have bars on that window that that means they don't think their neighborhood is for the most part safe.

Would you park your car in any neighborhood in NYC and leave it unlocked?

[LINative]

Originally Posted by Pookie Jenkins

"First off "MOST of Queens (all the outer boroughs, really) looks old, shabby and run down". Really? Perhaps you can tell us what most of those shabby neighborhoods are?"

Williamsburg, Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside, Jackson Heights, Crown Heights, Bushwick, East Harlem, most of the Bronx etc. Some of the hottest areas in the city real estate-wise are partially or wholly run down-looking.

"Second, while I said Jamaica is getting better, I still would not recommend it over Flushing. At least not yet. Nor would I recommend south of the railroad tracks yet, although I agree with you Jamaica is certainly not Brownsville."

Okay but you notice the tone of this post versus the Flushing one, right? It's telling.

"Walk around the area west of Sutphin Blvd near the courthouse. You will see house after house with bars on their windows and doors."

Yeah, but those homes weren't built yesterday. If Jamaica was so unsafe there wouldn't be growing numbers of Indians, Arabs, Asians, Hispanics and even white people.

"I also heard of cars on the street with all four of their wheels being stolen right from under them. During the daytime!"

Well people "hear" a lot of negative things about certain neighborhoods it doesn't mean its true or that it happens regulary.

I am pointing out that you said that most of Queens and in fact most of the outer boroughs is "shabby". I just plain disagree with this. Look at a map and see how many neighborhoods you didn't name.

I do not care what a different post said about Flushing. In fact I did not read it. It has nothing to do with giving advice to someone where to move to ON THIS THREAD.

Age of houses has nothing to do with crime. Brooklyn Heights is not a high crime area to my knowledge.

Finally I just did not only "hear" about cars having their wheels being stolen, it happened to one of my co-workers in that area. Another co-worker almost had it happen to her but a relative had put locks on some of the lug nuts.

Pookie, I do not mean to be attack you like this but I disagree with some of that post you did.

[LINative]

Originally Posted by Henna

I don't think bars on windows or doors on houses in a neighborhood necessarily indicates it's not a safe area to live. It might indicate that the owners feel that the bars will protect them from break-ins. I know many, many, many people in NY with bars on the windows that lead to fire escapes. I would not make an assumption that because they have bars on that window that that means they don't think their neighborhood is for the most part safe.

Would you park your car in any neighborhood in NYC and leave it unlocked?

"I don't think bars on windows or doors on houses in a neighborhood necessarily indicates it's not a safe area to live".

I would hate to see your defintion of a unsafe neighborhood!

In any case someone brought up a good point that the bars may have gone up back in the 80s or 90s when crime was much worse than it is now. As I said twice before, Jamaica IS getting better. But at this point I would still recommend that a college kid look in Jamaica above Hillside Avenue IF POSSIBLE, especially since St Johns is all the way up by Union Turnpike anyway.

I just did not like someone saying it makes no difference, crime is the same in other neighborhoods and they all "shabby" anyway. IMHO this is simply not true.

[mayorofnyc]

Originally Posted by Pookie Jenkins

"Sorry but most of Jamaica is considerably more dangerous than Flushing and it earned a reputation as the Queens version of ENY/Bed-Stuy long ago."

As I already pointed out, Jamaica and South Jamaica aren't the same neighborhood. The latter is more so the one with the negative repuatation. And obviously you haven't been to Jamaica anytime recently if at all. It's much, much more diverse and working-class/economically stable than ENY which is still basically full of impoverished squatters and hardly anything else.

Good point Pookie. A lot of people (even residents) get the two hoods mixed up. Generally speaking South Jamaica includes the area south of Liberty, west of Farmers, north of Conduit, and west of the Van Wyck. It is predominately black and unfortunately as already mentioned, has a bad rep. However, Jamaica, which covers areas east of 188th St, north of Liberty, west of the Van Wyck, & south of Hillside is much more diverse and is constantly going under re-development. Although I will say though I'd rather live in South Jamaica than the South Bronx anyday, that's for sure.

[SeventhFloor]

Originally Posted by mayorofnyc

Good point Pookie. A lot of people (even residents) get the two hoods mixed up. Generally speaking South Jamaica includes the area south of Liberty, west of Farmers, north of Conduit, and west of the Van Wyck. It is predominately black and unfortunately as already mentioned, has a bad rep. However, Jamaica, which covers areas east of 188th St, north of Liberty, west of the Van Wyck, & south of Hillside is much more diverse and is constantly going under re-development. Although I will say though I'd rather live in South Jamaica than the South Bronx anyday, that's for sure.

actually south jamaica's boundaries are:
north - liberty ave
south - linden blvd
west - van wyck expwy
east - 180th st

the boundaries of jamaica are shown in this map:

http://www.zipmap.net/New_York/Queen.../Z_Jamaica.htm