The famed "Garden Apartments" of Jackson Heights, Queens.
Behind the bustle of the main business area on 74th St., the residential part of Jackson Heights retains a quiet old world feel.
Home to the famous Garden Apartments – the area bound from 76th street on the West and 88th street on the East was designated a Historic District in 1993.
Joe Powers, a long time resident of the area takes me on a walking tour. He loves Ugly Betty (part of it was set in Jackson Heights) and ushers me to the place that pays homage to the inventor of Scrabble, Alfred M.Butts.
Joe points out that the area now known as Jackson heights did not appear on any map prior to the 1900s because it simply did not exist. The area was just farms and fields.
The decision to build the Queensboro Bridge in 1908 connecting Manhattan to Queens, coupled with the Queensboro Corporation developing real estate – helped mould the area called Jackson Heights.
The building of the Queensboro Bridge in 1908 helped connect Manhattan to Queens and help mould the area now known as Jackson Heights
The Queensboro Corporation, Joe continues, was headed by Edward MacDougall. MacDougall was so impressed with the homes in Europe that he decided to build a ‘city within a city’ in Jackson Heights.
He created the new Garden Apartments – so that working class folks could have access to a garden in their homes, plenty of sunlight and fresh air.
Today, the Garden Apartments are intact in their beauty. They stand a few feet away from the kerb- a little garden out in front and in the back.
Owned by Co-ops- the apartments with their slate or tiled roofs, garages and fireplaces are expensive- selling for millions of dollars. Many of the pre-war co-ops boast of shared, private gardens, which open to the public once a year.
It is also possible to ‘read the building’ from the outside. Marking on the façade, reveals, if the apartment is home to 2,3 or 4 bedrooms. These homes were also the first in New York to use the newly legalized button control automatic elevator.
As Joe continues to show me around, young families with strollers are out and a young man with no shirt jogs sweatily by. Joe spits out ‘yuppies! They’re taking over this place’
Attack of the Yuppies!
The Yuppies, that so angered Joe are pouring in from the city. Young professionals eager to get out of the tiny apartments in Brooklyn and Manhattan are now flocking to Jackson Heights. Time Out, New York, estimates that a third of the entire population in Jackson Heights is between the ages of 21-39.
An easy commute, big culture, an extremely gay-friendly environment and easy rent are huge plusses. Adam Flax, is one of those who was part of the exodus.
‘My wife and I moved here because it has the best quality housing for money. It’s an easy commute- 20 minutes to midtown Manhattan and there’s huge diversity in the neighborhood. You could rent a studio for $1100, a one bedroom apartment for $1500 and 3 bedroom apartments for $2000’.
But while Adam enjoys being a resident of Jackson Heights, he worries the neighborhood services won’t be able to keep pace with the number of new people coming in. He would like to see more parks in the area.
There is just one park, the crowded Travers Park on 34th Avenue. He would also like better quality retail services, preferring chain stores, to the little Mom and Pop stores, that abound in the area. ‘How many more nail and hair places do we need? We already have tons of places for ethnic food. How about a place now, for a big American meal?’ Adam says.
That’s a sentiment that is echoed by Karen Centineo. A resident of the area for the past 20 years, Centineo wonders when she can dig into a big old fashioned steak at Jackson Heights. Talking about her children, she points out, that while the Elementary and Junior Schools in the area were good- they were rather overcrowded.
This has prompted several parents to move the kids to the neighborhood private School – ‘The Garden School’ – a move that’s proving pricey as the school charges a hefty $ 10,000 dollars a year.
But many parents view the high fees as a tradeoff to bring up children in an area that is as culturally and ethnically diverse as Jackson Heights. The crime rates, too, are low in this neighborhood.
In the 115th Precinct, there has been a drop of almost 30% in reported crimes since 2001 (NYPD).
All of these factors add up to make the area an irresistible draw for many New Yorkers. At Jackson Heights, you don’t have to go anywhere in the world – the world comes to you.
