Jackson Heights Life

As a relative newcomer to JH, one thing that surprised me is how congested and dirty the streets are. This is something you just don't see in Astoria. Also for a younger person, in their 20s, Astoria is ideal. Lots of interesting bars and restaurants. JH just doesn't have the same variety and Roosevelt Ave. is a pit. I would not move to JH until you settle down -- and even then ask yourself whether you want to live amid trash on the streets and cars honking day and night.

Thank you for all these great replies! I guess I will have to do some exploring as I'm apartment hunting these days and am thankfully not pressed for time to search.

I am single but I am not a nightlife or bars person because I don't drink lol. My social life usually involves going to see friends once every other week or so. My daily commute is to Queens/Queensboro Plaza, so the trains in JH seem to provide similar convenience as does Astoria. I also go to Manhattan every now in then. I hardly have any reason to go to Brooklyn to be honest.

I guess my ideal apartment is something that feels homely and with space, a relatively affordable budget and something convenient to subways and grocery stores and somewhere where it would be comfortable to walk at as late as 12AM or early as 5AM. The one plus side I'm aware of with JH is that I'm South Asian and all the South Asian groceries are there. We have Trade Fair in Astoria that works ok for most of the time but I tend to make occasional trips to JH for groceries.

I do like that Astoria has people walking around at all hours and a mixed age groups and relatively safe-I am not sure if JH differs in terms of people being out and about even past 10PM? I realize JH might have more families or not as much of a young demographic as Astoria. It's also nice Astoria has a little bit of everything and is somewhat diverse, though since I have had family live in areas closer to Hillside avenue, Jamaica and Flushing, it does feel comparatively less diverse.

Beyond the grocery stores, I don't have much familiarity with JH. I walked around once recently down Roosevelt and loved the hustle and bustle, but don't quite know what it's like to be a young person staying there so I appreciate these responses! I guess I am going to really have to spend some time looking around. 

Your last line really threw me for a loop.  I would say most of the people that like what Jackson Heights has to offer do not like Roosevelt Avenue.  I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.

lmao. I went to Staples once and liked how busy it was outside during the summer. Astoria gets quiet a lot but I was only there for 5 minutes so maybe my impression was not fully developed at the time

I find Roosevelt Avenue extremely unpleasant with all the strip bars or whatever they are. It's very grungy and even a bit scary. I get away from it as fast as I can. I will endorse the idea of living close to the 74th St. Station. We do, and it's not any noisier than up around 82nd St. Definitely not. We live between 37th and 35th and our street is mostly very quiet, even though we are as close to that station as possible within the historic district.  We are not near the 7 train, we don't hear it where we are--there is really no reason to think the 80s are quieter than the 70s in JH. We looked in both areas and far preferred the 70s.

Thanks for the tips! From what I'm seeing, many prefer the 70s rather than 80s. I don't think I paid attention to strip bars along Roosevelt, but again I was walking around for only a few minutes in the day time so at night I can imagine may be different and not pleasant.

One of the main reasons I prefer to live in the mid-80s is because you have the option of walking to 74th St. It’s really a nice walk and you get to see the beauty of the neighborhood. I’m pretty sure that if you live around 74th St. you’re not taking a walk up into the 80s, so you’re missing a lot of the neighborhood I think

Hmmm...well I live near 74 St station, but in fact I do walk up into the 80s for a number of reasons. To visit people who live there, to patronize stores and restaurants located there. It's hardly true that I am cut off from that part of the neighborhood because I live in the mid-70s.

It's a great advantage to be closer to the 5 train lines at the 74th St. transit hub vs just being close to the train at 82nd St. I don't see how you can argue that point. And the idea that being in the 70s is noisier and the streets are less clean--well, it's just not true, and you can walk the blocks to see for yourself. It's dirty and noisy on Roosevelt, all along Roosevelt, but north of 37th, the streets are quiet and pretty in the 70s.

We love where we are, because it's a six-seven minute walk to that station, while also being within a block or three of everything we need: two large supermarkets, several fruit/veg stores, the post office, several dry cleaners, a cobbler, a 24-hour Duane Reade and many other pharmacies, a few late-night bodegas, a mailing and package store, E77, Table Wine, Farine's.

Speaking of which, I have to laugh at the poster here who predicted doom for Farine's because, the poster said, it was in the wrong location for the type of business it is. It seems to be doing extremely well with all neighborhood constituencies: I walk by it often on my way to the station, and it is always busy, sometimes jammed with customers. The food (not to mention the sweets) is excellent, and people seem to be responding to that.

When we were looking to move to JH, we also weighed the 80s vs the 70s and came down solidly on the side of the 70s even though we did see some nice buildings and apartments in the 80s.

I think the ideal spot would be around Hawthorne Court (76th/77th Street) or Hampton Court Garden (78th/79th Street). I'm not sure what those co-ops are like to live in (other than that they have nice gardens), but location wise, you would have a close walk to the 74th Street station (which you really do want to be able to walk to) and would still be close to a lot of other nice things in the neighborhood.

You probably don't want to be too close to the 74th Street station, but there are a lot of great restaurants and supermarkets around there, and if you are really close then you could also walk to Woodside quite easily which has more great food and which also has the Long Island Rail Road station.