Are folks really going to choose cars over kids?
These people's priorities and values need to be re-set.
Quality of life and safety issues are not only about kids.
Why do I often feel that people here love to wave the kid flag? JH isn't Disney nor should it become that. If young families don't feel this place is kid friendly enough why are they here? They knew, or should have known what neighborhood they moved into.
Maybe Jackson Heights didn't used to have a big kid population decades and decades ago.
It certainly does now. And in a democracy, numbers matter...
Young families have changed the neighborhood.
It's no longer ok to not be kid friendly. As perhaps in a previous era.
Perhaps you misunderstood or came to a hasty conclusion. Did I touch on a sensitive nerve?
I am in no way opposed to children or people having them. In fact that was never the case in JH at all. I did try to point out however that children do not rule this neighborhood. And yes to be truly democratic as you say means to consider that there are other needs here besides children only!
If you know the the history of JH you would acknowledge that the original marketing strategy to bringing people here was geared at Manhattan families. JH was said to be a planned community with trees, open air and recreation space where children could get out of the stifling city. A place where people could raise families, in a more gentle environment. That also meant having our commercial zone as well as our less trafficked quiet zone.
The ends of the side streets were open gardens, not built upon. On 34th and & 35th Avenues there were grassy malls with benches running up the middle. The golf course was also here then providing plenty of open space for all and included a colonial era farm house that was called "The Casino" which served as a meeting place and club house. Travers Park is the last remaining vestige of the golf course that was never built on. There were also the private gardens behind groups of buildings which still exist today. The boards that govern those private gardens have strict rules these days that barely allow for anything but looking. The problem was the housing shortage after WW2 and the end blocks, malls, and gold course all began to disappear. As a side note, even today the children's playground within Travers is placed at the Northern Blvd. end of the park, not right on 34th Ave. Is this also to be considered non kid friendly?
We also had our own small hospital in which many of JH's second generation were born. More Kids! And it really is too bad that the place couldn't have had its problems resolved and remained a hospital. it might have been an asset during this pandemic. Too many Queens hospitals were shut down and we were left at the mercy of the overburdened Elmhurst General. And what happened to our hospital and it's generous sized parking lot? A public school.... but we don't like kids here?
I said this neighborhood is not Disney nor should it be. It is also not a Club Med for singles or a Billyburgh for Hipsters. It is a wonderful well planned place with all kinds of people with all kinds of needs ALL of which need to be considered. THAT is the democratic way. Add to this our original planned "Garden Within the City" has been compromised over the years and there is only so much that can be done at this point for ALL who live here.
