While Jamaica has been improving as a neighborhood for a long time now, some people still tend to give it unconditional negative regard. Considering this is the same neighborhood in which rapper 50 Cent was once shot 9 times, it’s clear to see why there might be so much long lasting stigma associated with the neighborhood of Jamaica. However, conditions have always been improving since that incident in the early 21^st century.

In recent years, Jamaica has been a neighborhood in which more and more people desire to live in. York College, being a CUNY, always manages to attract bright students to the general area, and is a lucrative incentive for the constituents of the population to continue working hard and improve life conditions further. The large establishments in the area, and plethora of cultural centers allow even more growth to occur in a positive direction for the future of Jamaica.

It is also worth noting to make sure that you are looking at the correct statistics for the Jamaica in Queens, New York, and not the other Jamaica, as one wrong look at the data can send your opinion spiraling in the wrong direction. For example, in 2005, the country of Jamaica had the highest murder rate around the world. It would surely be detrimental for one to misread that about the Jamaica in Queens, as that is not what has been happening in the area as of late. On the contrary, Jamaica has been on the rise to becoming a very nice neighborhood, and some projections say that, although it will take time, it will continue improving even more in the future.

Poverty is an issue which is unavoidable in today’s economic recession. Counterintuitvely, however, the poverty rate in Jamaica is actually lower than the rate of poverty in New York City as a whole. While 16 percent of those living in Jamaica fall under the income level the marks them as impoverished, 21 percent of the residents living in New York City fall under that poverty line. This is certainly a strong blow in the face of the non-believers, who should look at statistics taken by the government before making falsified claims and faulty assumptions.

The average househould income gravitates toward the seventy thousand to eighty thousand dollar annually range. The range however, goes all the way from zero to a very small number of households reporting incomes of over two hundred thousand dollars annually. Surprisingly, the twenty thousand dollar income range was the highest, but not very much higher than the seventy to eighty thousand dollar annually range. These statistics can tell us a lot about what to expect about the neighborhood, and they are certainly good indicators that Jamaica is moving in the right direction in today’s day and age.

All information taken from http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/data/2006chp-408.pdf