THE PEOPLING OF NEW YORK: MHC @ Lehman

Jackson Heights, Queens is among the most diverse ethnic neighborhoods in not only New York, but also the United States. Just from a food perspective, within only 10 blocks of the subway, one can procure Colombian, Ecuadorian, Filipino, Indian, Korean, and Thai food- just to name a few. Although Jackson Heights has an abundance of food choices that tempt and attract people from all over New York City, it wasn’t always this way.

Jackson Heights was originally developed in the early decades of the 1900s as a community for the upper-middle and middle class families that wanted to live outside of Manhattan but inside New York City. Even the borough of Queens was predominantly non-Hispanic white until the 1970s (Ines). In the 1990s, Queens became the most ethnically diverse county in the United States. Because of the 1929 stock market crash, the ensuing real estate market collapse and changes in immigration policies and patterns after the mid-1900s, Jackson Heights and Queens as a whole became more and more ethnically diverse (“Jackson Heights Beautification Group”).

In the 1950s as large numbers of Africa-Americans and Puerto Ricans moved into densely populated Jewish neighborhoods in Manhattan’s lower east side, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, the Jewish population increasingly fled to Jackson Heights. After seeing the vast differences in schools of Jackson Heights and its surrounding neighborhoods, the New York Board of Education decided to institute the “Princeton Plan” which integrated the white schools of Jackson Heights and the predominantly African-American and Puerto Rican schools of neighboring Corona and East Elmhurst. Although there were anti-integration feelings among the Jewish community, the plan was eventually implemented. Many Jews moved out because of the school integration and many sent their children to other schools, but their feelings toward the African-Americans and Puerto Ricans didn’t hinder their move into Jackson Heights (“History of Jackson Heights- A Garden City”).

“Queens has, by far, the biggest foreign-born population in New York” and “[Queens] is clearly the most diverse in the City,” said Joseph Salvo, Director of New York Department of City Planning Population Division. Today, in addition to white and black residents, Latinos make up more than half of the population (with Argentineans, Colombians, Mexicans and Ecuadorians being the larger groups), a significant number of Indians live in what is known as “Little India,” and East Asians are among the current occupants of Jackson Heights. The most recent are the Caribbean, Tibetans, and the Nepalese people (“The Home of Diversity”).

Jackson Heights is unique, not only because is it heavily populated with different ethnic groups, but also because it is diverse. As Joseph Salvo stated, a community can have many groups of different ethnicities but not be diverse, because those groups stay together and don’t integrate with other groups. To reflect and celebrate its diversity, there are several parades throughout the year in Jackson Heights. If looked at its history from the beginning of the 20th century- Jackson Heights, a once exclusive neighborhood, has opened its gates to people of all cultures.