This picture was taken near Jamaica, Queens. It is a picture of a new apartment building being developed. Recently, there have been many residential apartment buildings being built in this area. To my surprise, some of these buildings are aesthetically pleasing and provide very elegant office spaces. But, even with the beauty of the buildings, I can’t help but wonder about how high the rent could be for these apartments.
This area is also becoming increasingly popular among South Asians to move in and look for houses because the area is filled with South Asian owned groceries, bakeries, clothing stores, etc. And, landlords know that very well. My own landlord lets go off old tenants when their contract expire and look for South Asian tenants who would be willing to move in even if she raises the price by 200-300 dollars.
This place also isn’t too far from Long Island City, where Amazon would’ve built its headquarters. If another tech giants decides to move into Queens, we could be talking about exponential raises in rent and living expenses.
Rising rent costs are a huge problem in my neighborhood too. I’ve lived in Bushwick for about 15 years and I’ve seen the neighborhood change drastically. It was never really an “unsafe” neighborhood (so to speak anyway) but it wasn’t exactly desirable either, until a few years ago, the cafes and condos began pouring in. As a result, even the older buildings started tacking more and more onto the rent, and this included my dad. Despite increasing the rent incrementally so we can actually keep our tenants, we’re still offering our house for a much lower price than our neighbors (who priced it at like $3000 a month? Which is insane because renting in Bushwick used to be half of that a decade ago).
Housing (along with transportation) is the overriding issue. Good juxtaposition of photo and impacts. Apt comment.