Jackson Heights Beautification Group & Roosevelt Ave.

The Jackson Heights Beautification Group was founded on the basis of dealing with beautification issues in Roosevelt Avenue. However, they began to address other issues such as: crime, public safety, and quality-of-life complaints.

• Eventually, they began to take up a more political agenda by pressuring local police officials to clean up Roosevelt Avenue.

• The Jackson Heights Beautification Group sought to clean up the perceptions of Jackson Heights as being a center for drug dealing, money laundering, prostitution
  • Two of the solutions decided upon by the Jackson Heights Beautification Group were:

1.  They sent angry letters to local newspapers and television stations which portrayed Jackson Heights as “The cocaine capital of the world”
2. They also attempted to disclaim Roosevelt Avenue as a part of the “Real Jackson Heights” which was largely excluded, except 82nd street, from the Landmark District Boundaries.
   

   Schenectady Gazette article labeling Jackson Heights as “Cocaine Capital of U.S.”