Jackson Heights Historic District: Who’s District is it?

There were many questions as to “who” the Historic District in Jackson Heights belonged to.

Credlt: Yolian Cerquera

• Many residents claim that the landmarking of Jackson Heights was simply to protect Edward MacDougall’s idea of “White” Jackson Heights.
  • Multilingual signage, street vending, and loud hawking of goods (primarily immigrant ran businesses) have been the center of criticism for residents to support the landmarking of Jackson Heights.
    • Whites in Jackson Heights claim that “Nobody learns English anymore” and “It looks like a foreign country.”
  • To make matters worse, in an interview with Jeffrey Saunders, the chairman of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group’s architecture committee, he claims that the storefront regulations are important to “civilize the streets.”
  • In addition, a New York Times article documents an encounter between Saunders and a hawker shouting to passers-by in Spanish, with Saunders saying to him “This is not the way it is done in Jackson Heights”
  • Saunders also goes on to say that some negative changes in Jackson Heights “cheapens, degrades, and coarsen the community.”
    • He then blatantly compares Main Street in Flushing, Broadway in Elmhurst, and 
      

      Bollywood Music Store in Little India
      Credit: Yolian Cerquera

      Roosevelt Avenue at 74th Street (Little India) to the qualities underlined above.

      • These communities that he referred to are all largely immigrant-populated areas.
    • Despite being close to one another, there is very little interaction between White, Indian, Chinese, and Latino residents.
      • They live in different communities.
      • When sharing a church, the worship at different times rather that worshiping together.
      • They do, however, live in peace with one another and stay out of each other’s way for the most part.