By Anling Chen, Amalia Heron, Phuntsok Lama, Henry Mei, Amrin Rahman, and Sowjanya Sritharasarma
Throughout our time interviewing and getting to know people from Jackson Heights, we have dug past the surface to reveal the realities of a diverse yet separated, urban yet green, and ever-lasting yet ever-changing community. Jackson Heights has a rich, checkered, and fascinating history. It may be difficult for some to imagine, but the neighborhood was planned as an exclusive development that restricted people of color. Over the decades, waves of immigration from South Asia and Latin America have dramatically changed the demographics of the area.
Jackson Heights has become a safe haven for immigrants looking to find success in this country. We heard the stories of people who immigrated with little to no money; Noshin, a Bangladeshi interviewee, mentioned how her father made a living selling fruits when he first immigrated to the city. We heard the stories of people who had to adjust to a country so far removed from their culture. They found a community here where they felt accepted, and raised children who grew up in this neighborhood and came to call it home.
Though it has come a long way from its racist roots, local immigrant families are in danger of being priced out and displaced as a result of gentrification. Gentrification in Jackson Heights is becoming increasingly prevalent—from the closing of small businesses to the rising rents. One interviewee, Eishika, mentioned how the appearance of Jackson Heights’ first Starbucks was the tell-tale sign of gentrification in the area for her.
In addition to the gentrification residents are facing, there are remnants of the neighborhood’s often overlooked history of racial segregation and redlining. The diversity of Jackson Heights is an imperfect one. Noshin and Shi Ting expressed how their respective Asian ethnicities tend to stick amongst themselves rather than mingle with others in the area; Noshin brought up her own unawareness about Latinos in Jackson Heights, despite the neighborhood’s very prevalent Latino community.
Jason and Kristi, a native Floridian who described herself as a gentrifier, both expressed concern upon learning of the systematic marginalization of Black people and their relative absence in Jackson Heights. The two were disappointed that they didn’t know nearby Corona and East Elmhurst are historically Black communities, and Jason was especially surprised to learn that Malcolm X called East Elmhurst home.
Through interviewing people of different backgrounds, we hope that we have provided a glimpse into what makes the neighborhood beautiful, ugly, welcoming, discriminatory, diverse, exclusionary, and ultimately home for more than 60,000 people. We hope that we have done right by the people of Jackson Heights.
