Luring Brooklynites to Jackson Heights
Queens-based blogger OuterB gets a chuckle out of Jackson Heights broker Michael Carfagna’s latest marketing campaign: More Park, Less Slope. The targeted appeal to aspirational Park Slopers makes a whole lotta sense when you learn that 80% of Carfagna’s new clients come from Brooklyn. OuterB parses the ad: “More Park refers to the many classic…
Queens-based blogger OuterB gets a chuckle out of Jackson Heights broker Michael Carfagna’s latest marketing campaign: More Park, Less Slope. The targeted appeal to aspirational Park Slopers makes a whole lotta sense when you learn that 80% of Carfagna’s new clients come from Brooklyn. OuterB parses the ad: “More Park refers to the many classic Jackson Heights co-ops that have large, private gardens,” he writes. “Less Slope (I’m guessing) is a shot at Brooklyn real estate prices, which have risen much faster than the rate in Jackson Heights.”
More Park, Less Slope [OuterB]
About Michael Carfagna [MPC Properties]
What?! I lived there for three years and everyone was well behaved and polite. Maybe the above poster is one of those bad-tempered holdouts from the Nazi 1940s. Jackson Heights started out as a restricted community and now it’s one of the most diverse places in the world.
I have over 20 years experience with JH and it looks more and more like a third world slum every day. Twice over the past 3 weeks I’ve witnessed groups of hispanics urinating on a residential sidewalk in plain daylight. They don’t pick up their dog crap, and littering seems to be a right of passage the way graffiti continues to be. I’m no racist, but there has been a wave of dirty, savagely disrespectful 3rd worlders coming in and keeping parts of this city from being the clean respectable neighborhoods they promise to be.
I lived in JH for 20 years (1960s-70s) and have several friends and acquaintances who’ve remained. I find the recent jacked-up panache of JH very amusing and a testament to marketing genius. In the 1940s-50s JH was a Nazi stronghold with regular Bund meetings; some of the notoriously nasty elderly residents in the new Historic district are likely the residue of that era. Of course in the late 70’s, 80’s into early 90’s JH was well known for frequent shootings in connection with the cocaine trade. What in one era were the forbidding old buildings with misanthropic residents have become the “undiscovered” alternative to Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, and the upper West Side. There are some interesting old buildings with nicely renovated apartments within but often the infrastructure is decrepit and will eventually cost the co-op owners dearly. Translate “historic” district as partially “gentrified” – much of JH housing outside of this district is on the squalid side. It is also the rare building in JH that is not teeming with mice. Despite all that, fact remains that NYC is only so big and has only so many neighborhoods and this one is a short trip to Manhattan and has great restaurants. And, according to an NY times article several years ago, more languages are spoken in JH than in any location of comparable size in the world. So, if you don’t mind the constant rumble of LaGuardia jets overhead, the filthy streets, and the karma of the place, it’s relatively inexpensive -despite the hype- and a direct shot into midtown.
I have just purchased a coop apartment on the corner of 86st and I would like to know the avenue of the building where the lady who had the problem with the board lived just to be ashored.
I have just purchased a coop apartment on the corner of 86st and I would like to know the avenue of the building where the lady who had the problem with the board lived just to be ashored.
I have just purchased a coop apartment on the corner of 86st and I would like to know the avenue of the building where the lady who had the problem with the board lived just to be ashored.
I have just purchased a coop apartment on the corner of 86st and I would like to know the avenue of the building where the lady who had the problem with the board lived just to be ashored.
As someone who has lived and worked in JH since the early 90’s, I am really saddend that the neighborhood has become so “hot.” Yeah, I know my property value is going up, (I own 2 coops here), but I liked it better when it was my secret. I used to joke that I was the only US-born white person under 60 who lived here. Now, that is definately not the case. Nightlife? I think there is lots of it! But I feel comfortable going to the men’s gay bars, even though I am a woman, and I love going to the many Latin American establishments. I can eat first-rate sushi at 2 AM, or arepas on the street at the same hour. Everything I need is within walking distance, except for clothes, (I don’t shop at the sari stores or at BangBang) and books, and some specialty items. The great mom and pop shops that line the avenues and the two comerical streets meet the community’s needs. I fear that as people move here from Brooklyn and Manhattan, more franchises will replace the community feel. I guess when that happens, I’ll cash out and move on.
I used to live in a studio in Park Slope. I happened to had three friends from my neighborhood moving into Jackson Heights, which got me interested in JH. Now, I moved to JH two month ago and I LOVE THIS PLACE!!. I am living in much bigger 1BR with the same money I pay for a small studio in Park Slope. And this neiborhood has so many restaurants! But best of all, it is so close to Manhattan. It takes a 15 minutes to Times Squre where I work!