Carina Nieves

Carina Nieves SSN187.2320 Professor White 4/28/08

“My Community Profile”

Back in 1995 I moved with my family to the community I live in now, after growing up the first few years of my life in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, borderline of

Brooklyn-Queens. I was really happy moving into my new home because my friend lived a few houses down, plus I was closer to my school. If I have to give my neighborhood a creative name it would be Hispanic-West Indian- Indian due to its large population of people who are of this descent. I have been living in my community for thirteen years now and I have seen many changes in everything from stores, homes, and different cultures moving in to the community.

My community is located in South Eastern Queens. The town of Richmond Hill was settled in 1869.Albon Platt was a prominent New York attorney. Albon had owned a summer home out in Long Island and had an idea of creating a garden spot for the people of New York. He recruited famed landscape architect Edward Richmond to help lay out the exposed community. Albon Platt Man and Edward Richmond transformed 250 acres of farmland which was bought from the Lefferts and Welling farms into lots for private residents. He died in 1870 but before died he quickly engaged Oliver Fowler to help design and manage the community. Later the Bergen, Robertson, and Hendrickson farms were added to Man’s holding which brought the total property village to 400 acres.

However some parts of Richmond Hill were not developed by Man or Fowler. According to William Kross: Nieves 2

The area known as Morris Park, also a restricted residential district had been already developed by one SIC William Ziegler. The old Dunton farm, which lay

between Morris Park and Jamaica, had been developed as well. Clarenceville was yet another residential community, located just west of Morris Park and Brooklyn Heights was a district bordering Jamaica Avenue west of Richmond Hill. When the village was finally incorporated all of those areas were included and became of Richmond Hill.

According to Sperling’s Best places as of 2007 the population of Richmond Hill is 36,437. My community is pretty unique because it isn’t like Flushing where is has mostly Asian and Hispanic populations. Most of the population is from three regions of the world Latin America, Caribbean, and parts of Asia near India and the countries that surround it. My hometown is an area where people of Indian and many others from this part of the world can be with their own kind. The percentages of the races in my neighborhood is 35.77% White, 8.86% Black, 1.10% Native Americans, 38.31%

Hispanic and 61.69% claim other race. I don’t really think that there is that many White people in my community because I rarely see them around unless they are of old age. The percent of singles is 45.11% and 8,579 are families. The U.S. Census Bureau of 2000 reports that the percentage of people under the age of five is 75%, 73.3% are 18 and over,

8.6% are above 65 years and older.

The area is a residential area so the only businesses that are around are mainly

Nieves 3 on the avenues or boulevards all within walking distance. The businesses that you will find are what you will find in large urban areas like corner grocery stores, salons, fruit stands, laundromats, real estate, and health offices, beauty salons and food stores but the avenue by me isn’t really buzzing. There are twenty-three local churches and one synagogue listed online. There isn’t much entertainment in my community. If someone wanted to go out for entertainment they can go to take the Q56 bus and twenty to thirty minutes away is the Jamaica shopping district where you can find everything from local boutiques to department stores and everything in between. The only non-profit arts and cultural institution is the Sacred Music Chorale. There is a local club called Rum Jungle on Jamaica Avenue, Boys and Girls Club on Atlantic Avenue, bingo every night at the old RKO Keith’s and a flea market every Sunday, and Forest Park the third largest park in Queens is just a short walk away.

There are four public elementary schools in my area; they are P.S. 51, P.S. 54,

P.S. 56, and PS. 90. There is only one public high school which is Richmond Hill high school and one private K-8th grade school which is Holy Child Jesus School. According to US Census Bureau of the 2000 Census the school enrollment percentage in nursery, preschool is 2.9%, 5.6% in kindergarten, 44.2% in k-8th grade, 23.6% in high school and college or graduate school is 23.7%. The percent of high school graduates is 69.88%,

Associate degree is 5.31%, and Bachelor’s Degree is 12.89% and graduate degrees are

7.94% this is reported also from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The average commute time spent traveling to work is 49.7 minutes this is according to Sperling’s Best Places. I don’t know if that is by car because it

Nieves 4 takes me approximate forty- five minutes to get to school by mass transit and if I go to

Manhattan about an hour. The area is very quiet and peaceful. I live right around the corner from the 102nd Precinct and I rarely hear of crime other than from other people in my community or if it is in the local newspaper. From Sperling’s Best Places both violent and property crime on a scale of 1 low and 10 high it is rated 6, the US average is rate 3.

The most important community problems is the illegal housing units

that destroys one or two family homes, overpopulation in local schools, and racial issues.

I know that not long ago, maybe last year or so, there was a man beaten up outside his

Mosque in South Richmond Hill so this problem is new. Many beautiful homes in my community have been knocked down and on the outside they look structurally sound.

Then multi-family dwellings are being built in its place further bringing down the property values, destroying the aesthetics and beauty of the neighborhood and adding to the overcrowding in our schools and mass transportation.

This is not just a problem here but in many other Eastern Queens communities because they are trying to knock down all the residential houses and make illegal housing units so that sooner or later the zoning codes in the area changes. Unlike

Western Queens many of the Eastern Queens neighborhoods still at least have some of the aesthetic beauty to share its history. Another issue to be addressed by the Community

Board, the Richmond Historical Society, and the Richmond Hill Block Association is trying to get part of the area made a historical district. It has been in the talks for the past few years that we have or will be going through rezoning changes but still the fact is nothing major really has been done to do anything. The perceptions are that my

Nieves 5 community is becoming more like an Elmhurst or Jackson Heights rather than being what it used to be, a community that has beautiful homes and rich cultural diversity.

Majority of the Western part of Queens near Long Island City don’t have wooden frame residential units any more and I believe that some parts of Queens should keep these wooden frame homes so people can come in the future and see how people lived in

Queens in the late 19th and 20th Centuries. My community back in the day was once considered suburbia, but now more and more it is becoming very urbanized.

In the end those who are most affected are the middle class people who mostly live in the outer boroughs, which have many of the residential homes that the majority of New Yorkers living in. Yes we do need to have affordable housing but I think by replacing a 1 or 2 family home with a 3 or 4 family home makes the neighborhood more over crowed, plus parking would be even harder to find.

Neighborhoods have lost historic landmarks that once were part of its history, now gone forever. Affordable housing laws should be made and most people who own wooden frame houses rent out part of their homes to people for very affordable rates. The

Department of Buildings should allow home owners to rent their finished basement out to those who are single or college students. More importantly I think the only way to address this is that the Department of Buildings gets on top of people who buy properties and plan to knock down the structure on the site. I know in my community a builder had violated the law and didn’t wait thirty days, in which in this time D.O.B. inspector comes an inspects the structure to be knocked down. Due to this one of his sites he has to now

Nieves 6 sell it and another building already done now has people who bought an apartment now becoming renters not owners. If the D.O.B. does their job then maybe our schools and transit system wouldn’t become so overcrowded. I think that by having residential housing units keeps the population at a rate where our whole system doesn’t become totally overcrowded. The only reason that the 7 train line is so packed is because of the neighboring communities. If you look at them they have hardly at all any houses, just mostly apartment buildings. I think in the end we need to preserve our communities and maybe people will begin to appreciate the beauty of the homes built not by construction workers but by artists of their craft.

Nieves 7 Works Cited Infoshare Online. (2008). Retrieved March/April 2008, from http://www.infoshare.org.

Kross, W. (1994). A Peek at Richmond Hill Through the Keyhole of Time. Woodhaven, NY: Apple Printing Inc.

Richmond Hill (zip 11418), New York. (2008). Retrieved April 1, 2008, from http://www.bestplaces.net/zip-code/Richmond_Hill-New_York-11418.aspx#7

Richmondhillny.org. (2008), Retrieved April 1, 2008, from http://www.richmondhillny.com/index.shtml

Zip Code Tabulation Area 11418. US Census Bureau: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts? _event=Search&geo_id=&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=11418&_cityTown=11418 &_state=&_zip=11418&_lang=en&_sse=on&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&show_2003_tab=&r edirect=Y