South Jamaica

“Who would have thought you’d have a five-bedroom house in South Jamaica selling for $1.4 million?” says local real estate agent Ronald Greene of Roni Green Realty. This part of Queens is just 2 miles west of Long Island, but in the late 20th century it was a different world. A confluence of social issues and government negligence resulted in South Jamaican crime rates rising above the New York City average. Since then, however, a grassroots effort by local civic leaders along with help from nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity and constructive government policies has led to property values that have grown steadily for decades.

The residential architecture in South Jamaica is a pleasing mix of tidy Victorian and colonial revival single family homes along wide streets. Old growth London Plane and elm trees shade small front yards, often fenced. Values are the highest in the center of the vicinity. Down the street from Paisley Pond Park, between Sutphin and Guy R Brewer boulevards, renovated split-levels and colonials with five or more bedrooms are selling for between $1 million and $1.5 million. “There are a lot of conversions from one family to two family homes,” says Greene, making for nice opportunities for multigenerational families or canny homebuyers looking to live in one unit and rent another. Buyers looking to enter the home market for the right price won’t do much better than the smaller prewar homes in South Jamaica. Pretty and uniform Craftsmans and colonials with two bedrooms and small yards can be found for as little as $350,000.

Residents will find a multitude of businesses and restaurants where Sutphin Boulevard meets Linden Boulevard in the north and along Rockaway Boulevard to the south. From grocery stores to fast food, businesses large and small are thriving. A Food Town and a C-Town are currently the two major grocers serving the community, along with several smaller independent stores. Compass Café on Rockaway is a popular coffee shop down the street from a soul food eatery and a yoga studio. The Door is an upscale Jamaican restaurant caddy-corner to the Rochdale Shopping Center and the headquarters of the New York City Police Department’s 113th Precinct. Baisley Pond Park is 100 acres and Baisley Pond takes up 30 of them. This huge green space in the center of South Jamaica is a gathering place for community events such as the annual Southern Queens Gospel Fest, puppet shows, cricket matches and weekly 5K community runs. It’s also a place for solo activities as energetic as running or as placid as fishing. The New York City Public Housing Authority’s South Jamaica Houses sit on the on the northeastern corner of the park. It’s common to see residents walking their children to Edward K Ellington Elementary School during mornings, but some residents report not feeling comfortable walking around the vicinity late at night.

PS 140Q Edward K Ellington is a magnet school for the sciences and arts with the motto “Greatness Occurs One Step at a Time.” Its adherence to this adage earned it a ranking in the top quartile of city schools with a perfect score for student achievement according to the NYC Department of Education. The High School for Law Enforcement and Public Safety is across the street next to a recreation center. The Edward Byrne Center is an outpost of the Police Athletic League named for a young officer shot nearby in 1988. Today, youth can channel themselves into sports like boxing under the coaching of off-duty police officers. Niche gives the teachers at Richard S. Grossley Middle School a solid B+ for their efforts to combine data-driven metrics with socio-emotional wellness in service of their roughly 400 students. There are also religious schools and a kindergarten through fourth grade branch of the Success Academy Charter School network in South Jamaica.

While there is no subway station nearby, the Queens bus line was just redesigned resulting in the addition of several stops and routes in and around South Jamaica. Jamaica Center, a transportation hub connecting to the John F Kennedy Airport Air Train, the NYC subway and the Long Island Rail Road, is a mile north, but nearly all the homes have driveways and parking is easy in South Jamaica, so many residents prefer to drive. JFK Airport is under a mile away, which has made this area an attractive home for employees of various aviation industries. “South Jamaica has been upgraded and property values have gone up,” says Greene. “There are a lot of city workers and people with good jobs living in the area. South Jamaica is not what it used to be.”

Written By

Abbot Street

Photography Contributed By

Leon Cato

Video By

Andrew Sutton