William Scarborough, who grew up in Jamaica, Queens, fondly remembers a moment from his youth when he and other kids were allowed to swim in the pool of one of the neighborhood’s celebrity residents: jazz icon William James “Count” Basie.
The area, particularly Addisleigh Park, where Scarborough lives, drew many of the country’s foremost performers, such as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and “Godfather of Soul” James Brown, earning it the title of “Black New York’s Gold Coast.”
But the former state lawmaker, who is about 80 years old – he won’t divulge his exact age – says he watched over the many decades as predominantly Black Jamaica fell prey to neglect and environmental racism. Residents of the densely populated area, which ranges from a bustling downtown district to suburban calm, now share space with poultry, cement and scrap metal operations.
A scene from Jamaica, Queens, where a major land-use and planning initiative portends sweeping changes.
It is against this backdrop Scarborough says he cautiously supports the city’s ambitious Jamaica Neighborhood Plan, which through planning, rezoning and other efforts aims to facilitate the construction of thousands of new homes and the siting of new, cleaner businesses while addressing long-standing infrastructure, flooding and pollution problems.
“I do believe that this is an opportunity for this community to thrive,” said Scarborough, the president of two local community groups, the Addisleigh Park Civic Coalition and the Southeast Queens Residents Environmental Justice Coalition. He said he welcomes the uncommon scrutiny the neighborhood is receiving through the proposal and the opportunities it presents.
But there is plenty of opposition to the initiative among current residents. Many say they worry the changes will bring gentrification and displacement, notwithstanding the promise of new affordable housing. After community boards voted it down earlier this year, the rezoning now before the City Council, which is expected to issue its own judgment in October. Current residents say they need assurances they will have a place in the planners’ reimagined Jamaica.
A scene from Jamaica, Queens, where a major land-use and planning initiative portends sweeping changes.
“These units are priced far above what local residents can afford,” said Lisa Edwards, a Jamaica resident of 25 years. She worries about “huge increases in rents,” spurred by competition for the new housing, and about small businesses being pushed out, along with her children “being priced out of the neighborhood they were born in.”
The proposed rezoning would transform 230 blocks of the area, with prospects for creating 12,000 new homes, of which 4,000 would be deemed affordable under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning laws, according to city planning documents. City planning officials said the zoning changes would result in higher density, including mixed-use developments in the downtown area. The plan would be the largest in the city in at least two decades, according to administration officials.
A scene from Jamaica, Queens, where a major land-use and planning initiative portends sweeping changes.
It would also create 2 million square feet of new space for commercial use and community groups, which the city contends would help generate more than 7,000 jobs.
Despite those purported gains, critics and even some supporters are uncertain whether the plan will benefit longtime residents or ultimately push them out of the area.
The plan is critical to the agenda of Mayor Eric Adams, who regularly calls his administration “the most pro-housing” in the city’s history. Jamaica is one of five neighborhoods being targeted for an overhaul, in addition to Long Island City, the East Bronx, Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue and Midtown. Collectively, city officials said these five neighborhood transformations would help spur development of 50,000 new homes.
“For decades, Jamaica’s zoning has curtailed new housing and limited new businesses,” Adams said in a statement after the City Planning Commission approved the Jamaica rezoning in August. “It’s made it harder for working-class families to work and stay in the area. But our Jamaica Neighborhood Plan will help change that.”
A public process
City officials said the neighborhood plan had been shaped and reshaped over the course of two years and 38 public meetings.
A Sept. 9 hearing of the Council’s zoning and franchises subcommittee made clear that the sweeping plan had the potential to impact myriad issues in Jamaica: infrastructure, schools, parks, cultural institutions and economic opportunities.
A scene from Jamaica, Queens, where a major land-use and planning initiative portends sweeping changes.
“ Our communities deserve to be included and heard, with real influence, when new development is being planned in their neighborhoods,” said Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, whose district encompasses Jamaica and other neighborhoods.
But for many residents, supporters and opponents alike, the issue boiled down to one issue: affordable housing, or the lack thereof.
The Rev. Patrick O’Connor of the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica said the rezoning “should be both pushed through as a matter of great urgency.”
“We’re in a housing emergency,” he said.
City officials said the precise depth of affordability remains an open question but under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing guidelines all new private developments would be required to include some affordable housing.
Under the guidelines, 25% of units in new private developments would be reserved for households earning 60% of the area median income (or $87,000 for a family of three) or less, for whom a one-bedroom would cost $1,822 and a two-bedroom $2,187.
A scene from Jamaica, Queens, where a major land-use and planning initiative portends sweeping changes.
Under the city’s guidelines, the plan could also aim units at households earning just 40% of the area median income or no more than $58,000 for a family of three, but in that situation the percentage of units set aside would be even lower: 20%.
Nonetheless, members of Queens Community Board 8 and Community Board 12 both rejected the neighborhood plan earlier this year in what are advisory votes.
Hersh Parekh, the chair of Community Board 8’s zoning committee, said he had voted in favor of the plan due to the prospect of additional housing, but opponents narrowly defeated supporters by an 18-17 vote, largely for reasons unrelated to housing.
Parekh said members were largely concerned that an “influx” of new residents would overwhelm transit and pointed to the “minimal focus on public parking availability” that would impact businesses along Hillside Avenue.
“Nothing was presented about planned transit improvements for this purpose,” Parekh said in an interview.
Councilmember Nantasha Williams, who represents part of the affected area, expressed enthusiasm at the hearing for many of the plan’s provisions but made it clear to her colleagues that even as she has helped lead the process of envisioning a neighborhood transformation, her vote wasn’t guaranteed.
“ My final support is tied directly to the city's willingness to translate our community's needs into real, tangible investments,” Williams said.
Joe Marvilli, a spokesperson for the Department of City Planning, called the neighborhood plan “a golden opportunity to bring thousands of income-restricted homes, jobs, and hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investments to this important Queens community.
“As an incredible economic and transit hub, this is exactly where we should be building new housing,” Marvilli said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with the New York City Council to create a more affordable and prosperous future for Jamaica.”
Bringing back the neighborhood
Scarborough, for one, is hopeful positive changes are around the corner – that the community can rebound, much as he has. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1994. He served for 20 years but resigned in 2015, at the age of 69, after pleading guilty to charges he submitted at least $40,000 in false travel expense vouchers, for which he paid restitution, fines and received a 13-month prison sentence. He has since transitioned to another brand of community service, including serving at the helm of the Addisleigh Park Civic Organization.
William Scarborough, a former state lawmaker, hopes the Jamaica Neighborhood Plan will help improve life in the neighborhood.
On a recent morning, he drove through Jamaica in his blue Chevy Trax SUV, and remembered what used to be, the Black luminaries who made the area home, such as James Brown, the “godfather of soul,” who lived in St. Albans, and the big department stores and movie theaters. He said things began to change in his youth. Public investment in the area diminished, and pollution from the ribbons of highways nearby, and from the preponderance of dirty industries, took their toll. A study conducted by environmental scientists at York College, Medgar Evers College and Rutgers University in 2024 found levels of fine particulate matter pollution in the Jamaica area far exceeded federal standards. The particulate matter can contribute to cardiovascular disease, asthma and birth defects, according to scientists.
“ Those are some of the things that the Jamaica rezoning and the follow up are going to have to deal with,” Scarborough said, envisioning an added incentive for fixing long-festering community harms. “They’re going to have to figure out how the people that are coming in the community can be safe in coexisting with some of the heavy industry that exists here now.”
