“We need to bring the community into the equation here and make sure these things are what they actually want, not what the city has decided they should want,” she added.
The city aims to certify the land use applications next year.
For years, residents of The Hole were regularly inundated with flood water that wouldn’t recede for several days, and illegal dumping of trash and vehicles.
“We have definitely lived under inhumane conditions,” said Julisa Rodriguez, a 19-year-resident of Jewel Street. “We were faced with the darkness of such struggles, water rising above floor level, leaks and spills from our old and outdated septic tank, mold, a rat infestation and not to mention, my son developing chronic asthma.”
Locals said they were often neglected, and that officials seldom addressed their issues.
“Residents told us they had tried addressing their concerns with various government agencies for decades, to no avail,” said Debra Ack, co-founder and board member of the East New York Community Land Trust, who lives 10 minutes away from where the mayor spoke but has spearheaded much of the organizing in The Hole. “They raised their voices, and too often they were met with silence. They were frustrated, they were jaded, and many felt like giving up.”
In March 2023, the city announced sewer upgrades for the area, which Adams touted in October of that year days after historic rainfall in Queens.
However, THE CITY reported that many locals did not consider the problem solved.
“I strongly say there are no differences,” local Mohammed Doha, told the nonprofit news outlet in 2023. “Here, if they don’t put it in the sewer system, nothing is going to be resolved.”
Issues continued, and earlier this year the city introduced a first-of-its-kind plan to buy-out homeowners whose homes had been damaged by constant flooding.
On Tuesday though, Jewel Street locals told the Eagle that they are finally starting to see the improvements.
“This announcement, to me, means everything,” Ack told the Eagle after the announcement. “It means that what we’ve been fighting for for the past four years, for the residents of this community, it means that things are moving, coming to fruition.”
Rodriguez said she was “hopeful.”
Ali Mohammad, another resident who spoke briefly to the Eagle from the front seat of his van, said that things are looking up.
“It’s much better, much better, maybe 90 percent better,” he said.
While the future of the Jewel Streets seems to be brighter than once thought, there are no guarantees that progress continues.
Whatever the next several years hold for the area, it will come under the direction of someone other than the Adams administration.
Adams, who ended his re-election bid in September, has a little over two months left in office.
It will be up to his successor to carry out the work at The Hole, as well as other major infrastructure and zoning projects in Long Island City and Jamaica.
“There’s more to do, but I know we’re setting the right platform,” Adams said Tuesday. “Whoever comes into office after, they want to have a good baton that we’re handing [them], they have to just finish the damn race and do what we have started.”
“We want the next man to succeed, because this is our city, and I’m not going anywhere, and we’re not going anywhere, and so all we have to do is continue the race,” he added.
Regardless of who controls City Hall next, overseeing the ultimate completion of the Jewel Streets plan, Ack said locals will continue to speak up.
“We know it’s still a long way, but we’re there to keep putting our foot on the neck of the agencies to make sure that they do what they say they want to do,” she said.