DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1968

Jamaica Center’ Envisaged —
As Mini-Midtown Manhattan

By ROGER WETHERINGTON
A mini-midtown-Manhattan -of office buildings, shops, schools and art centers
would growin Jamaica, Queens, under a plan released yesterday by the Regional Plan

Associationg”

The association’s long-awaited
report, “Jamaica. Center,” called
the site suitable for commercial
development because of its trans-
it network, vacant land and large
surrounding population. It said
.a reversal of the area’s decay
would benefit the Negroes of
South Jamaica,«the city’s third
largest black community.

‘as proposed by the Lindsay ad-

The 72-page report was pre-
pared in consultation with resi-
dents of Jamaica and had been
in the making for six months.
According to the association, a
number of its suggested improve-
ments are “imminent.” The first
steps are or should be the fol-
lowing: ‘.

York College Site

@ Location in South Jamaica
of York College, the new. four-
year unit of the City University,

ministration.

@ Demolition of the Jamaica
Ave. El as quickly as alternative
facilities can be built. Although
the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority plans demolition with-
in a decade, the “El trains should
be eliminated much sooner than
that,” the report declared.

® Planning new transit lines)
and stations in accordance with
the over-all plan for a Jamaica
center. The transit improvements
have already received a high pri-
ority from the MTA.

Mayor Favors Program

® Making the Jamaica center
an early project of Gov. Rocke-
feller’s State Urban Development
Corp. “The Mayor favors the pro-
gram,” the report said, ‘and the
Governor has the money and ma-
chinery to do the job.” .

York College and most of the
transit improvements are expect-
ed quite soon, the association |
noted. There is also an effort)
being made to push forward the |
plans for demolition of the ele- |
vated. A number of businesmen |
have indicated an interest in re-
locating in Jamaica soon if the
city and state will make their
commitment clear.

According to the association,
the number of office jobs in the
metropolitan area will nearly
double from 1.6. million in 1965.
to 8 million by the year 2000.
Two dozen urban centers like
Jamaica are projected between
Trenton and New Haven to ac-
commodate the new jobs, since
Manhattan can’t handle them all.

Renewal Planned
Although some new centers will
be created, others will be estab-
lished by renewing and enlarg-
ing older centers like Jamaica,

downtown Brooklyn, Newark,
Harleni, Jersey City and others,

‘The refurbished older centers)
will provide jobs and shopping
for the surrounding Negro com-
munities, strengthen the city’s
faltering tax base and keep mid-
dle-income whites in the cities,
the association said.

For Jamaica, about 90,000 new
office jobs are planned by the
year 2000 and half that many
within less than 20 years. Some
new housing, health facilities,
retail stores and arts centers
are also projected.

The association said little re-
location of residents or busi-
nesses would be required since
a number of sites in the area are
either vacant or only lightly used.

Jamaica in Center

Jamaica is in the middle of the
borough’s 2 million people and
perhaps 250,000 office workers
live within 30 minutes of the
community by bus or subway.

The modernized Long Island)
Rail Road will put Jamaica with-
in 12 minutes of Manhattan. The
subway service from Queens Blvd.
to Brooklyn will be extended soon
to South Jamaica. Service to Ken-
nedy Airport is also planned.