Our contracted uniformed sanitation team cleans our district seven days a week from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m., year-round. These hardworking individuals sweep the sidewalks and gutters, bag litter, and empty trashcans daily and in all weather. They also wash and paint the district’s trash receptacles as necessary and clean graffiti and stickers regularly from street furniture, light poles and building surfaces. Come winter, the team removes snow from our BID’s catch basins, crosswalks, intersections, bus stops, and fire hydrants.

Several times a week, various members of our administrative team assess street conditions, identify broken or troublesome city infrastructure (promptly reporting it to 311), and identify other areas that can be fixed or beautified with our assistance.

During the dreariest months, we light up downtown Jamaica with holiday lights, while year-round our banner program decorates street pole banners, adding visual interest to the area. Currently, we are inventorying our many tree pits to evaluate both planting and maintenance needs.

We also facilitate public art in our built environment. Our installation Power Strip, a colorful linear ground mural by Queens artist Brittany Baldwin, at Parsons Public Space.

Our most recent installation, Light Lane, is a series of colorful stationary bikes that project iconic images that represent Jamaica when pedaled. The bikes also play iconic music from some of Jamaica’s most famous and celebrated artists.

The BID provides business assistance to our current merchants and hosts events targeted towards our business community. We help notify local businesses of new city regulations, incentives or services that could affect their operations, and in return, provide useful feedback to city government regarding street-level issues and policies affecting our merchants. Our online directory encourages consumers to patronize our local businesses, while our periodic classes or technical assistance workshops offer free capacity-building opportunities for local businesses to grow, survive and thrive. We also coordinate a large sidewalk sales days calendar, a boon for local retailers, and a value card that consolidates discounts offered by local merchants to increase sales and loyalty.

The BID studies the existing business landscape of our neighborhood shopping corridors and implements projects to address the needs identified.

Our district marketing and events initiatives are designed to put the spotlight on our wonderful retail, restaurants, businesses, public spaces and cultural organizations and encourage consumers to make the most of downtown Jamaica. Key programming includes:

Online Communications

Our website, active social media and weekly e-newsletter keep the community abreast of what’s here and the latest news.

Printed Guides

We periodically print specialized guides and distribute at local brick and mortar entities, public spaces and events.

Networking Happy Hours

Periodically, we invite local community partners and business owners to mingle and connect at varying spots throughout the district.

The BID hosts various public events like Halloween celebrations, the annual Harvest Festival, Thanksgiving Turkey giveaways etc.

Many hands make light work, and advocating for a strong downtown Jamaica is no different. We value our neighborhood’s network of anchor institutions, government partners, nonprofit and community-based organizations, property owners, business owners and others that are focused on making downtown Jamaica all it can be. For that reason, we work closely with many entities, including the Jamaica NOW steering committee, Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, Queens Community Board 12, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, King Manor Museum, Cultural Collaborative Jamaica, Queens Borough President’s Office, Queens Chamber of Commerce, Queens Economic Development Corporation, Queens Youth Justice Center, Sheltering Arms, and our local electeds, sanitation, transportation and police departments (to name but just a few entities!) to share information, cross-promote, jointly advocate, and collaborate whenever possible.