By Adam Kramer
On a warm summer day when the mercury hit 90 degrees, media mogul and Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg rolled up his sleeves and spent Tuesday morning touring the downtown Jamaica business district.
On his two-hour visit, he touched on three topics — jobs, arts and housing — important to the borough.
Bloomberg was the fourth mayoral candidate to visit the up-and-coming Queens neighborhood. Democratic candidates Public Advocate Mark Green, City Comptroller Alan Hevesi and City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Astoria) had all stopped by for a tour. But Democratic contender Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and Republican candidate former Bronx Borough President Herman Badillo had yet to tour the area.
Bloomberg started his excursion at the Jamaica Market, then proceeded to the Jamaica Business Center, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning and the King Manor Museum. While walking through the district with Bloomberg, Carlisle Towery, president of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, pointed out the important additions to the southeast Queens neighborhood — the city’s crime lab, the civil court and the Food and Drug Administration building.
“I think getting jobs out to all the boroughs is a good way to go,” Bloomberg said, reacting to a comment by Towery that Queens only has about 6 percent of the 550,000 government jobs in the city while Manhattan has 82 percent.
Bloomberg suggested that companies and the government could move their back office and middle management personnel into the outer borough communities, which need them. New York City has one of the best transportation systems in the world and it would allow workers to get to and from their place of work, he said.
“Show me where the people want to live and I’ll show you where the jobs are,” Bloomberg said “We need to convince these companies to move outside of Manhattan but stay in the city.”
The addition of jobs to areas in southeast Queens, such as Jamaica or Long Island City in western Queens, would be a boon to the local economies of both areas.
“Jobs, jobs, jobs are our bottom line,” said Towery. U.S. Rep Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica) is helping the development corporation, but downtown Jamaica is an industrial area that needs help, he said.
At the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Bloomberg responded to the question of whether he would have a member of his administration working on the cultural diversity of the city by saying cultural programs are just as important to the city’s growth as the economy and jobs.
He said he would not only focus on the big cultural centers but provide for the small centers and museums. The people who start out attending a local concert or dance recital will go on to the city’s larger institutions.
Bloomberg also called for an exchange between the big cultural centers and the small neighborhood venues. He wants established institutions, such as the Whitney Museum or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to take a leadership role and help the smaller institutions like the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.
“We have a lot of things to bring to the table,” said Veronique Le Melle, executive director of the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. “We have a voice.”
She said all the candidates who have visited the small cultural center have been very responsive to its needs.
Bloomberg also spoke about the importance of improving middle- income housing in Queens as well as the other boroughs.
“The reason why four people are living in a one-room apartment is they want to be here,” he said.
The building of affordable housing is critical for Queens, which suffers from illegal conversions in which private residences are turned into multiple-family dwellings.
Bloomberg said the city “needs to enforce the fire laws and health laws” since legislation preventing these types of living arrangements were enacted for a reason.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
