Crawling out of ‘The Hole’: City promises overhaul of neglected Queens-BK neighborhood

Mayor Eric Adams and city officials announced a plan to overall "The Hole,” a troubled and often neglected community on the border of Queens and Brooklyn.Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach

By Ryan Schwach

Mayor Eric Adams and city officials unveiled a comprehensive plan to overhaul one of the city’s most neglected and troubled neighborhoods on Tuesday, a little more than two months before he is set to leave office.

Adams said his administration was leaving the next mayoral administration a legacy plan to overhaul the community lodged on the Queens-Brooklyn border known as “The Hole.” The low-lying area has long been plagued by constant flooding, illegal dumping and other quality-of-life issues that have left residents feeling abandoned by the city.

Though efforts have been made in the past to reform the neighborhood that lies below sea level, Adams said on Tuesday that the city would build new infrastructure in the area and implement a rezoning plan to encourage developers to build there.

In total, the city will commit $146 million to the Jewel Streets, the name affectionately given to the area by residents in reference to the Ruby, Emerald, Amber and Sapphire Street names in the neighborhood.

Adams described the plan as a “mix of short term solutions and long term initiatives.”

The plan includes a promise to build an entirely new sewer system, a city-run pump station to help with flood water, reconstructed streets and sidewalks, and new green infrastructure that will help push water into the nearby Spring Creek.

Many residents use septic tanks because their homes are not connected to the city’s sewer systems.

Rohit Aggarwala, the commissioner of the Department Environmental Protection, said they are completely overhauling the systems beneath the Jewel Streets.

“We are going to be redoing the entire underground infrastructure for this entire neighborhood,” he said.

The system will also be built to withstand closer to 2.3 inches of rain water per hour. The current system was built to manage 1.75 inches per hour.

“This neighborhood will have more storm capacity than most neighborhoods in Manhattan,” Aggarwala said.

On top of fixing what’s already in the area, the Adams administration wants to build more on top of The Hole, through the Jewel Streets Neighborhood Plan, the third community-wide rezoning the administration has launched in Queens.

Through the plan, the city hopes to encourage the construction of 3,600 new homes, as well as new retail and community spaces along Linden Boulevard.

Additionally, the city will turn 17-acres of city owned land into another 1,400 homes and more retail and green space.

The plan’s zoning changes will need to go through the city’s land use review process, which includes reviews from local community boards, the borough president, the City Council and whoever the next mayor may be.

But the area’s local councilmember is not yet on board.

Republican Minority Leader Councilmember Joann Ariola, who represents part of The Hole on the Queens side, said she wants more information and community input.

“The city is claiming to have conducted two years of community engagement, but the community still doesn't know what the plan is,” she said in a statement to the Eagle. “I think this latest announcement was premature, if anything. It still hasn't been seen by the community boards, and local electeds only have the basics and no details.”

“The Hole,” which locals more affectionately call “The Jewel Streets,” is known for its flooding issues, illegal dumping and infrastructure problems.  Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach

“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.