NEW YORK — At the final stop on the F train, just an hour from midtown Manhattan, sits a diverse slice of New York City.
On one side of Hillside Avenue in Queens, storefronts emphasize the diversity of the neighborhood. A roti shop, specializing in Trinidadian and Guyanese cuisine, a store selling colorful saris and a halal grocer line the block.
Turn around, and a stately façade marks the beginning of Jamaica Estates, a wealthy adjoining neighborhood that was the childhood home of one of the most talked about men in politics: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“I think anybody would be excited for anybody who was running for the presidency from their home town you know? From New York city, from the borough of Queens,” said Rhonda Olenick, who has lived in neighboring Hillcrest for 54 years.
But Trump’s old neighborhood has changed. And on the day of the New York primary, despite his hometown advantage, not all Jamaica residents share Olenick’s enthusiasm.
“You don’t see any Trump banners here,” said George Pericon, a 22-year-old Queens College student and Jamaica Estates resident, motioning to the Tudor-style houses surrounding Trump’s childhood home.
“I flip (Trump’s former house) off every time I pass by it due to recent events and recent speeches,” he said.
Pericon’s father immigrated to the United States from Bolivia. He landed in Queens, one of the most ethnically diverse boroughs of the city. The Jamaica Estates neighborhood in Queens is no exception.
According to 2014 census data, no race holds a majority in Queens, and nearly 48 percent of the population is foreign-born.
The Jamaica Estates of Trump’s childhood was different.
It was and had long been a predominantly white Anglo-Saxon community, as described by Queen’s Borough Historian, Jack Eichenbaum. A 1928 advertisement in a community flier heralded Jamaica as the “greatest home section” in Queens County. A fact sheet boasted that 75 percent of Jamaica Estates was covered with “splendid well-grown hardwood trees” and stated that no business of any kind was to be established. It was, and continues to be, a quiet and wealthy enclave of residential homes.
But while it may look similar today to its appearance 60 years ago, its residents have changed.
“In my childhood when I was growing up you used to go to Jamaica Estates to see the Christmas lights,” said Eichenbaum. “That’s not the best place to go anymore because there are plenty of people to whom other holidays are much more important.”
Jamaica Estates and neighboring Jamaica Hills are home to – among other nationalities – a large Bangladeshi population, many of whom are Muslim.
“I care about my religion more than this country, and if he’s willing to kick us out then I’m going to be very disappointed being away from the neighborhood where I grew up, and the neighborhood that he grew up in,” said 15-year-old Hasna Miah. Her father, Mohammed Miah, left Bangladesh 25 years ago and has spent the last 15 years in Jamaica Estates.
But whether or not people agree with his politics, Trump’s presence in Queens is still felt.
“Everyone talked about it when we were growing up,” said Queens resident Michael O’Loughlin. “During the ‘80s I was a teen and that’s when he was becoming really big and people would sort of talk about him and would be gossiping about him.”
“I believe that building over there was his 18th birthday present,” O’Loughlin said, pointing to a building just beyond the boundary of Jamaica Estates.
“It’s the lore of the neighborhood. I don’t know if it’s the truth.”
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