Jackson Heights

Clarence snapped a photo of the construction sign at Northern Boulevard and 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, which earlier this week displayed the wrong speed limit. Motorists should no longer be under the impression that they should drive faster through the work zone.

Business owners in Jackson Heights have done more than just take over maintenance of the plaza on 37th Road. They've rechristened it "Diversity Plaza," and they staged a community celebration that concluded on Monday to mark Eid-ul-Fitr, the breaking of fast at the end of Muslim holy month Ramadan. It seems the plaza was anything but empty that night. Eid Mubarak to all!

A group of business owners who decried the 37th Road pedestrian plaza in Jackson Heights after it opened have come around and launched a group to act as stewards of the new public space. This turn of events comes after persistent work by Council Member Danny Dromm’s office and local merchants, who are now working together to ensure the plaza is a long-term success. The plaza's undeniable popularity as a gathering place also hasn't hurt.

"It's just a street. It's asphalt. It doesn't look like anything," said Jackson Heights resident Donovan Finn of the block of 78th Street between Northern Avenue and 34th Avenue. "But it feels like something." Finn's neighbors, it seems, agree.

What is it with the New York Times and the Jackson Heights pedestrian plaza?

A package of enhancements and adjustments to the new pedestrian plaza on 37th Road in Jackson Heights -- the object of a high-profile backlash from a group of local merchants this winter -- is winning over some of the skeptics.

Courtesy of Clarence Eckerson, Jr., here are some more scenes from the Jackson Heights pedestrian plaza that don't fit the New York Times' preferred narrative. Clarence says he passed through the plaza three times yesterday and it was bustling each time. On a Thursday.

Gotta hand it to the Times for some devious photo editing in today's Metro section. Check out the barren seating and shuttered storefronts in the shot that accompanies Sarah Maslin Nir's two-sides-to-every-story piece on the new Jackson Heights plaza. That plaza must really be a failure, right?

Reader Marcus Woollen submits this picture of the Jackson Heights pedestrian plaza on 37th Road taken yesterday afternoon.