South Jamaica is a
middle-class neighborhood in the
New York City borough of
Queens, located south of downtown
Jamaica. Although a proper border has not been established, the neighborhood is an overall subset of the greater
Jamaica area which faces the
Long Island Rail Road tracks,
Jamaica Avenue and
Liberty Avenue to the north, the
Van Wyck Expressway on the west, and continues east toward
Merrick Boulevard in the neighboring community of
St. Albans. Other primary thoroughfares of South Jamaica include Baisley, Foch,
Linden, Guy R. Brewer and Sutphin Boulevards. South Jamaica is predominantly
African-American with strong majority of
Afro-Caribbean descent. In recent decades there has been an increase in the
Hispanic community with members from Mexico, El Salvador, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Guyanese and Bangladeshi make up much of the larger portion of newcomers to the community. Bengali people can be found mostly around Sutphin and Merrick Boulevards along 145th, 153rd, 157th and 170th Streets and South Road, 105th, 107th and 109th Avenues. Also a small population of
Haitians,
Pakistanis and
Trinidadians live in this area.