{"id":7046,"date":"2024-09-26T11:55:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T16:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/?p=7046"},"modified":"2024-09-26T17:27:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T22:27:40","slug":"testing-the-pre-election-pulse-of-jackson-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/testing-the-pre-election-pulse-of-jackson-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing the Pre-Election Pulse of Jackson Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo provided by Fiona M. \u201826<\/em>: The southwest corner of 74th Street and 37th Avenue, Jackson Heights, Queens is bustling with locals of many backgrounds<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With more than <\/strong><\/em>160<\/em><\/strong><\/a> languages spoken and new residents from around the world, the Queens neighborhood is the home of a multitude of opinions on the upcoming presidential election.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the southwest corner of 74th Street and 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens, street vendors stationed themselves, attracting locals from across the borough. Thirty-year-old Tommy Acevedo, an ACE <\/a>public sanitation worker, rested against a fire hydrant, broom in hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m registered but I don\u2019t vote,\u201d said Mr. Acevedo. \u201c\u200bPeople are going to do what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Acevedo is one of around 66,000<\/a> people who live in the 11372 zip area of Jackson Heights. Of this population, about 59,000<\/a> people are of age to vote. During the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, just over 850<\/a> people in this zip code voted in the election. In a place where over 160<\/a> languages are spoken, and cultural backgrounds are diverse, there are a multitude of opinions about the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential elections. So what are some of the reasons people do not vote?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters like Mr. Acevedo have chosen not to vote because they do not believe any candidate will make a change in their daily lives. \u201cEach person, they say they have something to bring to the table,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don’t do anything that they say they will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter, 50, is a  sanitation worker who works with his friend, Mr. Acevedo. He is not a citizen and, therefore, cannot vote. If he were to vote, however, he would base his vote on how a president would change his daily life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter said that he respects that President Biden provides humanitarian aid to other countries but dislikes that under Biden \u201ctaxes went up, everything went up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter believes that Former President Trump would not have put the country under so much pressure. \u201cTrump is a businessman, he doesn\u2019t just give, he asks \u2018what do you got for me?\u2019\u201d said Peter, as he swept trash into a dustpan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well-known throughout the neighborhood for his opinionated character is Zan, a 42-year-old street vendor. Along with Mr. Acevedo, Zan is registered but chooses not to vote. His reasoning is that candidates are not what they seem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zan\u2019s street vending stand is stationed next to a halal cart on the street corner. Media provided by Fiona M \u201826. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe people you vote for don\u2019t actually make the decision,\u201d said Zan, straightening out the leather goods on his table. He claimed that voting for any candidate is pointless because his vote is not going to the candidate; it is going to the unknown people who influence the candidate\u2019s decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some folks, like Sumer Rashid, would vote if they had the chance, but their citizenship status prevents them. Ms. Rashid is a middle-aged woman from Pakistan who is unable to vote because she is not a citizen. She was thinking of applying for citizenship before the election so that she could vote after five years of living in Flushing, working as a home health aide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Rashid has been waiting with her family of 30 for her brother to be allowed into the country with a visa. He has been applying for 18 years and has not gotten an interview or call. According to Ms. Rashid, her vote would depend on which candidate would speed up the immigration process for her brother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have only one wish: for my brother to come to the U.S.,\u201d said Ms. Rashid with the translating help of her daughter. \u201cIf Harris lets my brother in, she will have 30 votes from my family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearby to where Ms. Rashid and her daughter snacked on panipuri, Frank Cross, a street businessman, sold perfumes. While Mr. Cross has many ideas about the two electoral candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, he also chooses not to vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wouldn’t change anything,\u201d he said as he waved goodbye to a customer. \u201cIf it’ll change something, yeah, I’m all for change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank Cross posing in front of his perfume stand. Media provided by Fiona M \u201826. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiona Miller<\/strong> \u201926, is an enthusiastic staff writer in her second year with The Grace Gazette<\/em>.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo provided by Fiona M. \u201826: The southwest corner of 74th Street and 37th Avenue, Jackson Heights, Queens is bustling with locals of many backgrounds With more than 160 languages… Continue reading “Testing the Pre-Election Pulse of Jackson Heights”<\/span> <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":7049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[180,129,873],"appful":[],"class_list":["post-7046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-featured","tag-politics","tag-recentarticles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9uEnr-1PE","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-26-at-12.54.26\u202fPM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7046"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7057,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7046\/revisions\/7057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7046"},{"taxonomy":"appful","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/appful?post=7046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}