Although a proper border has not been established, the neighborhood is a subsection of greater Jamaica bounded by the Long Island Rail Road Main Line tracks, Jamaica Avenue, or Liberty Avenue to the north; the Van Wyck Expressway on the west; Rockaway Boulevard on the south; and Merrick Boulevard on the east, adjoining the neighboring community of St.

[4] Other primary thoroughfares of South Jamaica include Baisley, Foch, Linden, Guy R. Brewer, and Sutphin Boulevards.

The eastern border extends as far as the LIRR Montauk Branch tracks in the northern part of the neighborhood.

[5] The South Side nickname dates back to the first half of the 20th century, when several local community organizations carried the name.

[28][29][30] An additional nickname, "South Suicide Queens", is a reference to the high crime rate in the neighborhood since the 1980s.

[4][19][35] The Jamaica Race Course was opened in 1894 at Baisley Boulevard and New York Avenue (today's Guy R. Brewer Bouelvard), and expanded in the early 1900s.

[6][14][40][41] At this time, the neighborhood was considered a major slum, due to overcrowding, high crime, and lack of infrastructure.

Plans included an additional public housing development, and one of several potential Queens sites for the failed relocation of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Rochdale Village opened in December 1963 on the former Jamaica Racetrack site, bringing with it the neighborhood's first supermarkets and shopping centers.

[55][56] The subway connection was never constructed, due to funding issues caused by the city's fiscal crisis.

[57][58] The York College campus, also delayed by the fiscal crisis, began construction in 1980 and opened in stages beginning in 1988.

[54] In the late 1960s and continuing through the 1970s, South Jamaica and other Southeast Queens neighborhoods saw increasing rates of drug sales and usage, including cocaine and heroin epidemics.

[44][61] In 1972, South Jamaica was declared "the largest officially designated poverty area in Queens" by the Human Resources Administration.

[62][63] Other racial events included the shooting of Clifford Glover on April 28, 1973 by a plainclothes NYPD officer.

[66][69] In the 1980s and 1990s, South Jamaica was one of several New York City neighborhoods victimized by the national crack cocaine epidemic.

The cartel of Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols was also headquartered in the neighborhood, supplying much of the cocaine in the area and around Queens.

These groups had originated from the Seven Crowns gang that was started during the cocaine and heroin epidemic in the 1970s, and which expanded into a multi-state operation by the 1980s.

[22][71][72] On February 26, 1988, rookie police officer Edward Byrne was killed while guarding the house of a witness in a drug-related trial.

[13] In recent decades, the Hispanic community has expanded, with residents from Mexico, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic moving to the area.

[4][26] The area is largely a middle-class community consisting of suburban one- and two-family houses ranging from colonials built around the 1960s to new developments.

Campus Magnet (formerly Andrew Jackson High School) is located in Cambria Heights to the east.

[4] The Federal Aviation Administration Eastern Region has its offices at Rockaway Boulevard in South Jamaica, near JFK Airport.

[13][17] A southern extension of the New York City Subway's IND Archer Avenue Line to South Jamaica was planned under the 1968 Program for Action by way of the LIRR Atlantic Branch, but not completed.

King aka Kelvin J. Ford born in South Jamaica Queens in July 1975 is a real estate mogul and entrepreneur is the youngest black man in the country to own a Hilton Hotel.