Jamaica Hills-Briarwood

Neighborhood · Queens

Northwest of downtown Jamaica, Jamaica Hills-Briarwood stretches from the Van Wyck Expressway east to the edge of Jamaica Estates.

  • 0.99 square miles
  • 39,292 residents, 2020 Census
  • 205 street corners
  • 3 subway stations
  • 27 bus routes

Briarwood takes its name from the Briarwood Land Company, whose developer picked it for the thorny undergrowth of the local woods and began building around 1905, though the area stayed largely undeveloped until a 1924 land auction. In Jamaica Hills, the 9.16-acre Captain Tilly Park wraps around Goose Pond, a kettle pond left by retreating glaciers at the edge of the Harbor Hill Moraine. The park was renamed in 1935 for Captain George H. Tilly, who died in the Spanish-American War.

Sources: Briarwood, Queens (Wikipedia); Briarwood (Queens Community Board 8); Jamaica Hills (Queens Community Board 8); Captain Tilly Park (Wikipedia).

Map

Open the map full size

Jamaica Hills-Briarwood borders six areas, and 84th Drive holds more of its corners than any other street, 20 of 205.

Street map of Jamaica Hills-Briarwood, Queens, outlined among Jamaica, Kew Gardens, Pomonok-Electchester-Hillcrest and Kew Gardens Hills, with its three subway stations and Captain Tilly Park.Pomonok-Electchester-HillcrestJamaica Estates-HolliswoodJamaicaKew GardensKew Gardens HillsFlushing Meadows-Corona Park
  • Jamaica Hills-Briarwood
  • A neighboring area
  • Park
  • A station in the list
  • Another station

Neighborhood areas and streets: NYC Department of City Planning. Parks: NYC Parks. Stations: MTA.

Neighboring areas

Subway stations

  • 169 St lines F
  • Briarwood lines E F
  • Jamaica-Van Wyck lines E accessible

Getting around

Three subway stations and buses on 27 routes stop in or at the edge of Jamaica Hills-Briarwood.

  • 3 subway stations
  • 1 of them listed by the MTA as fully accessible
  • 24 local bus routes
  • 3 express bus routes

Local bus routes

  • J90
  • Q1
  • Q2
  • Q3
  • Q17
  • Q20
  • Q25
  • Q30
  • Q31
  • Q36
  • Q43
  • Q44-SBS
  • Q45
  • Q46
  • Q54
  • Q56
  • Q60
  • Q65
  • Q75
  • Q76
  • Q77
  • Q82
  • T300
  • T340

Express bus routes

  • QM21
  • QM65
  • QM68

Safety record

Between 2021 and 2025, its corners averaged more police-reported crashes than the average Queens corner.

  • 1,120 police-reported crashes at its corners
  • 5.5 a corner, on average
  • 5.2 the average Queens corner
  • 17 corners with a clean record

Signal or safety changes on City record, at 23 of its corners

Leading pedestrian intervals
16
Accessible pedestrian signals
8
Safety Improvement Projects
4
Turn calming
1
Barnes Dance all-way crossings
1
Enhanced crossings
1

Camera tickets

In 2025 its corners had more school-zone speed camera tickets than bus-lane or red-light tickets.

  • 526 red-light camera tickets at one corner
  • 9,738 school-zone speed camera tickets at six corners
  • 1,356 bus-lane camera tickets at one corner
Most red-light tickets
Grand Central Parkway & Main Street, 526
Most speed tickets
Queens Boulevard & 87th Avenue, 4,885
Most bus-lane tickets
Hillside Avenue & 143rd Street, 1,356

People and homes

The 2020 Census counted 39,292 residents in Jamaica Hills-Briarwood, about 39,700 per square mile.

  • 14,435 homes, 2020 Census
  • 882 homes added since April 2010, net, by City Planning's count

Half of its 3,438 residential lots hold buildings from 1930 or earlier, and 64% of them date from before 1940, by the City's tax lot records.

Parks and landmarks

Parkland
20.3 acres of NYC Parks property
The largest pieces
Captain Tilly Park (9.3 acres), Hoover - Manton Playgrounds (5.5 acres) and Joseph Austin Playground (3.8 acres)
Designated landmark
The Jamaica High School

Streets and trees

Trees
3,384 in NYC Parks' records, most often London planetree, pin oak and Japanese flowering cherry
Street with the most corners
84th Drive, with 20 of the area's 205
Height above sea level
From 45 feet at Union Turnpike & 134th Street to 153 feet at 160th Street & 84th Drive
Honorary street name
1 at its corners, enacted by local law

Schools and libraries

The City lists 15 schools and one library in Jamaica Hills-Briarwood.

Public schools
11
Charter and private schools
4
Library
Briarwood Library

Public art

The City's public art inventory lists one work in Jamaica Hills-Briarwood: Captain George H. Tilly (1941).

  • 1 work of public art

Public safety

How complaints are counted

In 2025 the NYPD recorded 309 major felonies at places in Jamaica Hills-Briarwood.

Recorded by the NYPD at places in Jamaica Hills-Briarwood

  • 312 major felonies in 2024
  • 987 other felonies, misdemeanors and violations in 2025

In 2025, on the streets along the edge of Jamaica Hills-Briarwood, the NYPD recorded another 51 major felonies. Counting the streets along its edge, in 2025 the NYPD recorded 9.2 major felonies for every thousand residents the 2020 Census counted in Jamaica Hills-Briarwood.

Map of Jamaica Hills-Briarwood: 7 shaded patches of its streets, each numbered with the major felonies the NYPD recorded at public places there in 2025; unshaded areas are not counted on this map.
Major felonies recorded at public places in Jamaica Hills-Briarwood, 2025
  • 5 to 9
  • 10 to 19
  • 20 to 49
  • 50 to 99
  • 100 or more
  • Not shaded: fewer than 5, held back under the rules in How complaints are counted, parks and public-housing grounds, and land in no patch
Each shaded patch is a set of whole street blocks and corners of Jamaica Hills-Briarwood, most about 1,500 feet across, and its number counts the major felonies the NYPD recorded at public places on those streets and corners in 2025. The streets along or across the edge of Jamaica Hills-Briarwood are not shaded. Homes, shelters, schools, child care, health care, houses of worship, hotels, mailboxes inside buildings, private parking lots and garages, buses and taxis, parks and cemeteries, highways, bridges, tunnels, the tramway and places the NYPD did not name count in the figure above for Jamaica Hills-Briarwood and stay off the map. How complaints are counted gives every rule.
Police precincts
107th (most of the area), 103rd, 102nd
Major felonies recorded at places in Jamaica Hills-Briarwood, 2021 to 2025

From January to June 2026 the NYPD recorded 135 major felonies at places in Jamaica Hills-Briarwood, against 153 in the same months of 2025.

Sources: the NYPD's Complaint Data Historic, updated April 28, 2026, and Complaint Data Current (Year To Date), updated July 27, 2026, on NYC Open Data. Figures to June 30, 2026.

Street corners

How the figures above are measured: Methodology.