A thousand reasons to love Long Island City. Tips: Editor@LICtalk.com
On Day 2 of the new season, I really really wanted to write an Ode to Spring, with sonnets and poems and crocuses and newborn foals running free in Gantry Park. Instead we got a SNOW DAY!!! Sure, I’m now a grown getting paid by the hour word, but when our Mayor waved his magic wand I felt obliged to obey. So instead of ballads and verse, I offer ye a limerick [Read more…] about SNOW DAY LONG ISLAND CITY
Tomorrow at 12:15pm the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament begins and will basically continue with multiple games throughout the weekend.
Saturday is St. Patrick’s Day.
Those two events happening concurrently [Read more…] about THE WEEKEND BEGINS NOW LONG ISLAND CITY
“the mayor’s commitment to hitting numerical goals {in affordable housing} has created a potential difficulty for city negotiators in their dealings with developers, who are aware of the targets. For some housing experts, the situation was akin to an apple vendor advertising to customers: Must sell out by the end of the day; make me an offer”
You want to know why a big developer like TF Cornerstone gets a seemingly great deal on city-owned land such as Water’s Edge? Or why the Anable Basin Rezoning includes an audacious 5,000 units, and 70-story tower? The quote above from The New York Times this week is your answer in a nutshell. It’s also the reason that [Read more…] about BEING PLAYED LIKE A FIDDLE WITH LIC IN THE MIDDLE
BULBS planted in Fall begin to show themselves in March. So it is with Bellwether restaurant on Vernon Boulevard, where the scaffolding has been removed and there is a sign in the window mentioning they will be opening in a few weeks. Further details were revealed [Read more…] about BELLWETHER RESTAURANT IN LONG ISLAND CITY CLOSE TO OPENING
I’m just trying to find the bridge
Has anybody seen the bridge?
Please
Have you seen the bridge?
I ain’t seen the bridge!
Where’s that confounded bridge?
THERE’S going to be a protest this Saturday. In general, the impetus behind it is to make sure the LIC community has a say in the development of three adjacent waterfront plots: Anable Basin, Waters Edge, and Lake Vernon. Of equal importance is the request to recognize and rezone these three lots as a whole, not in isolation. The belief is that in doing so it will not only optimize the space for the neighborhood but also for the city, inasmuch as it will allow more comprehensive planning and be able to incorporate much larger economies of scale and/or amortization of concessions. The most obvious example, and one near and dear to The Editor’s heart, is a rec center. ((and that rec center can also be optimally located where the most people could potentially have the closest walk to get there: on 5th Street & 46th Rd.))
The logic of creating a Master Plan for the three lots is self-evident, yet the powers-that-be have been completely dormant in recognizing the tremendous opportunity right in front of them. That’s what the protest is for!
Now, while the Rec Center is the most obvious oversight, and almost de rigeur when talking about concessions for variances or granting a rezoning, there’s another need that also lends itself to amortization, and frankly might be more timely than even, ahem …affordable housing. That would be [Read more…] about PROTEST -> MASTER PLAN -> BRIDGE