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THE TOWNHOUSE ECONOMICS OF LIC

February 2, 2016 by editor 2 Comments

Groundhogs? Does anybody remember Jonas?

January is over, the days are getting longer and sometimes it’s now light out when I leave work. Who cares about some groundhog’s prediction, here in LIC we have our own harbinger of Spring: the fruit guy has re-appeared on 49th Avenue. Which given that it’s early February, is probably not a good sign for global warming. Nevertheless home-purchasing season is around the corner, so here’s an offering that comes with a real estate lesson.

In last week’s profile of The Editor in Brick Underground, I ran some numbers as to why the purchase of a townhouse in LIC, was a relative bargain versus Manhattan. Today, I will share an example of this. 10-49 49th Avenue is a centrally-located, newly-renovated, 6,000 square foot brownstone built in 1890. The asking price is $4.875 million, but it’s been on the market there since July, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a bid for $4.5 mil would make you the owner.

At that price, [Read more…] about THE TOWNHOUSE ECONOMICS OF LIC

THE DEFINITIVE LONG ISLAND CITY

January 28, 2016 by editor 3 Comments

While all around me frolicked, I was in the hot seat

Twas not the snow that kept me buried and quiet this week, it was an interview request. No green room for me, these days it’s all done electronically. So I put on my Beats – Beethoven’s 9th ((come on movie fans, what’s the reference?)) – put all else aside, and set to work composing an opus of my own. Sometime in the future, I hope the profile and the wisdom imparted in it will be viewed in the same manner that many investors revere and quote from Reminiscence’s of a Stock Operator. More likely it’s insights will immediately be put on the discount rack next to The Art of the Deal.

Nevertheless, my attorneys at Cellino & Barnes negotiated a tough deal with the publisher: limited editing and a dozen Dunkin Donuts. So I was able to prattle on and on and… With that I give you the definitive Long Island City: [Read more…] about THE DEFINITIVE LONG ISLAND CITY

SNOWMESS?

January 21, 2016 by editor Leave a Comment

Will it, won’t it, snow that is. That’s the big story here in LIC at this moment. Will we, won’t we, get a new school? That’s a big story here in LIC for the long term, but two educators from other parts are looking to possibly change that, or at least accelerate it. [Read more…] about SNOWMESS?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes IN LIC

January 19, 2016 by editor 3 Comments

Time may change me But I can't trace time — Time may change me, But I can’t trace time

Even Vernon Boulevard can’t fight the state of impermanence. A recent walk by the storefront of Delta Force Army & Navy revealed it’s formerly stuffed-to-the-gills/can’t-walk-in/probable-fire-hazard completely cleared out. This is not the first time this store seemingly vacated, having gone through a similar cleansing three years ago, only to magically reappear unmolested ((If you want to see something really magical, check out Google’s Street View of Delta Force Army & Navy. Clicking through shows the store fully open/stocked, but move the cursor a little one way or the other and you’ll see the windows ‘soap-washed’ as they were three years ago. This happens a lot in Street View. Gosh, for esoteric LIC stuff like this I really should charge for a premium membership to LICtalk)). Yet in assessing the situation, I and others can’t help but wonder how one forgoes (or pays) a minimum of $120,000 a year, at a conservative $10k a month, for so long? We’re talking a million dollars given the street-level inactivity of the retailer over the last 8 years!

At the other end of the spectrum, [Read more…] about Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes IN LIC

THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD

January 15, 2016 by editor Leave a Comment

It won’t be too long before people refer to Manhattan as the “old neighborhood,” and visit it nostalgically like Italians to Bensonhurst and Jews to the Lower East Side ((yeah, yeah, I know the LES is Manhattan)). Like both those ethnic enclaves, the people, shops, and character of yore are being supplanted. This has been going on all across our city, and cities everywhere, for the last century. Unfortunately when it comes to Manhattan, there’s no real desire to go back for nostalgia tours.

Oh well, for a limited few who were here for it and for those just curious about LIC’s past, [Read more…] about THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD