As the Vernon/Jackson subway platform gets more crowded with each passing day, the question arises “At what point will it be too much?” [Read more…] about OVERCROWDING COMING TO LIC?
A thousand reasons to love Long Island City. Tips: Editor@LICtalk.com
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As the Vernon/Jackson subway platform gets more crowded with each passing day, the question arises “At what point will it be too much?” [Read more…] about OVERCROWDING COMING TO LIC?
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“This is the best apartment deal in NYC”
“We hired a top-notch design team, they designed the Barclays Center.”
“These are the same buildings we build for people right across the river, for which we receive ridiculous rents”
Frank Monterisi, SVP of Related Companies and Head of HPS Phase I
I have a saying, “The lottery is for losers.” Think of it, in a typical lottery it goes like this, two million people each pay $1, for a total of $2,000,000, so that one of them wins $1,000,000. In other words, you put down a dollar with the expected probability of getting back 50 cents. Hmm, not sure how Warren Buffett would feel about those returns, but I personally find the whole concept despicable, and quite frankly, un-American.
Then there is the Hunters Point South Lottery. In this game of chance they are giving away between $128,000 and $1,275,000 in cash prizes to 925 people, and the cost to play is uhh -zero, …if you qualify. Furthermore, the odds of winning are better than 20 to 1 if you live in the Community Board 2 district, as opposed to 2,000,000 to 1.
How did we arrive at the “prize” math?1 The first thing we did was take the average rents in LIC from Modern Spaces 2Q 2014 report (see link below). Then we compared it to the midpoint rent range for each apartment type in HPS, as provided by Related Cos. The discounts for Moderate Income apartments ranged from 29% – 39% as compared to those paying current market rates. The discounts for Low Income apartments were an eye-popping 78% to 85%.
Those discounts are where most reporters stop, and readers sit or stand agape. Not LICtalk, we recognize the importance of a very valuable option embedded in getting an HPS apartment: that of not having your rent go up dramatically.
The power of compounding is the most powerful force in the universe according to Albert Einstein, and the monetary effect of it might only be eclipsed by the psychological one. Whether it be in your favor or not. Thus, we took the percentage discounts cited above, and applied them to the average LIC condo sale prices also found in the Modern Spaces report2, in order to realize what that option is worth.
That is how we arrived at the cash prize values, and based on the throngs that showed up for the affordable housing powwow last night in Hunters Point, I think many others have similarly calculated this bonanza. Trying to squeeze the SRO crowd into the auditorium was like [Read more…] about THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING SHOW COMES TO HUNTERS POINT
I really, really, really wanted to write about the menage-a-trois that a 16-year old male in Louisiana had with his 20-something and 30-something female teachers, as all these years later I still find the female teacher/male HS student combo tantalizing and questionably illegal. The fact that there were two female teachers in the same school willing to conspire and collaborate, I’d guesstimate is probably a five-standard deviation occurrence, …maybe ten.
Sadly, I am constrained by my mandate to focus on local news, whether it is real or not, and no matter how mundane. Sometimes though, fate intervenes and I am handed a consolation prize. In this case [Read more…] about MENAGE A TROIS LIC-STYLE
This is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon long ago.
A new recreation center is coming to Hunters Point, and will be lodged at the base of Hunters Point South (HPS) Phase 2. The 44,000-square-foot space will offer tons of amenities: two pools, including a lap pool and a rec pool with a large slide and water features, a large gymnasium for basketball, volleyball, and indoor sports clinics, a wellness center with cardiovascular and strength training equipment, large group [Read more…] about MASSIVE NEW REC CENTER COMING TO HUNTERS POINT
This Sunday is the annual Societa Sant’Amato Di Nusco processional down and around Vernon Boulevard.1 While the members of the Societa give thanks to their patron saint back in southern Italy, my gratitude will be focused elsewhere, as this week the people of LIC have been truly blessed by the news that [Read more…] about ABBONDANZA! DONUTS TIMES TWO COMING TO LIC!