editor

“Can we all get along?”

Back in May, I published an editorial from a local mom which called for enforcing the ban on dogs in Gantry Park.  In hearing her reasons and then reviewing her letter, I thought she made a pretty rational case for the ban.  At the conclusion of the letter, I tacked on my own addendum with a few more points on the subject, followed by my usual self-promoting solution:

Fortunately, there is a partial solution.  As anyone who has been by the QueensWest Field in the last year knows, there is an unofficial dog run just north of it by the picnic tables.  The solution is to get rid of the never-used tables, fence it all in, and make it an official dog-run.  That should take about 72 hours.  As a token of your appreciation for dispensing my Solomonic wisdom, you can call it the LICtalk Dog Run.

Lo and behold, it seems that the powers-that-be were actually in the midst of implementing my brilliant idea, when a movement began to quash it based on it’s proximity to a newly built school!  Thus, I feel compelled to defend this future monument to LICtalk.

The main arguments for not putting in the dog run, center around children’s safety, distraction of kids in class, and filth from excrement.  Well guess what?  We live in an urban environment, kids are subject to all of the above no matter where the dog run is located.  They are in close proximity to dogs everywhere they go: the sidewalks of Center Boulevard, the hallways of their apartment buildings, not to mention the elevators!  As for the distractions of a dog run, as anyone in LIC knows, there’s no one around between 9am and 5pm Monday thru Fridays anyway.  Also, most dogs owned by residents of the local shoeboxes surrounding the proposed run, are little yappers.  As for dog poop, this is a zero-sum game, as there certainly won’t be any less surrounding Queens West Field.  It’ll just move to 5th Street, where many owners currently curb their dogs, and 98% of them clean up after them.  Plus, after being a de-facto dog run for the last year, do you really think owners are going to stop using the area as such?  There are eight dog-friendly towers containing 3200 apartments within 200 yards of the dog run, with no other place to let them run free.  The reality is they are not going to schlep them every single day, more than a quarter of a mile each way, to access the other dog runs.  It ain’t gonna happen.  Instead, you will have an “open” dog run replete with all the aforementioned problems.  The current space was previously an underutilized sliver of poorly planned picnic tables, made redundant by those actually in the park.

As for the thought of putting it somewhere else in Gantry, there is nowhere else, and if there was, then you would be back to square one of having dogs in, and all over, Gantry Park!  Furthermore, based on the pace of current local projects, by the time all the studies were done, all the politicians signed off on it, and it were to be completed, there’s a good chance Obama would no longer be our president.  So let’s stick with the original plan, and keep the LICtalk Dog Run exactly where it is.

Hey dog owners, mans best friend can’t speak or write, only you can.  If you want a dog run on the northern part of Center Blvd., you better make your voice heard: Councilman Van Bramer’s office 718-383-9566 or jvanbramer@council.nyc.gov

10 Years On, a High Rise Hood in LIC – now that it’s completed, TF Cornerstone looks back.  Plus, a HUGE restaurant surprise: Trattoria L’Incontro is coming to Center Boulevard!

TF Cornerstone Tops Out It’s Last High Rise on Center Blvd

5Pointz Mural Painting at John Brown Smokehouse – now sporting 5Pointz colors on their patio, as if you needed another reason to go

There are a lot of storefronts in Long Island City that, from an economic perspective, make no sense in the 21st century.  Possibly the most perplexing, economically and in a number of other aspects, is the one with a bright red and white sign, in a foreign language, with a cryptic font, on the east side of Vernon Boulevard entitled Societa Sant’ Amato Di Nusco.  Easier to decipher are the black letters on the front door announcing “Members Only,” which when combined with the shades on the front windows not allowing passersby to peer inside, conjures up, well, let’s call it a stereotypical image.  The reality though, is a little more prosaic.  The Societa was established in 1904 by immigrants from the town of Nusco, which is about 40 miles east of Naples.  According to QueensBuzz:

The purpose of the Societa’ was to help community members who needed it. It’s important to bear in mind that the Society was created prior to the widespread availability of health and life insurance, the establishment of unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Community members paid dues, participated in the society’s community and helped each other as needed.

Thus, it was typical of many immigrant groups formed in the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century.  Nowadays, all these needs, not to mention luxurious waterfront housing with spectacular views and amenities galore, are taken care of by the government, and Facebook has supplanted the social aspects.  But back then, people were genuinely excited when they inquired “You from Nusco?  I’m from Nusco!”

It’s nice to have a relic like this in our hometown as a reminder of the past.  In most other locales, a place such as this would have been supplanted by a Starbucks by now, whereas the current members of this club drinks espressos made from the same machines their great grandparents did.  Plus, it gives us here at LICtalk, and those without children, a welcome diversion from the rash of sprinkler problems plaguing the neighborhood and the news.

Queens Residents Call On City to Fix Sandy Damaged Sprinkler – like I’ve been saying, should be done by Labor Day.  As for that other one: “Not gonna happen this summer” …”Oops, it is going to happen, like the day after we told you it wasn’t” …Uhh, maybe not so fast. 

Here’s a little tip from LICtalk: maybe you need to get the Societa working on these sprinklers?

LIC’s Court Square Changes As Massive Towers Rise – a history of Ct Square, thru the lens

Chef Brings Farm Fresh Food to Dutch Kills – a new restaurant in the ‘hood

CBRE Arranges Sale of Two Industrial Buildings for $2.95 Mil – normally I don’t publish press releases, but these two are slated to become residential

LIC Man Captures Cultures on Film – profile of a long time LIC resident and film maker