editor

BOUTIQUE HOTEL AND STEAKHOUSE COMING TO THE HEART OF HUNTERS POINT

March 14, 2013 by editor 10 Comments

Long Island City's Delano? — Long Island City’s Delano?

Word on the street is that there are plans to convert a long vacant building on 48th Avenue into a boutique hotel and steakhouse. I have no idea who the developer and proprietor will be, so I have categorized this story as a rumor. I also have no idea on the timing, design, price points, etc. In other words this is another mindless, vapid LICtalk story about a maybe. But it’s also a welcome kernel coming during a short term LIC news vacuum. So I will let you the reader fantasize about, and embellish upon what this new project will be. I for one, envision a massive presidential suite for assignations, a VIP room in the hotel lounge for me and Lenny Kravitz, and a beluga-stuffed, double-cut porterhouse generously topped with white truffles and washed down with a quart of Screaming Eagle. Now that, is a great shabbos!

Long Island City’s Renaissance – big piece per the title, or you could have read LICtalk all year

Sandy Zuckerbrot, the Lion of LIC, on its Past and Future – see comment above

Hatching Creativity in LIC – a theater organization for children 5-16 years old; enable your child to be the next Laurence Olivier

Group Looks to Start Weekly Farmers Market in Hunters Point – follow-up on last weeks story

5th Street to Become One Way

New MoMA PS1 Project to Tackle Waterfront Design After Sandy

THE LIC SOCCER MAN

March 11, 2013 by editor 7 Comments

Have you ever wandered by the Queens West Field on 5th Street and 47th Avenue, viewed all the men and women having fun playing soccer, and wondered “How do I go about participating in that?” Well we have the answer for you, and it’s really very simple: Long Island City Community Soccer. This organization was founded by Dale Choonoolal in 2008 to play on the Queens West Field, and he has subsequently expanded to Murray Park and sites in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Dale was originally an analyst at Allen & Co. when he spotted the then unused QW field. He applied for a permit and a time slot, formed a meetup community, and now oversees two dozen leagues full time. But the original pickup soccer games in LIC are his first love, especially since he now has a girlfriend in Hunters Point. This Spring, there are two things he’s promoting locally:

We’ll have Coed Pick up Soccer on Thursday evenings from 6pm to 8pm & Saturdays at 1pm at Queens West Sports field. These pick-up games are co-ed, fun, highly organized, and social. At the end of the games we’ll head for drinks or a much deserved mimosa & brunch. It’s very community oriented and meant for folks from the community to meet each other through the vehicle of soccer.
Also, this spring for the first time there will be a Soccer league at Queens West Sports Field. We’ll have a Mens league on Saturdays from 10am to 12pm. Here’s my league Website where folks can find info about the league: http://nycsoccer.com/ We’ll be doing a Mens league this Spring and in the near future we’ll do Co-ed leagues.

Dale originally built the LIC group around women’s participation, so as to make the concept as much of a social outing as it is competitive. In addition to drinks and brunches after the games, he has put together a few group outings to places such as Montreal and the ski slopes. He also believes being highly organized is the key to the games being a success, and thus the teams are broken up prior to arrival.

Now, here is where the The Editor comes in with his push. One thing Dale would love to see is lights added to both Queens West Field and the fields on Murray Park. Sure, some would complain about noise coming from the field at night blah, blah, blah. The reality is that the window for working adults to use the field Monday to Friday is very small depending on time of year. On average we are talking about two hours a night(you pick it, 5-7pm, 6-8pm if you work until 5pm and cannot get home in time, zilch in Dec/Jan etc.) By adding lights, one can easily double this utilization and still have everyone long gone by 10pm, the same time that Gantry Park closes. As long as they are already spending so much on upkeep for the field, it is in a prime location, and the immediate area is about to see a more than doubling in population, how about spending a little money and cutting through the red tape to really maximize the fields usage?

Van Jumps Sidewalk in LIC, Killing One and Injuring 4 Others

Farmers Market Proposed for Hunters Point – a second attempt at this, hopefully w/ the increased population it takes hold. Kind of a chicken or the egg thing, were there too few vendors or people the first time?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LICTALK, NOW LET’S RANT!

March 8, 2013 by editor 7 Comments

No Standing ...still — No Standing …still

That’s right, this Saturday, March 9, is LICtalk’s one year anniversary! Yeah, we’re still pretty raw, I mean most one year olds are still wearing diapers. But I invite all of you to go back and look at our initial posts. They are kind of like Walt Disney’s original black and white drafts of Steamboat Willie, where Mickey’s predecessor looks more like a rat. Fourscore later and Walt Disney Corp. is valued at $100 billion. Wow, maybe you should go back and look at every single one of our posts since inception. Because as all our readers know, here at LICtalk we seek something more than enormous wealth, we seek immortality! Thus, I expect a thousand years from now scholars will be pouring over our musings as if they were the Talmud. In honor of our birthday, we gave our website a few new bells ‘n whistles. Nothing substantial, just a nip here, and a tuck there, though ten years from now I expect we’ll be barely recognizable, kinda like Melanie Griffith.

OK, that’s enough reflecting on the past, we’ve got way too much new news to report. First off comes a story about the lack of public school pre-K spots in Western Queens. As we have been telling you all along(click “Schools” up top to read all our school seat shortage rants, complete with estimates for 2013/14), planners significantly underestimated the need for schools in LIC. Then, as if one rant was not enough, comes a story about the ground breaking on Hunters Point South earlier in the week. Talk about a non-story photo-op! The real story here is the taking of monies from those who have a little more, and giving it to those who have a little less. We have ranted a little on this topic already, but because it’s our birthday we’ll leave this one for later. Next up comes a story where other people rant about the Long Island City/LIC name change. Another non-story at this point, if you ask me. Then we get to some other local news, and finish with an article saying that the night time booze filled hours at Sweetleaf on Center Boulevard began Wednesday night. In tandem with the news that OpenDoor restaurant on 50th Avenue in Hunters Point has opened, and the Windmill Tap & Grill in Dutch Kills will be doing so in a month, is evidence enough that LICtalk’s second year should be even more momentous than our first. Furthermore it’s rendered me speechless.

Competition Tough for Pre-K Programs In Western Queens – PS78 accepted just 23% of those who applied for the program in 2012

Huge LIC Housing Development Breaks Ground – it actually “broke ground” several weeks ago, this was a photo -op. Just like the article above, the numbers and percentages keep changing, but the end result is the same. Need I say more?

LIC Residents Balk at Name Change – this topic has jumped the shark

Family of Japanese Man Struck By Cop Car Plans to Sue City

Controller Slams MTA for its East Side Access Overruns

Techies Share Words of Wisdom at LIC Tech Meet-up

Sweetleaf Now Serving Coffee/Cocktails In LIC

Windmill Tap & Grill to Open in LIC – interesting history about this venue in Dutch Kills

THERE ARE NO MORE NEW YORKERS LIVING IN MANHATTAN

March 4, 2013 by editor 14 Comments

It’s official folks, the last New Yorker has moved out of Manhattan. Corporate apartments, hotel conversions, immigrants, pied-a-terre’s, retirees, students, 1997 vacancy decontrol changes, and most predominantly foreigners, mean that there is not a single resident left on the island who was born in the tri-state area.

Ok, so maybe my headline is about five years early, but when was the last time you heard a New York accent in midtown? Or even out in the bars, clubs, and restaurants of Manhattan? As any real New Yorker knows: all the hot restaurants today are in Brooklyn, and of course all the good restaurants are in Queens. Trendy downtown spots are filled with foreigners, most of whom went to the same boarding schools in Switzerland.

So what does all this mean for Long Island City and its inhabitants? First of all a lot more building, as noted here last week. Secondly, a narrowing of the gap between Manhattan’s rental and sale prices per square foot, and those of LIC’s(and Brooklyn and the rest of Queens as well). Finally, the third change is not as quantifiable: LIC, Queens, and select parts of the other outer boroughs lose their stigma and actually become the “in” places to live. Furthermore, these three trends reinforce each other and become a virtuous circle.

Williamsburg has done it, and Parisians regard Brooklyn as a whole the same way that Americans viewed Paris in the 1920’s. Go figure, the next thing you know Manhattanites will be referred to as Bridge and Tunnel people.

LIC’s Entrepreneur Space is Adopted by Martha Stewart – Martha’s not the story about this foodie manufacturing venue, on which we’ve commented before

Entrepreneur Space 2nd Anniversary Party – wanna see the above? They are having a FREE party this Wednesday March 6th, 6:30-8:30pm. Free admission & samples, plus bargains and a raffle

Celebrate LIC – as if one free party isn’t enough, go back-to-back nights with a one night event celebrating the growth and culture of our neighborhood featuring an exhibit by No Longer Empty and music by DJ Cerok. This Thursday, March 7th, 6:30-9:30.

Governor Delivers Address in LIC – can you say photo-op?

LIC REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT IN OVERDRIVE

March 1, 2013 by editor 10 Comments

Cranes, cranes, cranes, cranes... — Cranes, cranes, cranes, cranes…

As if what is visible to the naked eye is not enough, the wheeling and dealing and prospecting going on in this town makes Manhattan look like Arkansas. Especially on a per capita basis. Everywhere I look, both on the streets and in the news, deals and development are occurring at a frantic pace in Long Island City for both commercial and residential real estate. I have documented most of them here on this website, but they keep popping up like weeds and keeping track of their progress and locations is bewildering. All I can say is that if the building sales continue at this pace, and the construction(and financing) goes according to plan, three years from now LIC will look like Dubai .

Most people think of LIC as Hunters Point, Court Square, maybe Queens Plaza. But from a land mass perspective these comprise less than 50% of the acreage in LIC. The biggest “other” section is the area north of the Queensboro Bridge. Even here there are many different enclaves, but I’m just going to refer to them as the Northern Hinterlands. For those wanting greater distinction, the final two stories tell of a kooky local business and a just-reviewed by the New York Times restaurant located up there.

Developer Looks to Turn LIC’s Court Square into Nightlife Hub – beer hall, music venue, high end restaurants. You know, just like Disney World.

26-14 Jackson Avenue – 98-unit rental building scheduled to break ground in June (Google “Ekstein Development if this does not load correctly)

5-27 51st Avenue – 4-story condo building in the heart of Hunters Point, Condos!

Tower on the Rise In Greenpoint – relevant to LIC because it is just across Newtown Creek and is going to be a 210-unit rental building

$40 Million Paid for Innocuous Looking Industrial Building – in the hinterlands east, but another sign of all the wheeling and dealing

Corner Bistro LIC Review – hamburger good, beer cold

NY Times review of Bear – all of you clamoring for something different, this fits the bill

Legendary Indie Film Company – who knew on their way to Costco, that we were amidst cinematic greatness?