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NEWS HERE, GET YOUR NEWS HERE, HOT OFF THE PRESS!

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Click on pic to smell the flowers

LIC renter’s guide, new schools, Modern Spaces latest expansion into (gasp!) Manhattan, local boy wins Cy Young award, these are the latest headlines about Long Island City.  Sure, unlike my last update there is not a lot of meat in these stories, but this is the rare occasion where I am happy that quantity trumps quality when it comes to the news.  In fact, I am even going to spare you my usual critique and rhapsody and get right to the headlines in all their raw glory, enjoy!

Hundreds Of New School Seats Planned For Epicenter Of Overcrowding – Is this the way they plan on handling the crunch in LIC?: “local schools have been functioning well over capacity for many years”  and “the extra seats will ease crowding for students who have been using portable classrooms”  and “Last year, we were cited by the Fire Department for teaching in the hallways”

A Renter’s Guide To The Rapidly Gentrifying LIC – if you live here already there is nothing new in this

One Woman Show Tonite – and one time only, in LIC anyway

Tech Insurgents 2012 – profile on LIC-based Shapeways co-founder

Modern Spaces Expands Into Manhattan – wow Manhattan, the new frontier!

What Ever Happened To …Jersey City’s Transformative Chef? – he opened Alobar in LIC!  “Long Island City,” Kapitan said, “is where Jersey City was ten years ago.”  Hmm, I think our trajectory aspires higher.

Cy Young Goes To R.A. Dickey, The Most Literary Man In Baseball – and an LIC resident …for now

LIC BAR STILL CLOSED, BUT CORNER BISTRO BREAKS THE SPELL

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Everything on both sides of the green building are offline

A week after moving to Long Island City, an acquaintance who had been living here a year took me for a nitecap at the LIC Bar.  It was the early fall and a perfect evening to be in their backyard, under the open sky, drinking a $5 pint of Radeberger, and smoking an AVO.  All apprehensions about moving from Manhattan vanished that night.  Alas, so did the opportunities to actually go out at night, but the hope remained and thinking of the possibility to get to the LIC Bar and replicate that night got me through numerous other late nights sans alcohol.  Now comes word that the bar was in a pocket of Long Island City that still has not received power.  Furthermore, the flooding the bar incurred might keep it closed even longer as it was in a low lying area off Anable(is it Anabel? beats me)Basin.  Thus, hope will have to be put on hold.  In the meantime, I have come across the first LIC story with nary a mention of the storm, as someone has put out an interview and review of the Corner Bistro LIC.  There is not a lot of meat in it for those of us who have been there multiple times in Manhattan and LIC, but we’ll gladly welcome the return to normal.

LIC’s Corner Bistro Goes Beyond The Burger – but your still in LIC when you’ve finished

Promoting Queens and Developing It – all about the newly formed Coalition for Queens, based in LIC

Historic Waterfront Crabhouse Closes After Flooding – another victim of Sandy, sounds like its future is in doubt too

WHO IS GOING TO MAKE THE FIRST MOVE?

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After the last two weeks, Autumn seems long over

At what point does the print media put out an LIC based article and make no mention of Sandy?  When has enough time passed so that a non-storm story, such as news of a new eatery, stop sign, or strip club, does not come off as trivial or unseemly?  I have been scanning the web and awaiting that article, thinking maybe the election would sweep it away.  Then of course we get a snowstorm, and wind, power, and flooding come right back to the fore.  In order to bridge the gap, I have decided not to provide recent links to the storm coverage, most of which are just a rehashing of what happened, and instead hone in on an article about how to assess your future in LIC.  Specifically, should you buy a home here?  Halloween and the non-Marathon are long past, elections are predictable and fading, what does the future hold for LIC?  Or at least what’s new(s) for the next two weeks anyway…?

After Sandy, Would You Buy On The Waterfront? – not that there are many apartments for sale on the water in LIC

Redistricting and Broken Machines Frustrate Hunters Point Voters

What’s Happening In Queens This Week – hey, hey, getting back to normal

G Train Disruption Strengthens Case For Pulaski Bridge Bike Lane – or a new super bridge!

 

 

 

 

PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENT PART II: ELECTION DAY COMETH

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Obama/Romney, Romney/Obama – the most important election of our lifetime? Fact is they’re all the same – bought and paid for with the same money. Ours is a country of the SuperPAC, by the SuperPAC, and for the SuperPAC. The “people” are merely election-day pawns, pulling a Democratic or Republican lever that will deliver the same results every four years …I’ll tell you what isn’t new. Our two-party system continues to play ping pong with the American people, and the electorate is that white little ball going back and forth over the net. This side’s better – no, that one looks best. Elephants/Donkeys, Donkeys/Elephants.

-Bill Gross’ November Investment Outlook, Gross is the manager of the $270 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, currently the largest mutual fund in existence.

The New York Times endorsed Barack Obama for President in 2012 and the New York Post has endorsed Mitt Romney, what else is new?  Well, much to everyone’s surprise, Mayor Bloomberg made a last minute endorsement of Obama as well, but not before adding the major caveat “like so many other independents, I have found the past four years to be, in a word, disappointing,”  As for myself, I am through with my analysis and recommendation and as always at LICtalk, am ready to deliver the solution to the problem.  Before I give it though, one thing that you should NOT take away from my unwillingness to endorse Obama or Romney is that you shouldn’t vote.  Instead, it is your decision to make the effort to go to the voting booth that I am looking to maximize, because unlike the Mayor, I believe there are options to O and R that are not “disappointing”.  Granted, these choices have absolutely no chance of winning in 2012, but a decision to choose one may help to change the future.  With this in mind let me give you three other thoughts to ponder, the first is pretty much a given: President Obama is going to win New York State by a wide margin.  The second is more conjecture: disenchantment with the two choices and the political system in general will lead to the lowest turnout ever.  Instead of taking the time to vote for a third-party candidate, people just do not vote.  The third is an actual statistic from the last election: less than 1.5% of the popular vote in 2008 was cast for a non-Democrat or Republican candidate.  Thus, were one to decide to go to the election booth and not vote for O or R, the effect of their vote would be greatly magnified coming off such an incredibly low base.  Can you imagine if numerous districts in LIC were to double or triple that small percentage?  Might that be picked up by political pundits as a statistical anomaly and pored over as the start of a new trend?  I do not know, but here is what I think: there is absolutely no reason to go into the voting booth and not just go for it, try something different.  May the revolution start here, in Long Island City.