Bicyclists, Roadies, PPP Loans & Slaughterhouses

A lot of pent-up demand exhibited itself in LIC this past weekend, as the beautiful weather brought crowds to the waterfront – almost all properly social distanced, and to the roadie windows of the local bars on Vernon – a little less so, but alcohol is a disinfectant.

Bicyclists filled the streets, and the local bike store re-opened to accommodate much-needed post-winter tuneups and inner tube replacements. Next door Tuk Tuk too has re-opened for takeout & delivery after a month+ hiatus, and the Ice Cream Man on Center Blvd has returned. Oh wait, he never left.

This weeks news includes articles about two local companies that received PPP Loans, one being the owners of Maiella and American Brass who were given $700,000 in round two. As I say on the tee-box, the second time’s the charm, but I really hope there’s more than two companies who succeeded. A lot more.

There’s also a press release from some NY State Assembly members looking to kill Queens Live Markets on the assumption they spread disease. I have mixed feelings about this, having always admired our local Live Market under the N&R train as the last vestige of a different era. Sure if there’s actual proof than close them, but first consider whether large remote slaughterhouses and the factory farmed animals they process are a better solution?

Outlaw small businesses or let them proliferate? Continue allowing roadies or not? Loans for all or just a few? Jobs going and jobs coming back, sorta. Let’em congregate and memorialize hassle free or enforce strictness? Read below and decide yourself.

Long Island City Restaurateur Calls His PPP Loan An Insurance Policy – Maiella/American Brass owners receive $700k to live another day

Family-Run LIC Business Receives Funding To Stay Afloat

State Lawmakers Look To Kill Queens Live Markets – big v. small

Here’s Our Local Live Kill Market – a chicken in every pot

It’s Maybe Time To Make To-Go Cocktails Legal – if you can smoke a joint on the street legally…

Cops Breakup Local Vigil For Queensbridge Rapper

The MoMA Has Taken A Chainsaw to It’s Staff & Budget – MoMA PS1, MoMA’s contemporary offshoot in Long Island City, as an example: “It had to furlough 47 out of 64 people. It had virtually no endowment, it now has no endowment, no resources,” he explained. “The city has already told it it’s [likely] going to cut its contributions back, it’s going to be a very long hard road for them.”

Some Barbers Are Giving Haircuts Despite The Lockdown – “Julien Howard, a barber who lives in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, is planning to cut hair quietly on the roof of his apartment building, or on clients’ terraces”