Kids

FREE BEER, EXPENSIVE RENTS

July 11, 2013 by editor 12 Comments

It’s a hot, sticky summer and I don’t feel like working. The last few weeks I know I’ve really been phoning it in with cut and paste and snippets. You, loyal reader, are deserving of some original content, a large format type piece, whether it be a local expose such as “Did you hear that Myrtle…” or a harangue about parks, schools, real estate prices, or birth control. But today is not going to be that day, because there’s a lot for you to digest below.

While we’re on the subject of birth control, we received an email from a local resident telling us all about a new Sensory Gym for kids that just opened in LIC. What’s a “sensory gym?” Beats me, but you can check out the description on their website here, and if you tell them you heard about it on LICtalk, you’ll get a 20% discount on summer classes!

http://sensorycityot.com/about-us/

Let’s get the bad news out of the way by starting with the local real estate scene and how condo and rent prices keep surging due to displacement from Manhattan, and now Brooklyn. Oh wait, that’s not news, at least not if you’ve been reading LICtalk all year. After that things become lighter, just in time for the weekend. Talking about the weekend, don’t forget that we get FREE BEER this Saturday, PS1’s Warm-Up is also free to LIC residents(not to mention you get to cut the uber-long lines, just like I used to to do at Studio 54), free detox with Yoga on the Gantry Pier Sunday at 10am, and then more culture on Tuesday as Live at The Gantries presents Brasil Live at 7pm, which is also …free, just bring your own cachaca. Finally, this Tuesday also brings the Major League Baseball All-Star Game to Citi Field. This event is anything but free.

Tenants See Living in Queens As An Affordable Alternative to Brooklyn – except in LIC

Housing Markets Spurt in Brooklyn and Queens – there are no more New Yorkers living in Manhattan

Saving A Spot For Pepsi-Cola As A Tower Goes Up – all about our iconic sign

The Paper Factory Hotel To Open in LIC in August – w/ suites at $300 a night, it might be cheaper than renting an apartment!

New Bike Routes On Tap for LIC and Sunnyside – born to be wild

The Second Annual LIC Block Party – Saturday August 3rd, noon-5pm at Sculpture Center

Van Bramer Allocates $3 million to MoMA PS1 – they are buying the property adjacent to them(across the street from the BP station)

Laughing Devil Comedy Club Up For Sale – in the words of Nelson Muntz “Ha ha”

Sprinklers At Two Hunters Point Playground Still Closed – yeah, we know

The Big Cheese – The New Yorker’s spin on the Cheesemonger contest here in LIC last week. LICtalk and The New Yorker, only the best covered this monumental event.

NEWS EXPLOSION IN LIC

May 30, 2013 by editor 5 Comments

A lot of changes coming, but there's still the Crabhouse — Here’s a real old-timer in the neighborhood

Yessirree, this town is humming! There is a ton of news to report, some of it new, some of it not so new. As is frequently the case, real estate tops the list. TF Cornerstone’s latest rental, an 820-unit amenity filled behemoth, has already leased 160 apartments without blinking. Lucky residents will be able to avail themselves of bbq grills and cabanas, tennis and volleyball courts, jungle gyms and dog runs, and for Bill Murray there is even a pond! Also, two new moderate sized buildings have been announced: a hotel on 21st Street south of the bridge, and a residential conversion by Queensboro Plaza. Finally, if you want to read the latest on the Elghanayan split(the family that basically owns every deluxe residential property in LIC), then we’ve got it here. Net-net: when it comes to family and money, Thanksgiving and Passover will never be the same.

Moving on from real estate, there is no better way to do it than via bike. There’s a great story below that gives you all the details on biking and bike paths in Queens. And did you know there’s a Tour de Queens? In the kids with cake department, LIC Kids is throwing a party this Sunday …can you believe they’ve been open for six years already? They’re practically old-timers! Finally, LIC makes the Daily News’ Top-10 people watching list. With a record 12 links to pass on today, that honor is really just icing on the cake.

In Queens, The Newest Amenity Is Up On The Roof – all about the amenities on the new TF’ building, these days they seem to be de rigeur

New Loan Allows New Residential Conversion – oh so that’s how RE works

Hotel To Rise At 21st Street and 44th Avenue – at only four stories, I doubt there’ll be many amenities

5Pointz Owner Meets With Criticism On New Building – and the design plan shows lotsa amenities

Family Nears Final Piece of Property Divorce – Elghanayan story. Could they just peel off a single condo for me? Just one? (LICtalk internet tip: type the name of this article into search engine to get around firewall)

Christine Quinn Pledges New Tech Hub In LIC – how about you finish Shady Park first, then we can talk about bigger plans

New School Plans For Success Academy Unsuccessful – I’m not so sure this is the end of the matter by any means

Bicyclists Hit The Road All Across The Borough – just in time for summer

Tour de Queens – Sunday July 7th, 19 miles long, it’s only $20 bucks. No doping …err dopes allowed

LIC Kids Is Turning 6 Years Old and Throwing a Free Birthday Party – an institution in the ‘hood

LIC Museum To House Muppet Gallery – Leonard Lauder donates 33 Picassos and 45 other cubist paintings to the Met last month(boring!), and we get 400 items from the estate of Jim Henson. You tell me which borough is the predominant cultural home …of the 21st century!

The 10 Best Neighborhoods in New York For People Watching – umm, this must be in no particular order, because LIC is #9 and Times Square is #3

LIC HALLOWEEN PARADE IS A GO FOR TODAY

October 31, 2012 by editor 1 Comment

Neither wind nor rain, nor flooding can keep the ghosts and goblins …and barbies and superheroes from their appointed day. According to Alicia Gljiva of Little In The City and much to the relief of parents, the LIC Halloween Parade is going on as scheduled, today, October 31st, meet at the gantries in Gantry Park at 4:45. Also, while most residents in Zone A suffered little more than inconvenience, it should be acknowledged that alot of the businesses on Vernon Boulevard were hit very hard by the street flooding, so a special kudos goes out to them as well for making this happen. Finally, it was requested to please bring your own trick or treat bag.

NEXT WEEK IS THE BEST WEEK TO BE A NEW YORKER

October 24, 2012 by editor 9 Comments

QnsboroBr2 — From Queens to Manhattan, it’s all great(click on pic)

Back in the days before I even knew LIC existed, there was nothing I anticipated more on the social calendar than the time period between October 31st through the first Sunday of November. That is because the two greatest and most quintessential NYC events occur back to back. The first one is the Village Halloween Parade. This is one of those events that people always say “Oh yeah, I hear it’s great, I’ll definitely make it next year,” and then a decade or two later they’re living in Syosset handing out Snickers when they catch a glimpse of it on NY1 and add it to their list of “ain’t gonna happens.” Despite all the gentrification that has occurred in Manhattan, the parade continually defies convention and has completely retained it’s homemade, non-commercial creativity and no-holds-barred, politically incorrect bawdiness. Yes, it is crowded, but not uncomfortably so, and after the parade the crowd disperses to all corners of the West Village to drink itself silly and act in a manner that only occurs when being in costume and having all facades taken down. As the night wears on, it becomes truly surreal and occasionally strays into deviancy ‘The last thing I remember is being in the White Horse, doing shots of Cuervo with a mummy and Raggedy-Ann, and then my alarm went off for work.’

The next big event is the New York City Marathon. Though ones dreams of playing in the Super Bowl or World Series may be long gone, the Marathon gives you one last shot at glory as big crowds loudly cheer you on. This is the original “Everybody gets a medal” event, but in this case it is well deserved. Or, you can treat it like I do: as if you won free tickets to the Super Bowl and are sitting on the 50-yard line. In other words, it is a rare legitimate excuse to start drinking in the early afternoon, because these runners need your assistance …and you too have been training all year for it.

Fast forward to today and LIC: we have a Halloween parade too, right down Vernon Boulevard, and for many of the parents it too is surreal in a “What am I doing in Queens on Halloween and who are all these midgets?” way. The Marathon also goes right down Vernon Boulevard, and frequently those midgets are still lingering. Yet in most other ways it retains a lot of the character and bonhomie of First Avenue, at least we have held on to something.

The details for the Vernon Boulevard Childrens Halloween Parade on Wednesday October 31st have yet to be released, but last year everyone grouped by the gantries at Gantry Park at 3pm. If you want to see the leaders in the Marathon be on Vernon by 10:15, otherwise the rest of the pack runs strong until around 2pm.

5Pointz Zombie March and Halloween Film Festival – October 27th

PS1’s Halloween Sunday Sessions – October 28th

Mile 15: Where Old-Timers Appreciate the New – great story in the NYT about LIC and the Marathon

New CUNY Law School Building Christened in LIC – at least there building sone new “schools”

The Fate Of 5Pointz: Why One Man May Demolish New York’s Graffiti Mecca – the spin from the graffiti side

Nude Club Owners Halt Liquor License Bid – why did I include this well-tread story? Because it starts with the word “Nude”

Maloney Speaks at LIC/Astoria Chamber of Commerce – rundown of all she’s done for us

Is This Glassy 15-Story Tower Coming to LIC?

FALL WEEKEND IN LIC: BOOZY CUPCAKES, BLOCK PARTY, AND THOM YORKE!

September 7, 2012 by editor 3 Comments

LicLirr5 — Montauk? Not this weekend, I’m staying in LIC!

What a troika, can it get any better? Well maybe if I happen to spot Blake Lively on the street. Only in LIC folks, only in LIC. Every one is back from summer vacation, fall is in full swing, the Giants and Jets are on TV, and our little town is catching up to Chicago in the Second City department, leaving Brooklyn in the dust! Yet with the passing of summer comes another tradition in Long Island City, the semi-annual migration of families from LIC to the suburbs. The reasons for leaving our not-so-longer-so-little nirvana for the ‘burbs are various: the need for more space, schools, rising rents and the desire to buy a home, key parties, etc. Thus I was saddened to hear that one of the people to leave the neighborhood this summer was Eric Palatnik. Several years ago, when the Queens West playing field was still a free-for-all, Eric had the foresight and the initiative to apply and block out some time on it for youth sports. Then, with a big assist from his wife Leslie, he organized the Long Island City Kids Sports(LICKS): a grass-roots organization of LIC families who came together to provide a fun weekly introduction to sports for our kids. Basically, it meant a lot of cajoling, collecting, and corralling parents, kids, coaches, and money to put together a great program, and really one that was very much needed(and desired) by parents for their kids. Alas, in departing, Eric was unable to find anyone interested in channeling their inner Lombardi, Rozelle, or Stern, and take the reins, thus LICKS is no more. Which is really a shame, as Long Island City potentially has the dynamics and logistics to be a major youth sports mecca. Ok, maybe that is too strong a word, but by dynamics I am referring to the concentration of young children living here and the tighter sense of community than Manhattan, and even say Park Slope, provide. Logistically, we are in very close proximity to the Queens West playing field, the big real grass field in Gantry Park, the basketball courts on 48th Avenue, and the field and courts at Murray Playground. Proximity is of the utmost importance for kids to spontaneously play sports, which is the best way to learn and excel in them. Furthermore, sometime in 2013, we will have two brand new gymnasiums in the elementary and high schools being completed. These two gyms should definitely be co-opted by the community for additional youth group(and adult as well) play in the off hours, when not being used for regulation school sports. The latter of which are increasingly fewer and fewer in these days of budget tightening, thus increasing the need for augmented activities. Fortunately, in the interim, a new program has partially filled the void, as the privately run Super Soccer Stars has come to LIC and their programs begin this Saturday.

So here is my agenda for your LIC weekend:

Saturday: take the kids to soccer, and if you don’t have kids scout it out for the next Pele or Mia so you can say “I knew her back in the ‘hood when…” -> fill the kids and yourself with boozy cupcakes -> attend Art Block Party and create your own Picasso -> rave for six hours at PS1 peaking with Thom Yorke’s DJ set -> collapse ->

Sunday: wake up at noon, order in, watch NFL all day with Manhattan skyline in background

Yeah right, who am I kidding, I should be so lucky, “hey Blake…”

Ethiopian Food And Boozy Cupcakes Coming To LIC Pop-Up Market – what a combo, can I supersize that?

LIC’s Sculpture City Throwing Huge Art Block Party Saturday – make your own Picasso!

Yorke DJ’ing at MoMA PS1’s Warm-up This Saturday – might he play “Disco Inferno?”

Warm-Up Mixes – i’ll miss these, fortunately I bootlegged all the Warm-ups to tide me thru the winter, though my downstairs neighbor may not like it

Super Soccer Stars LIC Fall 2012 Schedule and Sign-up – your kid’s ticket to fame, just don’t forget to have them thank LICtalk in their 2034 World Cup MVP acceptance speech

Luxury LIC Waterfront High Rise Nears Completion – the one where you and little Ronaldo can live in and train next door

LIC Airline Snubs Marshall – Marshall? How about a press pass for LICtalk?

Queens Station Allegedly Beats Drunk To Death For Vandalizing Cash Machine

City Council Releases Draft District Lines – LIC has got to be close to having it’s own US Congressman, right?

Adore Her In A Fedora – leaving my apartment