Doesn’t look shady to me
THE Mets are in first place – it must be April! In conjunction with that we’ve trotted out the hackneyed title above, which basically means there’s no local news of import. Unless of course you’re a foodie Continue reading
The news cycle is slowing down in Long Island City just in time for the Easter/Passover break. The only real stories below deal with ‘other’ areas/aspects of the town. So put aside restaurant openings and school capacity during Holy Week and see how the other Continue reading
On Day 2 of the new season, I really really wanted to write an Ode to Spring, with sonnets and poems and crocuses and newborn foals running free in Gantry Park. Instead we got a SNOW DAY!!! Sure, I’m now a grown getting paid by the hour word, but when our Mayor waved his magic wand I felt obliged to obey. So instead of ballads and verse, I offer ye a limerick Continue reading
Mona Coal-Ice is sweet
So what’s with the recently painted gold-lettered “Mona Coal-Ice” on Vernon Boulevard? Is it an olde-tymey steam-punk themed haberdashery? Is it a spin-off from the ice cream store next door? Or maybe we should take it literally and get our ice for parties and coal for umm, you know, like burning? No. no, thanks to a little sleuthing from my desktop Continue reading
Jimmy F saw the greatness, but not the rec center
THE petition to include a community center with a pool in the Plaxall rezoning has surpassed its goal of 500 signatures. That’s 500+ residents of Hunters Point who now await the final decision by the city like a child waits for Christmas morning.
Nevertheless as mentioned last week, the expense to include this much needed facility for the community is negligible. Cut 10% of the whopping 300k square feet allocated to light industrial and reclaim 20k sq ft. of now redundant resident-only gym space from the new residential towers, and bingo: a 50k sq ft. rec center with more than enough room for a pool, gym, studios, etc. Throw in that the build-out on a massive project should be benefiting from tremendous economies of scale, and both the real estate and cash costs are greatly reduced.
In light of this may our elected officials put aside their priorities and consider those of the locals in this not unreasonable request.
//HEY, did you watch the Pepsi halftime show during this year’s SuperBowl? If so then you couldn’t miss the opening Continue reading
Down by the river
While I wrote recently that I might expound on the rationale for adding a rec center in Hunters Point, I’ve decided I would provide an excerpt that I wrote to Robert Dobruskin, the director in the NYC Planning Dept. who is collecting community comments on the Anable Basin rezoning. The excerpt is below. More importantly, if you haven’t already please sign the petition being circulated to bring a community center to Hunters Point.
<<<This weeks news links at the very bottom>>>
//YESTERDAY the little information fairies were asked to distribute a memorandum to their parents announcing a meeting about a new District Elementary School to be incubated in Long Island City in the Continue reading
There’s a train now entering the Hunters Point Avenue station?
Show Palace strip club, located on 21st St. across from the exit ramp of the Queensboro Bridge was closed down Friday night by the NYPD in light of prostitution allegations according to The Daily News. No surprise there, but locals may be disappointed because now they will have to order their beef tenderloin, nachos supreme, and cheesecake from somewhere else this Superbowl. Nearby, a family living in the Queensbridge Houses Continue reading
It looks like nothing now, but soon a cornucopia of culinary delights
A new restaurant serving Indian-Mexican fusion cuisine expects to open on Vernon Boulevard by the end of January. Named DesiBowl, it will be located in the space formerly occupied by the Paris Health Cafe next to St. Mary’s Church. The owner is Sabiha, who is currently a manager at OptimEyes Vision in LIC, and she told us to envision an Indian-style Chipotle, with burritos, tacos, rice bowls, paratha rolls, and Indian sandwiches, whereby the consumer chooses the rice, meat, toppings, etc. The restaurant will be spice-friendly as well as have a kid-friendly menu. This will be Sabiha’s first time opening her own restaurant, though her family owns ten pizzerias in the city.
In addition, Continue reading
God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen
Company holiday parties are fraught with danger. Making a drunken fool of oneself in front of people you see Mon-Fri from 9-5 for the next 365, telling your superior what you really think of her, not to mention the possibility of infidelity, rejection, and in 2017 sexual harassment. Handicapping the company holiday party as a prospective investment, which in some ways it is, there is no upside, other than free drinks and food, and massive downside. So as your adviser1, I recommend Continue reading
Reverse gentrification
CRIME and real estate, that’s what we have for you today. The latter is ubiquitous the former quite rare in Long Island City. Well the part of LIC that most readers live in. Nevertheless it’s a reminder during this Holiday season that Continue reading