I’d like to say that nothing happened in LIC during my two week absence, because that would be the truth. But I’m in the ink moving business, have lots of other things to catch up on, and the truth is [Read more…] about NEW LIC NEWS
NEW LIC NEWS
News
NEW BARBER, ELKS DEMOLISHED, TOM CAT BAKERY UPDATE Y MAS
One of the good things about living in a multicultural borough, and writing for a backwater little-read publication, is the liberties one can take with language. Take the headline above, I was one letter over the maximum that Google search allows for a headline and fretting over what to eliminate, when I realized I could change “& More” to “Y Mas” and it would easily be acceptable to the enlightened readers I cultivate. It’s a fitting tribute and bridge to the embattled workers at Tom Cat Bakery, who are predominantly Hispanic. Plus I think it allows me to write off my Spring Break trip to Cancun as a continuing education expense in Spanglish.
Anyway, according to The Daily News, the Department of Homeland Security audit at Tom Cat was [Read more…] about NEW BARBER, ELKS DEMOLISHED, TOM CAT BAKERY UPDATE Y MAS
QP’s MARKETPLACE, CUE THE MEMORIES OF 80’S LIC
Recently, an old friend who grew up in Queens, shared with me her main recollection of coming to Long Island City back in her youth. It centered around subway rides to Queens Plaza to shop at a crowded flea market called QP’s Market Place, in order to purchase the 80’s teenage equivalent of Snapchat: black concert t-shirts.
Hmm, I thought, given the retailing magnet that this place was for someone living all the way on the other side of Queens, and the nostalgia people of a certain era have for physical locations that sold highly discounted and possibly semi-illicit merchandise, maybe the venue deserved a short profile?
Instead, a quick google turned up a historical treasure trove about the site that the market was located on. And previous chroniclers have already performed extensive spadework and risked limbs for cool photos. So to entice you to read their fantastic posts on it, I’ll share some interesting tidbits.
First though, to put things in perspective, the area we’re talking about is [Read more…] about QP’s MARKETPLACE, CUE THE MEMORIES OF 80’S LIC
MARCH MADNESS: SNOW DAY OFFICIAL TOMORROW LIC
GET out your sleds kids, the NYC Department of Education (DOE) has declared tomorrow a Snow Day. Yes, Snow Day is capitalized according to Webster’s, as it is both a holiday and a holy day – at least as far as public and parochial schools go. Best of all, by calling it early, the DOE has given cover to everyone to sleep in and uhh …work from home. As for myself, it gives me more time to “work” on my brackets and run thru a dress rehearsal for St. Patty’s Day.
//LAST July we did some calculations and made the call that the townhouses being built on the south end of Murray Park we’re going to lead to [Read more…] about MARCH MADNESS: SNOW DAY OFFICIAL TOMORROW LIC
LICTALK IS FIVE YEARS OLD TODAY
We’ve got five years, stuck on my eyes
We’ve got five years, what a surprise
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
We’ve got five years, that’s all we’ve got
HALF a decade ago an idea was bandied about by the local intelligentsia: Can small town news be created and conveyed in a manner befitting a great metropolis of millions? The answer was a resounding no, yet from that grand concept came the detritus that is LICtalk.
Way back in those days condominiums in Long Island City were priced at less than $1,000 a square foot, people moved here because of the significantly discounted rent to Manhattan’s, Court Square was comprised of the Citi building, we only had one park on the waterfront, JetBlue was headquartered in Forest Hills, 5Pointz was a mecca – not dual cookie-cutter towers-in-waiting, we had five Italian restaurants (just like we do now), children were babies, and men shaved more and hugged less. [Read more…] about LICTALK IS FIVE YEARS OLD TODAY