Mayor Bloomberg spent his last and final Christmas as mayor in LIC! He had breakfast at the fire station on 47th Avenue, then met with the officers of the 108th Precinct on 50th Avenue, along with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Now many of you might be asking “Where else but LIC would he spend Christmas?” [Read more…] about BLOOMBERG SPENDS CHRISTMAS IN LONG ISLAND CITY
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CRUISING TO CHRISTMAS

I’ve got nothing to say about LIC, and I think I’m all tapped out for 2013. Looks like the mainstream media is as well, but here it is for you to judge: [Read more…] about CRUISING TO CHRISTMAS
LICtalk GETS A FACELIFT AND MORE YUMMY NEWS

Do you like the new LICtalk logo? It’s a bit edgier, which is the buzzword for 2014, and you know how we like to be au courant on everything. A venture capitalist told me that the logo change alone should get me halfway to a $100 million valuation for this website. I sure hope he’s right, because I just dropped one-hundred and fifty grand on branding experts, marketing consultants, and IT whizzes, plus a new toupee. The other advice the VC gave me was to make sure I never, ever generate any revenues. Revenues lead to expectations, and once expectations are in place the whole ruse comes crashing down. Well I’ll show him! I plan on making the LICtalk logo as ubiquitous as the Nike Swoosh, replete with big time branding opportunities. By 2016 it’ll be on every t-shirt and toaster on the planet. Then this little old editor will be hanging with the big fellas at swank places like Art Basel, Allen & Co.’s Sun Valley Conference, and the Boardy Barn.
For now though, my directive is to just focus on content, throw in a little sex(or was it sexiness?), occasionally add a new bell or whistle, and before you know it, LICtalk will be sandwiched between Amazon and Google. Unfortunately we’ve also had to take a few steps back in order to move forward. It seems that there have been some problems with slow downloads, commenting, lost inbound emails, outbound emails, and Twitter feeds. D’oh! Fear not, because this isn’t like the federal government trying to fix the healthcare exchange website. By year-end all should be smooth sailing, so we can kill it for you again in 2014. By then I’ll be able to get back to what I’m really best at: chugging cold beer in my tank top.
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51st Street Bakery and Cafe is Now Open – and they have sandwiches!
Queens Paideia School is having an Open House for their Merit Scholarship Program on Wednesday, December 18th. For questions, and to attend the December 18 open house, please email info@
This Thursday night at Testaccio, if you book a table between 7pm and 9pm you get 20% off. And if you tell Chris Bozak that LICtalk sent you, he’ll buy you a drink at the bar too. “20% off? In that case I’ll take two orders of coniglio, salut!”
First Look at 51st Street Bakery & Cafe – here’s mine: yummy!
Cheap Eats of the Day: Arepas Cafe – technically in LIC, and also looks yummy!
Eating Along the M-Line: 36th St. stop in LIC – off the beaten path, but yummy!
At A Whitewashed Queens Warehouse, An Unlikely Apostle of Graffiti – 5Pointz is dead, long live 5Pointz!
WHISTLING MY WAY THROUGH HUNTERS POINT



A bottle of red, a bottle of white
It all depends upon your appetite
I’ll meet you any time you want
In our Italian Restaurant.
Gorgeous weather leads to wandering around our town, in this case with a camera to highlight all the changes coming to LIC. First of all, a follow-up to our story about the new bakery/cafe coming to 51st Avenue. A regular reader provided the information that it will be operated by a couple with ties the the neighborhood, Jonathan Stirling and Faye Hess, and that Faye is an accomplished chef and baker. According to Faye, they hope to be open in a month. You can check out her website below.
Next up, as we reported last month, veteran mainstay Mario’s Deli on Vernon Boulevard is no more. In the window is stenciled a beguiling message “the beginning.” According to the construction guys out front, it is slated to be another Italian restaurant. Looks like they might have a courtyard in the back too. Two blocks north on Vernon, the lot across from the LIC Bar has been fully cleared. No idea what is coming in, but my guess is it will be like a mullet: business in the front, party in the back(aka: Retail at ground level, residential above).
Finally, we leave you with the latest pic from Hibino: Sushi comin’ around the mountain when she comes…
FAYEFOOD – yummy!
Amy’s Bread Opens up Retail Outlet in LIC – and at the other end of LIC
5Pointz Calls on Banksy to Help It Survive – Banksy where are you?
HURRICANE SANDY IN LIC, REVISITED
This week is the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. While most of the other tri-state coastal areas were hammered, we called it like it was and said LIC was remarkably unscathed, with a few noteworthy exceptions. Today we are enjoying gorgeous weather with nary a worry, but a year ago things went topsy-turvy, culminating with the East River cresting above Gantry Park and out onto 5th Street. For those who missed it or just want to revisit it, here’s our recap from a year ago.
BAD YES, BUT MOST OF US GOT LUCKY: AN ASSESSMENT
“We got crushed, Crushed” those were the first words from the colleague who sits next to me upon entering the office early this morning. He lives in Oceanside, on the south shore of Long Island, and if one is watching the news, it is a fairly typical response from anyone who lives on or near the water. His anecdotes consisted of boats on streets, cars in water, and jellyfish(literally) swimming in the living room. Similar stories have been all over the news coming from the Jersey coastline, including our counterpart urban cities Hoboken and Jersey City, as well as Red Hook, the Rockaways, and of course Breezy Point. Away from the coast, the main problem consists of fallen trees and the damage they have done directly to houses, and indirectly to powerlines and the resulting blackouts these have caused. It is with these stories as a background, that my assessment of what has befallen LIC can only be termed as very, very fortunate. It is one of the few places on the water that does not look like Hiroshima.
Now, as with any general assessment, there are many, many exceptions. I wrote about Shady Park and the long term consequences, and while the photos are dramatic and sad, let’s face it, the park is a communal loss and not indicative of the huge losses and headaches inflicted on alot of individuals. Let’s start with Center Boulevard, where almost everyone was inconvenienced, but most did not even lose power, unlike say everyone south of 39th Street. Amazingly, Food Cellar was open Monday early in the day, and yesterday as well, with about 70% of the shelves stocked. Last night there were even trucks making deliveries. Gantry Park, after massive flooding, was also left relatively unscathed. On the other hand, the people in The Powerhouse and The Yard, who had their lobbies completely flooded Monday night, lost and have not regained electricity since then. The other group that really suffered are the local businesses, both on and off the river. If one’s home gets two feet of brackish water, everything is ruined, but since so many residences are on the second floor and above in LIC, most damage seems inconsequential. Unfortunately, most businesses are on the ground floor, and many in the neighborhood got hit very hard. Typical of this is “Little Ones”, a nursery school at the base of the CityLights Building:
They had two feet of water fill the school, where the majority of the items the children use are kept. All but a few cabinets were soaked and the floors almost removed. The new Pre-K on 5th street has major and massive damage. This past Friday they had just completed the final details and were anticipating the final approvals of the TR and TR8 so that the Temporary C of O could be given. The water level inside the space is four and one half feet with none of it leaving without pumping out. The power in the space is gone.
On Vernon Boulevard similar damage occurred as many basements flooded. Driving past Manducatis Rustica yesterday there were about sixty large black garbage bags piled up, probably all spoilage, not to mention any machinery that may have been housed down there. Lest one thinks “Oh no problem, insurance will pay for it all” I think the reality is much different after considering deductibles, inability to get flood-specific insurance, and the enormous hassles of dealing with all of this reconstruction and attempts at normalization at the same time every other business is clamoring for similar services, all whilst trying to simultaneously run customer oriented businesses(see Little Ones example above).
In summary, while Long Island City in general fared well, it is very important to keep in mind those in our city who have been hit very hard by the storm, that is what being a community is all about.
Go to this link to see the comments from this period.