It has finally come to this. The need for traffic safety measures has spurred a press event that will be held tomorrow, May 30, at 3pm on Center Boulevard and 48th Avenue. Who will be there? [Read more…] about CENTER BOULEVARD STOP SIGN PROTEST TOMORROW
Politics
QUEENS BEER WEEK AND LIC EASTER EGG HUNT NEXT WEEK
We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout,
We’ve been talkin’ ’bout Jackson, ever since the fire went out.
I’m goin’ to Jackson, I’m gonna mess around,
Yeah, I’m goin’ to Jackson,
Look out Jackson town.
How’s that for a twisted pairing? Eggs for the kids, beer for the ‘rents, sounds good to me. We’ve documented the explosion of the Queens beer scene over the last 24 months, but who knew there was a burgeoning Easter Egg Hunt frenzy in LIC? [Read more…] about QUEENS BEER WEEK AND LIC EASTER EGG HUNT NEXT WEEK
LIBRARY DISAPPOINTMENT, LOOKING BACK …AND FORWARD
What do the Hunters Point Library, Queens Library President, Center Boulevard crosswalks, and a new YMCA in the Rockaways have in common? [Read more…] about LIBRARY DISAPPOINTMENT, LOOKING BACK …AND FORWARD
LIC XMAS WISH LIST TO SANTA VAN BRAMER
Mayor Quimby: Order! Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Homer: Get to the money!
Mayor Quimby: In a moment. First, let’s review the minutes from our last meeting.
Apu: Get to the money!
Rev. Lovejoy: Get to the money!
Grampa Simpson: Get to the moneeey!
Mayor Quimby: Very well. We will now hear suggestions for the disbursement of the $2million.
Lisa Simpson: Don’t you mean $3million?
Mayor Quimby: Of course. How silly of me.
Tis the season for receivin’ …or requesting anyway. Thus I will publish my Long Island City wishlist for 2014, and address it to the most visible local politician I know, Jimmy Van Bramer. Whether it be a senior citizens singalong, a lost dog rally, or a food-cart opening, JVB’s ubiquitousness rivals only Mayor Quimby’s. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, there have been numerous important occasions where we could have used a little more presence from our national leaders, think Katrina and healthcare website breakdowns. So instead of Quimby, maybe we should be looking at James Brown, the hardest working man in showbiz, for a parallel. Or maybe I should be realistic and acknowledge that a single politician can’t fulfill all my requests. Here they are anyway:
1. Lights on QueensWest Field – LICtalk Math: your average person works from 9-5, gets home to their apartment at 5:30, and can be at the field by 5:45pm. The average sunset, over the course of the year, occurs at 6:30pm(click here for data), meaning the average usage by adults is ~45 minutes a day, M-F. By installing lights and keeping them on until 9pm, one could quadruple this usage! Yeah, I know, cut JVB some slack, QW Field is under a morass of different jurisdictions, but someone needs to get the ball rolling.
2. Crosswalks and Speed Bumps on Center Boulevard – I don’t know whose jurisdiction this falls under, but it seems tailor made for JVB. My only comment is the advice I would give his Chief of Staff: get out ahead on this topic, before a tragedy occurs. Traffic on Center Boulevard is completely unregulated, and the heavy transient use(taxi/livery cars/weekenders) combined with the otherwise carefree pedestrians is a recipe for disaster.
3. Quadras– organized soccer in Brazil is known as futebol. But the pickup variety, the kind played in the cities and the countryside, is called pelada. Big fields, like QueensWest and the new “Oval,” are certainly welcomed, but going forward practicality should play a role. As nice as organized games are, it’s pickup games where kids really learn soccer, and where adults can get the best workout and not be constrained to a strict schedule, nor the need to cobble 16-22 players together. Let’s take a page from another concrete-filled city, Sao Paolo, and create quadras. If pols are always looking for input from the community, here’s a forward looking idea that would greatly enhance utilization. Feel free to steal it.
4. Playgrounds for 6-12 year olds – this is a rehash from a year ago, but even more important today. Re-read the story and if you’re a parent with a child over 3 years old, feel free to spearhead a new advocacy campaign, because it’ll be a few years before the second leg of Hunters Point South Park is completed, but input is needed now! Once again, if pols are looking for input from the community, here’s a forward looking idea. Run with it.
That’s all for now, what’s on your LIC wishlist?
Pickup Soccer In Brazil Has an Allure All Its Own – “Romário, one of the greatest Brazilian scorers ever, played in the streets, too. So did Ronaldo. So did Rivaldo. ‘We just play whenever,’ Diego said.”
Are Playgrounds Too Safe? – “…if the child is 9 or 10 years old, he is likely fully bored by the swings, slides and climbing gear.”
Paragon Paint Building on Vernon Snapped Up for $16 Million – bye bye big ugly green monster
Protest Continues at 5Pointz – alright folks, time to get on w/ your lives
Volunteers At Shady Park Replant Their Beloved Trees – great news, now how about a park for those 5+?
Queens Hipster Neighborhoods Lucrative for Landlords – “two trendy Queens ZIP codes, beat out just one in Brooklyn on a list of 25 cash cows across the country where investors can get the highest yields on rentals.” What did I tell you just last week???
5POINTZ TAKEN TO THE EXTREME
GROUCHO (to woman seated next to him at an elegant dinner party): Would you sleep with me for ten million dollars?
WOMAN (giggles and responds): Oh, Groucho, of course I would.
GROUCHO; How about doing it for ten bucks?
WOMAN (indignant): What do you think I am???
GROUCHO: That’s already been established. Now we’re just haggling about the price.
For the umpteenth time, the 5Pointz residential development plan received another layer of approval from the powers-that-be to increase the size of the project, and this one seems to be the absolute final one necessary. Most of the noisy press has focused on the two most colorful groups. The pro-development camp who consistently asserted that the developers, the Wolkoffs, were legally entitled to build on the lot; and the artists camp, who felt the current building was a treasure. As far as I’m concerned, both camps are right.
My focus today is not on the “Tear it down/Don’t tear it down” circus, but rather the special permit that allowed the Wolkoffs to increase the size of the two buildings from roughly 30 stories each, to 41 and 47 stories. Basically what happens in applying for the permit, is that the developer has to pay for a lengthy 3rd-party feasibility study that lists all the negatives of allowing him said special increase. There’s a whole litany of negative effects for a community that usually include standard items like increased auto traffic in the area, increased pedestrian traffic, lack of parking, strain on public transportation, etc. Then comes the aesthetics bucket list such as the effect on the skyline and the big new shadows across the neighborhood. As a local example of the last item, one effect cited in the 5Pointz study in allowing the buildings to be 40+ stories, was that now they would create shadows on Murray Park at certain times of the year. The net-net of all this is that there are negatives that a whole community must shoulder, so a developer can increase the size of his building.
On the other hand, there’s a huge cost advantage for a developer in building as big and high as he can, in order to amortize the fixed costs he’d incur whether the building were one story or a hundred, plus a lot of other savings such as supplies(example: if you’re buying 1000 bathtubs instead of 700, you get a better price per tub) In recognition of this trade-off between “Increased Community Negatives” and “Greatly Increased Bottom Line”, the city and it’s various politicos swarm over this potential honeypot to play a game of squeeze-the-developer.
As expected, that’s exactly what transpired on the 5Pointz deal. After all the negotiating, the city was able to extract some low-cost artists studios, the allowance of some graffiti on certain portions of the building, and most significantly, 210 of the new apartments will be “Affordable Housing.”
Huzzahs all around on this settlement, right? Not so fast.
What the agreement really distills down to, is that 210 lucky souls will get subsidized housing, and the rest of the community will have to endure the negative effects of the increased building size. Maybe those effects are really bad, or maybe they are fairly meaningless, but the net equation is 210 people benefit greatly, and the rest of the neighborhood of 20,000+ takes a little hit in their quality of life.
Now, let’s take the 5Pointz example to the extreme. What if the proposed increase were to 60, or 80, or 100 stories? Would you feel the increased negatives then? Of course, and you’d probably make a huge ruckus over what was being inflicted. Instead you just get a little screwing, maybe ten bucks worth, and thus don’t make a fuss. Now that’s the art of the deal!
Council Approves Housing Plan for 5Pointz – huzzahs all around, except from the artists. Sorry if I made you a little unsettled too.
Founders of 5Pointz File Lawsuit to Block Demolition – probably too little too late
Market Reports Out for Queens/LIC Rentals, Sales – “The LIC rental market has a growing inventory with steady pricing. New developments are renting at an average of 20 units a week per building.” Old news to LICtalk readers, we told you this a month ago.
Manhattan Rents Decline for the First Time in Two Years – Old news, yawn.
These Donors Will Take Anything but Manhattan – a story about the Rubins, who make big arts donations solely to the outer boroughs, including $300K to Socrates Sculpture Park last week. Too bad the Wolkoffs don’t take a page from their book.
The Death of the Suburbs – Sam Zell calling a trend we spotted in April. I didn’t know he too was a reader of LICtalk: ‘The demand for the suburban lifestyle had been driven mainly by safety and schools, he said. “If you wanted to see the end of suburbia, all you’d need to do is make the school systems in the cities triple-A and why would anybody live in the suburbs,” Zell said.’
Aereo Pushes Back Android App – local biz we made mention of earlier in the week. Will they be the next Comcast?
Family of Missing Autistic 14-Year Old, Preparing to Sue the City
Cafe To Open in Hunters Point South Park – surprise, it won’t be Starbucks