You won’t need no husband, won’t need no wife
You’ll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube
Maybe He’ll look around Himself and say
Guess it’s time for the judgment day
It’s crystal ball time here at LICtalk, as we take a look at what can be expected here in Long Island City come 2023.
Packed subway cars will be the least of the mass-transit problems our logistics experts anticipate. More worrisome will be the inability of the Vernon/Jackson station to handle the crowds on the platforms in the morning and the stairs when the rush hour trains arrive in the evening. The morning commute will suffer a double-whammy as there will be thousands of additional nearby residents looking to utilize the station in 2023 yet trains arriving at this time will be packed solid from all the tens of thousands of new residents accessing the trains at earlier stops. Vernon Boulevard itself will become a parking lot in the morning as there will be four commuter shuttles double-parking to drop passengers off from the newly built towers, instead of the sole one currently doing so. “Duh” you say, everyone already knows this. To which I would respond “Not those politicians advocating for more growth in this neighborhood.”
By 2023 artists living in their own environment will be fully extinct. All that will be left is those existing in ersatz (but pristine) artist residencies and studios created by developers in return for massive zoning variances. It will be a small simulation of what once was.
Similarly, industry will be gone – with the exception of city-mandated lip service. While park-space will still be plentiful along the waterfront in 20231, playing fields will not across all of Long Island City. More residents and zero additions will tighten the noose almost to the point of “Why bother?”
The good news is there will be plenty of retail, which basically means no shortage of restaurants. More chains and mini-empires than not, but a few surprises. And here’s my one official prediction: a Chinese restaurant, but in the fashion of the day it will be organic and artisanal and cost twice as much, kind of like Birds of a Feather in Wmsbg. So don’t be thinking egg rolls and spare ribs.
Another positive is that schools will be plentiful, as the city overcompensates for the current shortage. While the number of classrooms will be in abundance, class sizes will still be a crowded 30+.
Apartment prices? Trader Joe’s? Will Councilman Brent O’Leary be married? I do not know. The rest I’m 99% sure about.
//ALL this is a good intro to an Overdevelopment Symposium this Wednesday, September 12 between 7-9pm at the Irish Center on Jackson Blvd. It’s being organized by a group called Take Back LIC and will discuss comprehensive community planning for the three major waterfront development plots around and north of Anable Basin requesting large zoning variances. I like that idea!
Take Back LIC Website – Power to The People! …maybe
- Unless they divvy up the fields and add lights [↩]
Anonymous says
September 10, 2018 at 4:42 pmlol councilman oleary