ACCORDING to a gazillion news reports, Oliver Sohngen, the founder of the Long Island City Academy of Music, was arrested this morning for allegedly dallying and or attempting to do so with young girls between the ages of 8 and 17 years old. The Academy, located in the LIC Arts Center on 23rd Street near 44th Drive, offers kids music classes in everything from voice to vibraphone, as well as theater, songwriting, and a panoply of different instruments. Their website lists faculty from Juilliard, Mannes Berklee, and Bard, and the school has been in existence for a decade. Many children from the neighborhood received their introduction to guitar, piano, and violin at the school.
Sohngen is said to be 52 years old and originally from Germany. You can read more about the specifics of the charges in the links below.
//IN the LIC is the ‘Center of the Universe’ category, a new proposal has been put forth for Sunnyside Yards, that would transform it into a major new transit hub, and eliminate Penn Station for all intensive purposes. Were it to be implemented, the thought is that the Yards and LIC would then become a major business district to an extent that would be more of the scope of midtown than say Hudson Yards. Oh yeah, and there’s going to be a massive park too, butt not quite like Central Park.
Anyway, the idea was hatched by a think-tank called ReThinkNYC, and one of the big selling points is that it supposedly will cost less than de Blasio’s plan to deck over the Yards. I’m not really sure how they arrive at that assumption, given that the rendering also appears to cover them over and thus require a major engineering feat. Nevertheless, given all the current dissatisfaction with Penn Station/Amtrak, a plan like this has gone from ‘get lost’ to long-shot…
//WHILE we await possible trials and transformations, there will be many little happenings locally:
The toddler playground on 48th Avenue and 5th Street will open on Monday, May 22 at 3pm with a ribbon cutting by the NYS Parks Department. I think it’s byob.
The 2017 LIC Arts Open occurs May 17-21 – hey, didja hear that the auction at Christies last night set a new record? Some guy paid $57 million for a bronze head! Next time hopefully you can be the seller, and this is the place to find an up and coming Brancusi.
The Long Island City YMCA Summer Fitness Series will teach Tai Chi at Gantry Park on the following Saturdays from 10am-11am and is free and open to all: June 24, July 8 & 22, August 5 & 19 – Ha!
Music & Movement at Murray Park, this Saturday from 10m-11:30am. McManus Irish Dance for kids ages 2-7. It’s free and hosted by the Swillinger Group at Level Real Estate, and there will be balloon twistings – woo-hoo!
Renowned Queens Music Teacher Busted on Sex Trafficking Charges
NYC Music Teacher Arrested for Alleged Sex trafficking of Minors – reporting live from Vernon Blvd, which isn’t even close to the academy
LIC Music Academy Website – 44-02 23rd Street
Fed Up With Penn Station, Build a Transit Hub in Queens – “taking advantage of a 280-acre blank canvas across the East River from the most expensive office towers in the city”
LIC Arts Open Schedule & Agenda – art hint: search for ‘nude’
LIC Arts Open Starts Wednesday at Venues Across LIC – over 200 artists
Man Shot in Chest at QueensBridge Houses Yesterday – critically wounded at 5pm outside building at 41-10 Vernon Blvd
The Gutter Bowling Alley to Open This Friday – 8 lanes of bowling bliss and craft beer, or maybe it’s the other way around
Interview w/ ‘Coming Soon’ Restaurant Founder in Link LIC – wanna know more about what the restaurant will be?
I Managed to Survive The Apocalypse at This New Immersive Experience – in LIC
Sakara says
May 17, 2017 at 11:02 am“for all intents and purposes”
Willi says
May 17, 2017 at 7:02 pmThe bemused, negative commentary on the Penn Station cure known as Regional Unified Network (RUN) seems to be based on the ever popular world of alternative facts. Being an aficionado of LIC (having lived in Hunters Point for 30 years) I attended the same presentation that Crains reported on, but came away with a completely different reality. Loosely based on a plan put forth in the 1920’s by the Regional Plan Association, RUN proposes to convert Penn Station from a terminal to a pass thru station. To understand the significance of this, imagine if all the subways going through Times Square had to terminate there and turn around – daily commutes would be lengthened considerably. Ignoring political boundaries (New Jersey, Connecticut) same seat rides to the region’s airports and other major transportation modalities are possible and are facilitated by additional hubs in Secaucus, Port Morris and Sunnyside. The word replacement was only used when describing the folly of Penn Station South, an $8B addition to the existing station being bantered about in Congress which would only extend the chaos, not cure it. The Sunnyside hub made sense in 1920 and again today since all lines (Amtrak, LIRR, NJT) use the yard’s tracks – this proposal just opens them up to the public. Any readers interested in the facts, start here: http://www.rethinkstudio.org/