Just got word that demolition of the Hackett Building in LIC, which dates back to 1885, has begun. This one wasn't good enough for LPC because, "We finished our review, and determined it did not rise to the level of an individual New York City landmark. With the exception of the 20 years it housed the offices of Queens County government in the early 20th century, the building has been used for commercial purposes for most of its history. In addition, the building's architectural integrity has been significantly compromised by major storefront alterations." The photo is from the Greater Astoria Historical Society.
Hackett Building Slated For Demolition
Of course, it's to be replaced with dozens of units of luxury Queens Crap: Hackett Building Update: Shinier!
7 comments:
An open posting to those S.O.B.s at the L.P.C. ! Thank you for letting the Hacket Building get hacked apart! I suppose (the usual excuse to us "farmers" here in Queens) is that it didn't currently "meet the criteria" that Mary Beth Betts arbitrarily pulls out of a hat everytime a request for designation hits her desk from our borough! Just what comprises the essence of your "Criteria-de-Jour"? Do you just "wing it"? Of course, I'm sure that there are 2 sets! One for Manhattan and the other for the 4 other "provinces" of Greater New York! P.S. Thank you Bob Tierney for your broken promises to pay more attention to Queens! Maybe you could designate an early fire hydrant to appease us for our loss!
...or the streetlamp in Maspeth that's more worthy than St. Saviour's, according to the LPC. As their record proves, Queens is extinct. Time to overhaul Tierney-Betts & Co! Then we'd have a victory.
I know what Bob Tierney can do with that lamp post!
Time to overhaul the entire preservation movement. If the Manhattan crowd was doing what they should have been doing a few decades ago, we would not be in this mess.
Believe me, if Tierny-Betts were to go, it would be back to business as usual in Queens.
It's sometimes imposible to do any "overhauls" with regard to either the LPC or the preservation community as they currently exist. They're, in a way, one of the same type of personaly. Oftentimes, they are just mild-mannered "freaks" (living in a bubble) speaking in "whispered tones" using the same "lingo"....polite and such...afraid of their own shadows.... with about as much drive as an old broken-down Cadillac! Anyone will tell you that an old car can become too undepedable and not worth fixing (or "overhauling) anymore. Maybe it's time to dump them both and start over (both the LPC & the anemic Hysterical.....oops, pardon me, I mean..... Historical Societies) !
Queens' strength and weakness lies in the fact that we are still a collection of "small towns"and still call ourselves by our local names: Whitestone, Astoria, Middle Village, Jamaica and the like. This all sounds "cozy" but our politicos and their money suppliers, (the builders & real estate people) exploit us by our sense of "separateness". Divide and conquer is their provenly effective M.O.! For example: If you can convince the town of Whitestone to remain quiet on an upzoning proposed for Astoria and promise them downzoning for theirs then you've got a deal! Thus one "town" betrays another "town". (Nimby in action). Don't you think that it's time for our borough to think of itself as a united Queens! Oh please don't try to feed me that "Queens Civic Congress" stuff as a form of unity. They often are to often involved with North-East issues and leave the middle and western part of Queens dangling! Doesn't the founder-president of this organization come from Douglaston? Is he still around? Does anybody see him attending meetings anymore?
Wow, that one on QCC stings!!
Too often someone wants to 'unite' Queens they are doing the bidding of boro hall to keep people in line.
Too often when they want to 'unite' Queens they try to yoke everyone to some tired, timid, agenda.
If people will ever work together, it will arise naturally as an alliance of equals.
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