The New York Times has published an article on how "national retailers and big banks are moving in and remaking the [outer borough] streetscape in Manhattan’s image." Special attention is paid to Broadway and Steinway Street in Astoria.Now, Big-Name Retail Chains Will Take the Other Boroughs, Too
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Eventually the United States may come to resemble a "pre-packaged" Utopia. Be it in the form of shopping malls, or housing developments. A "Disney-esque" influence and approach to retail and home-building seems to be prevailing at the moment. Maybe we should "privatize" our country, and franchise it to the "Disney Corp." and be done with it! They will certainly do a better job of running it! Wouldn't that be a cruel joke!
First of all, this happened a decade or more ago in Astoria. In places where major construction was needed and approvals from the community board secured, the local government did not have enough sense to extract concessions (as reinvesting back into the community)
The article goes on to crow about the skyrocketing rents as a sign of a healthy shopping district.
I will remember that the next time I walk down 'vibrant' Main Street in Flushing and look at all those little cubicles.
I know of an older store on Main St. in Flushing that used to bring in $10,000 a month for a landlord. Now if that store would remain vacant for 4 months (while the owner was seeking a new tenant) that would mean a loss of $40,000 in rent! So what does an owner like this do? He divides this store into 10 "booths" and rents each one for about $3,000 (per cubicle) a month. Do the math. That's a rent roll of $30,000 each month! If "one guy" suddenly goes out of business and leaves, the owner suffers only a partial loss of $3,000 until he gets a new renter for that one booth! Flushing has some of the most (artificially) overpriced real estate in the city!
I think, if we are to read the numbing array of press releases from Boro Hall (not sure if it's the one being torn down or not)that is called a 'vibrant' economic environment.
I believe that the terms to describe Flushing that were used by Beep Shulman and her "accomplices" we're, "bustling" followed by "vibrant". These are just euphemisms used in place of: "You gotta hold ya nose when ya walk there"......."I keep an open plastic bag in my hand, in case I've got to up-chuck"...."I can't wait until the #7 train passes Willet's Point Blvd. and we get past that stinking Flushing Creek"....."Jump off the bus and on to Manhattan". How is the Muss Organization going to market those new luxury buildings along the water, with views of the "junk yards and the "fragrance" of the creek at low tide? Maybe residents can grab a free-be glimpse of the Mets games from the roof. Gee that's a selling point!
The young people are calling that coffee chain, "STARF---KS"!
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