...with its busy commercial thoroughfares (Broadway, 30th Avenue, Steinway Street) packed with ethnic restaurants, supermarkets, fishmongers, green grocers and major retailers like the Gap and Victoria's Secret, Astoria already functions as a convenient, family-friendly neighborhood.ASTORIA, I ADORE YA'
Unlike Long Island City's Hunters Point - where a hipster community is growing along Vernon Boulevard - Astoria is a sprawling, established area with a distinct personality of its own.
For a good laugh, read Pistilli's comments.
19 comments:
I like the old lady that just cant wait to move it. Like she is typical.
The reality is the old timers cant stand what that development is doing to thier community
Sure, you have a block or so that is all that was once a vibrant shopping on Steinway.
But look at all that 99 cent stores and everyone's fave of the future ELLLLLL MUUUUNNNNDDDDOOO DISCOUNT!!
Hooka smoking anyone? Brazilian waxing and nail salon adds just the right south of the (westchester county) border effect.
Hey mom, we have lots of Mexican restaurants and cheep Bangladeshi noodle places!
Astoria is sooooo cool! Not at all like boring Kansas.
Clueless kids.
The comments about urban deteriation and Astoria heard lately in the community (and as seen and heard on Crappy!) must be making the developers nervous.
too bad all these new constructions are total shit.
you'd be safer in a grass hut during a huricane
"Hey Mahn, like I mean, mahn, what IS wrong, daddy-o, with being a hipster, mahn? Can you dig?"
"Cool your jets, mahn, and have a lah-tay."
Let the media report garbage like this.
It ranks right up there with tiresome sound bites on our fearless politicians fighting for the community.
They are digging themselves in to a hole by building up a credibility gap with the public.
What a fitting name for an over developer.
Pistilli has certainly PISSED all over the nabe !
He's building this type of crap all over....
from College point to Glen cove.
Tutti caccatti !
The reality of Astoria:
The streets are getting noticeably filthier each year.
The buildings, once owner occupied, are now getting shabbier each year with absentee landlords secure that the community board favors illegal conversions
The shopping, once excellent, is now pretty much aimed at nail salons, 99 cent stores, bikini waxing, banks to send remittances home and perhaps the largest sign for a botanica outside of the Bronx
The community is kept divided by the politicians (look what they did to Sunnyside Gardens – multiply that 10 times for Astoria).
The old guard Greek and Italians are unwilling to lift a finger to organize the community – it must be the only part of Queens without a strong civic that stands independent of the politicians – sorry Dutch Kills and UCCA – and the quality of life issues (so important elsewhere) are non-existent (just stand at the corner of Steinway and Broadway on Halloween to see that we mean).
The streets are noisier with open cafes that spill into the surrounding blocks (to say nothing about pumping out air conditioning into the open in the middle of last summers power grid collapse while the community is told to turn down their units) and are packed with a clientele who don’t even live in the community anymore (sorry, the Greeks are leaving in droves)
Hookah smoking, euro cafés and not much else – the young people that allegedly are moving into the community have almost no impact on its development – outside of Bohemian hall, there are very few places that cater to them as gathering spots or to shop.
A Zabars-type place opens, and becomes an ‘international market’ in six months. The local kids pine for a bookstore that will never open in a community with declining economic status.
An arrogant community board filled with a bunch of faceless people who bullies and does everything to discourage the community from being heard. Following a script and ending on time are considered good meetings.
The district manager, the longest serving in Queens if not the city, – (you can fill in the blank)
The local police don’t even bother answering the phone.
The power grid is shot to hell and more and more units are being piled on. The politicians, assuming it worked with semi-literate old timers, tell everyone that it is Con Ed’s fault (which is a public utility that they regulate), then go and join Con Ed in fund raisers (machine sponsored) and baseball games (pols vs proles).
The community is being walled off from its own waterfront (unlike Manhattan and Brooklyn) with towers that look over smokestacks of power plants – what a great place to raise kids – to say nothing of terrorist targets next door.
The area is one of the most polluted in the city.
Soaring murder rate mostly with the kids in those rough clubs that pass for night life in that part of town.
Traffic – one word satisfies that point.
Politicians smug self-satisfied and inbred.
Old Astoria – a half dozen 150 year old homes destroyed each year – a great indicator of the character of the community’s leadership – though they are quick to authorize study after study (Hunter College, Goodwill/Two Coves) that justifies shoe-horning more and more people (higher the immigrant content – greater the bonus points)
Day labors lounging on major streets for blocks and blocks. The practice of leering at young ladies has been developed into a high art.
Heard enough?
Like Hunters Point and Dutch Kills, the Astoria community is being hollowed out for development – the future? It will be little more than barracks for the service community that is a convenient commute to Manhattan. Pure and simple.
But boy or boy, it will make tons of money for its ‘leadership.’
You can walk the streets and see a changed character in its people. I guess the backbone of the old-guard in the community is leaving in droves after the power outage last summer.
Reading your post now makes sense.
Rats leaving a sinking ship. They see the handwriting on the wall.
this is what started it all - been making the rounds ...
http://www.timesledger.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18529326&BRD=2676&PAG=461&dept_id=542861&rfi=6
George Delis just strokes his mustache
and counts the money he and some of those smug
traitors of CB#1 made selling out to the developers!
Well......
that's what happens when somebody
in the real estate business has control
of a community board!
Community boards are a general sham....
giving residents the illusion
that they have a say in government.
They exist mainly to take the pulse
(or lack of thereof) of the community.....
and control any upstart movements
that might question their iron rule!
CB #1 is the ideal partner of politco/developer traitors !
Ooopah !
Instead of breaking dishes at a Greek wedding.....
Is Mr. "D" , perhaps, in the business
of busting up neighborhoods?
"They exist mainly to take the pulse (or lack of thereof) of the community..... and control any upstart movements that might question their iron rule!"
This is the best summary of a community board that I have ever seen: on the money!!
Another pretentious G(R)EEK project?
Where's the Corinthian and Doric......soon to follow?
Maybe a statue of Phillip holding his son Alexander
in front of the Ionian....really now.
This is pure scatta/modern!
Why isn't The Astorians blog talking about this overdevelopment sham crap? All they do is gang up on anyone that does. The only thing I can think of is that there are many real estate crooks that post icognito on that site. Every time the words Pistilli, Bloomberg, Delis, Marshall, etc come up, they get glowing reviews.
Need to educate those KIDS before they run out of their trust funds and they have to leave Astoria. We wouldn't want THAT to happen now. They're HELPING our economy.
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