Monday, February 18, 2008

The crappification of 38th Street

The photos of the small building sandwiched in between the 2 bigger buildings may be in that block, but I'm not positive. It's within a block though.
Here are some photos from 38th Street between 30th Avenue and 31st Avenue in Astoria.
The street was primarily 1 and 2 family homes. These photos show only some of the building going on within 1 block. So much has been torn down.
Good luck with your blog.
Hope these will be useful. I'll keep my eye out for more.

Donnie

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Along just three blocks of 38th street roughly 50 houses have been replaced by huge 3-4 floor buildings. When added together, thousands of people will fill the space where just ~50 families lived. This short stretch of 38 street epitomizes the utter destruction of Astoria. I invite you all, especially the pro-development types, to take a walk here and attempt to justify this disgraceful state of affairs as "change to be embraced."

Anonymous said...

You know what, guys? I think I'm just jealous of the units in these buildings that are nicer, newer and more expensive than the 1-family homes that were previously there. I have yuppie envy.

Anonymous said...

Fred, your honesty is refreshing change of pace. There nothing wrong with finding beauty in these buildings and it's good that you have the courage to go against the grain to do it.

Anonymous said...

For the record, I was being facetious. Who the hell wants to live inside THOSE?

Anonymous said...

The attitude of anonymous#1 typifies the irrational reasoning of the smarmy, elitist yuppies to whom these units are marketed. One should not have to "find" beauty in shoddy, overpriced get rich quick (for the developer) projects like this, beauty should be immediately apparent as it was in the charming houses which were demolished. Property ownership fosters genuine community unity since owners invest more time and money into improving and maintaining something that is truly theirs. Condominium ownership fosters transients and a less united community since it involves owning shares in a condominium holding company instead of actual land. These projects have robbed people who wish to set long term roots in the community of the opportunity to own actual land.

Anonymous said...

Oh and before the accusations of jelousy come pouring in, allow me to say that I am not the least bit ninterested in any of these units. My sentiments are of outrage and disappointment that my ability to purchase land has been taken away from me as a result of the artificial inflation of home prices resulting from speculative development projects. Less than four years ago, one could purchase a decent house for around 300k, now prices range from 850-1.5 million. This is a direct result of the developers overpaying owners in order to get them to sell. Now the prices here are ridiculous and continue to rise while they fall elsewhere around the country, this curiosity should have us all questioning how this is all possible. For those of you who do not understand, zoning is the problem, that is why there is virtually no development on the noth side of the Grand Central Pkwy(Vallone's side) since it is zoned R4 or less, while southern Astoria gets trashed due to its R6 zoning. Change the zoning to R4 and the development will stop.

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure anonymous #1 was being sarcastic as well...

If not, his statement wasn't irrational, smarmy, and elitist; he just has bad taste.

Anonymous said...

So lucio you are jealous then - just not of developements, but the developers and new owners who are buying those land parcels that you can no longer afford!

Do you rent?

BTW condominium owners do not own shares they own the real estate.

Anonymous said...

Love to post this on Astorians.com but they don't let you.

boo hoo hoo.

Anonymous said...

Community board 1, the community board from hell.

Anonymous said...

Hey, wasn't this the place that had that power grid because of all those illegal conversions?

Oh thats right, its Con Ed's fault.

Ummm .... if this was true, why are they adding to the power grid?

Anonymous said...

Love to post this on Astorians.com but they don't let you.

boo hoo hoo.

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