Monday, March 10, 2008

Starbucks says no to LIC

No high-end supermarket, Water Taxi on hiatus and now no Starbucks...

CRIPPLING: Long Island City Denied S'bux

What's a LIC yuppie to do?

Photo from Racked

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is communitea, brasil coffee house, and a dozen other cafes and resturants that have sprung up in the last year or so. We will manage.

Anonymous said...

Well, they can always snidely look down on the real Long Island City.

Finally figured out the purpose of the Hunter Point Park - the yuppies can walk all of two blocks along Vernon, then have their own little parklike setting as they go to the waterfront.

Dont have to deal with cracked ceilings. Dont have to deal with torn up sidewalks. Dont have to deal with the real community.

But they can still post on QueensWest and LicQuity and all those other places posing as the real thing!

Anonymous said...

"Brasil Coffee House" is 10 times better and slightly cheaper.

Anonymous said...

why do yups like coffee so much, anyway? You'd think it was some sort of magical exilir.

Anonymous said...

why do yups like coffee so much, anyway? You'd think it was some sort of magical exilir.

-----

For the same reason they hold the rest of us with contempt:

with no roots or connection with a community, they invent artificial status amongst themselves.

Anonymous said...

Who needs a supermarket when FreshDirect delivers? Who needs a YMCA or a public recreation center when every tower has its own private gym? Some of the towers have rooftop parks, too. No wonder there is no sense of community.

Anonymous said...

Exactly correct. Their roots are too shallow to care or even notice how they are the shock troops for developers to destroy the community.

The new neighborhood is a failure - it has no soul.

YOU DO NOT CREATE A COMMUNITY BY BRAGGING ABOUT $ PER SQ FEET.

THAT IS BULL!

Anonymous said...

Boo hoo....
first no water taxi service....and now no Starfux!

What is a yupster to do?

With declining sales
in this area's "luxury" condo market
and the increasing asthma rates...
the gantry should read "Lung Island"
(a good site for a respiratory diseases sanitarium) !

Anonymous said...

Yeah but Brasil Coffee House
is too far away for a yuppie to stroll to.

And they're not going to cab it for a cup of Joe.

Anonymous said...

Wait 'til some of these "swift" day traders
gets one of their nuts looped in a snag.

Their "luxury" wallboard digs will be on the market.

And may we add for years....
because nobody's buying at these prices!

Anonymous said...

Starbucks' refusal is a barometer
for this area's faltering real estate market.

Anonymous said...

You people are so jealous it's funny even to me, and I am born and raised in Western Queens.

Anonymous said...

You were raised on a pig farm in Iowa.
So stop trying to kid us street wise New Yorkers!

Anonymous said...

What's the difference
between a "yuppie" and a "hipster"?

A "yuppie" has mega bucks ,
while a "hipster" has just a motor mouth.

Now a "yupster" has a little of both....
but not enough to make it in either world.

In other words, he's a poor luckless bastard!

Anonymous said...

I love this. That's one thing (of the many) we LIC lifers have over the newcomers: We don't believe everything we're told. I'm 35, lived in LIC my whole life (right off of Vernon) and have been told about supermarkets, parks and other amenities for as long as I can remember, even before the waterfront was overdeveloped and buildings started coming down. Now Starbucks, which has been gossiped about for at least 3 years, is pulling out on their deal, if there ever was any deal. Classic.

Anonymous said...

Why can't we get along?

The envy and frustration among this crowd is sad. And lets be honest that's what this is all about. It's about a neighboorhood that is changing in ways that economically you are not able to particpate in and your impotence in being unable to do anything to slow it down or stop it.

Listen I'm sorry that some of the residents moving here have more money than some of those who lived in LIC before the towers, but why should they be ashamed of that? Or the fact that they like spending $5 on cup of coffee at Starbucks? I don't look down on anyone, nor have I witnessed any such incident.

I live in one of the new buildings and find my neighbors to be great. I've made many new friends, I go on bar crawls with many of the Queens West crew, and I'm constantly meeting new people. I have not seen any snobbiness at all.

Anonymous said...

Wow what a great neighborhood. They have organized bar crawls...

Anonymous said...

What a generalization. To assume that the people who don't live in the new buildings have less than you is completely ignorant. If you want to spend $5 on a pack of gum, I could give a $hit.

I'm very happy in my beautiful 2 family brick, built 1890, that I own, thank you very much. Just because I choose to spend my money differently, and in my opinion, a lot wiser than you people, doesn't make me any less of a participant in my community. What you don't get is that we don't want to participate with YOU. Totally ingenuine people who reinvent themselves because now they live in NYC and then try to fit into a real neighborhood by what, frequenting the quaint bars? Get over yourself, sweetheart. I'll put my bankbook up against yours any day.

Anonymous said...

Your mother was the pig on the farm.
Hows that for New York?

Anonymous said...

"And they're not going to cab it for a cup of Joe."

Very true.
Yuppies wouldn't ever refer to coffee as "Joe," though, like ordinary folk. To them it is a "cream de la latte" or something of the sort.

Anonymous said...

with no roots or connection with a community, they invent artificial status amongst themselves


well spoken. was Durkheim versed in Yupology too?

Anonymous said...

first it was yuppie...then there was hipster...later it became yupster...but now it's...trustafarian!!

Anonymous said...

Will you all please stop it? Who cares? All that matters is the area will improve. I was priced out of Manhattan so I moved to LIC. Others can do the same. Move to the bronx or down south. Wherever. if you can't make it here, get out.

Anonymous said...

So..... my "mother was the pig on the farm" ?
Now I know that you're at least 14 years old
if that's the best you've got !

And yer mudder wears combat boots!
(I'm only trying to match your intellectual age level).

First of all you ignoramus....
a female pig is called a sow.
Go back and finish high school in the corn belt
or get yourself a NYC home grown GED!

Anonymous said...

You're the one
who couldn't "make it" in Manhattan....
that's why you were forced to cross the river
(and not even into
the Brooklyn nabes with more cache) .

Wattsa matta with you.....
are you still jealous of all those big spenders
on the golden isle?

Wait until your former island friends snub you
by their unwillingness
to pay you a visit in Archie Bunkerville!

Don't worry,
maybe you can flip your "investment"
to some witless foreigner in a couple of years
after the market recovers.

Anonymous said...

I'll bet all those would be buyers
who are scoping this site are having second thoughts about investing in Queens West and the like.

That's got to be why all of these pro posters
(covert sales agents maybe?)
are so desperately dishing out their line of BS here.

Anonymous said...

Dear Pig Mother,

I dont care about sow / pig, what are you - trying to be an intellectual? What are you a yuppie?

Streetwise New York my as*!

Pig mother, only you would be proud of a GED.

Anonymous said...

Hey bub....you left out the second "a" in ass.

Did you get so pissed off you hit the wrong key
and put in an asterisk instead?

Oh no, don't tell me you're one of those genteel folk
who's too modest to spell out a-s-s the real way!

And I didn't say I had a GED,
but now I'm sure you didn't even finish middle school!

Anonymous said...

there's a second "a" in ASS?

Anonymous said...

sticks and stones may break my bones but your mothers still a pig.

How that for middle school?

you yuppie.

Anonymous said...

For your info, I'm not a
young urban professional ("yuppie").

I'm a little older ,without mega-income (just brains).

But I'm tuning out....not that you've "bested me".
(Our "exchange" is beginning to bore the readers).

There's an old saying fella:
"He who continues to stand and argue with a fool....
himself becomes a fool".

So...10-4 you fool....gotta bounce now.

You can continue your hand to hand
(or hand on whatever) play by yourself.
It's been great fun playing with you.

Practice your skills on a "Gameboy"
for swifter moves (and finish Kindergarten).

Anonymous said...

Do you notice that whenever ersatz luxury
shoddily built high rise condos in LIC are the topic,
there's always a whole slew of pro-posters
over-zealously defending all of this crap?

30, 50, 60+ comments and counting!

These projects must REALLY NEED defending.

What's secretly wrong with them ?

Anonymous said...

"10-4 you fool.....gotta bounce now."

Pig mother, I will miss you.





...yuppie.

Anonymous said...

They ought to name this dump
"Elmer Gantry Park".....
after the best damn bullshit slinger in fiction.

Elmer must have been a real estate agent
before he went into his preacher gig.

Projects like "Queens West"
have become one of Queens jests!