The gentrification of Vernon Boulevard continues as more upscale businesses move in to serve the needs of luxury apartment owners. Joe Conley, chairman of Community Board 2, said it’s rare to see a block in Long Island City without some kind of construction. “It really has just exploded in the last two years,” he said. “The good news is it’s changing. The bad news is it’s too fast.”
Vibrant Vernon Boulevard: Long Island City On The Rise
"Vibrant", eh? Heh. Let's read on.
Kenny Greenberg, a Long Island City resident and co-director of Art-O-Mat at 46-46 Vernon Blvd., believes the current development of his neighborhood is unnatural and poorly thought out. He said the process isn’t public, and that city and local leaders are missing a key issue in not helping already established businesses. Greenberg added that the community can’t work together because it doesn’t have the information.
Art-O-Mat has been at its location since 2005. A volunteer organization, the store sells art, music, and other items produced by local artists and crafts people. Part of Greenberg’s mission is to preserve the neighborhood and its artists. He said artists, who are the manufacturers and small businesses of Long Island City, are being squeezed out of their neighborhood, replaced by speciality restaurants and bars.
“The latest zoning ordinance essentially gave a green light for the destruction of the neighborhood,” said Greenberg, who believes Long Island City could be a model for the rest of the country — if only everyone could work together.
20 comments:
Yo Kenny, why don't you tell them about your links to Plaxal?!?!?!
If they are serious, then they would submit applications to the Landmarks Commission for the dozen or so buildings that are endangered.
They haven't?
Then they are not serious.
Where is our friend from LIQshitty?
Art O Mat sells that horrible booklet (done by some BROOKYLN group that just got a few HUNDRED thou from Albany) that shows their community as a pile of rubble on the front cover.
Hey bub, you don't get it both ways.
This sounds like a bunch of inane whining and complaining. The changes are transforming the area from a near barren dumpy place into something great.
I love when people complain that the process is not "public" enough. This is code for them not being given the opportunity to stop a development. Building premits, CB meetings, zoning variances, everything takes place in the light of day, but this is not enough. I've said it a million times. This is not communist China. You want government to tell people what they can and can't do then move there. This is America, and that means that if I own land and if I want to put up a 2000 story glass condo and the laws allow it, then piss off. All of this talk of government planning sounds a "red" to me.
not
Building premits, CB meetings, zoning variances, everything takes place in the light of day, but this is not enough.
---------
Ever been to a Ditch Kills Civic meeting? Mighty John Young is given half the evening to ramble on and on in mind-numbing double talk dissipating the public's attention (and anger) then when they are given a minute or so to speak, they cannot follow up the inevitable misleading or off the point response.
Everything is geared to muzzle and discourage the community as much as possible.
And even on those rare occassions, when things get out of hand (read the public does not follow the script) and a community board or civic passes a motion condemming the development, the press will on purposely misreport it, and the city government will ignore it.
Get to some of these meetings, sonny, and you will see techinques for crowd control that were refined into an art before Andy Jackson was in the White House.
Welcome to Big City politics, buster! Ya don't find this stuff in the civic books they gave you in 8th grade!
Get to some of these meetings, sonny, and you will see techinques for crowd control that were refined into an art before Andy Jackson was in the White House.
You got to love Crappy! Nowhere else do you find things written as they are.
What a refreshing breath of fresh air on this site. Tell your friends about this place!
"You want government to tell people what they can and can't do then move there."
So you believe in complete anarchy? Because I prefer to live in a society with rules, codes, etc and have a voice in shaping them.
This is America, and that means that if I own land and if I want to put up a 2000 story glass condo and the laws allow it, then piss off.
-----
ha ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ho he he he he
Hey moron, this place is supposed to be run for the people - voters and taxpayers - not developers.
If you like out of control development, that is its ok for your neighbor to do anything they like, go to a third world country and live next to a steel mill or a smelter or the like.
As for the rest of us, zoning and laws and regulations were created for a reason.
The public wanted them.
I got some property in Maspeth next to a recyling plant.
You want to move there?
Whether the meetings are run to your satisfaction is another issue entirely. The comment was made that the process is not public enough. If you don't like the results of the public meetings, thats one thing, but you can't say its not public.
"People" elect the officials that make the laws including zoning. Developers follow those laws and seek variances for exceptions when required. (Save your comments about the fly by night guys throwing up 2 story homes in Eastern Queens. In LIC which is what we are talking about we are dealing with a different caliber of developer who most likely has a national presence and who are building large scale project that cost tens of millions of dollars at least.)
So in summary, don't be mad at developers for doing what is permitted under the law. Go after those that create the law, but since this beef is about as old as dirt its just proof that this issue is a narrow special interest one that the public at large is not interested in.
(Save your comments about the fly by night guys throwing up 2 story homes in Eastern Queens. In LIC which is what we are talking about we are dealing with a different caliber of developer who most likely has a national presence and who are building large scale project that cost tens of millions of dollars at least.)
HA HA HA HA HA have you been to Dutch Kills, Astoria, Sunnyside? These are parts of LIC, sonny. Oh man, that comment of yours was such a knee-slapper.
since this beef is about as old as dirt its just proof that this issue is a narrow special interest one that the public at large is not interested in.
Every local newspaper and the dailies on at least a weekly basis cover development issues and the breaking of zoning laws, accidents because of shoddy construction (Remember the Trump site and the location of the crane collapse - both developers of a "different caliber" with a "national presence"). Maybe you need to educate yourself about what New Yorkers think is important and what outrages them instead of focusing on your own narrow self-interest which is obviously developing the hell out of every low-rise neighborhood in existence.
Okay guys prove me wrong. If everyone cares so much about it should be easy to get anti-development policiticans in office on the local and city and state level to stem the tide. Until then I stand by my comments. No one cares enough about this issue enough to do anything about it.
Kenny you reak of hypocracy. Art-O-mat exists due to the support of a largely unknown company named Plaxall. They donate the space in which the Art-O-Mat operates and contribute greatly to it financially. Plaxall owns a ton of land in LIC and has big plans for it. They plan on building a 3,000,000-square-foot mixed-use development on the waterfront near Anable Basin. Are you biting the hand that feeds you? Are maybe you are willing to look the other way for them?
"If everyone cares so much about it should be easy to get anti-development policiticans in office on the local and city and state level to stem the tide."
Yes with the real estate industry pumping millions of dollars into campaigns, this is likely to happen. Anti-development candidates can't raise the kind of money in an entire campaign that pro-development candidates can in one fundraiser.
Oh, poor Kenny! Thousands of wealthy people ar moving into the neighborhood where he opened an art store right in the middle of the boom that is happening here. Grow up, how much business are you doing with the people ruining your 'hood?!
Great more fucking yuppie aholes on the B-61 bus.
Eat shit and die.
Plaxall helps keep Art-O-Mat alive. So, that's their choice, their way of contributing to the Arts.
I really don't understand the attack mode here. It seems to be common knowledge that the building in this area is going too fast for our own good. All of you who live here should be more concerned about the quality of life in LIC. We can have some say about what's being done. It seems to me that most of you posting on this blog are just ready to lay back and let them roll over you. And the brunt of your anger is directed toward the people instead of the developers and politicians.
Post a Comment