Sunday, February 8, 2009

Queens tourism: no longer a funny phrase?


From NY1:

Tourism industry experts are heading to Queens to help residents explore their travel options.

Looks like a diverse bunch! Surely they will know how to appeal to the Queens mosaic.

P.S. When you have hardly any landmarks, a bunch of second rate museums and attractions and a flagship park that looks like crap, expect tourism numbers to remain suppressed.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are a couple o nice things to see in Queens, but a BodegaFeast would be awesome!

Anonymous said...

Are they kidding? In some parts of Queens I feel like a foreigner!

Anonymous said...

How about cleaning up what we have - this sound like a tour for those whom want to jump ship illegally! They would be right t home here!

Anonymous said...

There used to be alot of interesting things to see here. What's left is either falling apart or waiting to be torn down to make room for a new luxury condo/hotel.

Anonymous said...

It is so stupid.

Today people will fly down to Rio - or a Brazilan restaurant in 47th Street Manhttan, not go to a bodega/restaurant in Astoria and hang with cabdrivers.

The will go to Hong Kong or a Asian Fusian place in Soho, not Flushing and walk into a place with mystery meat and clannish clientale

They will go to Cancun, not try to make small talk in Elmhurst with gardeners and nannies of Park Avenue.

The tourism is aimed at the relatives of the mosaic that lives here encouraging them to move to the Sancutary City we are.

Anonymous said...

Oh noes it's all the imigrants!!!! No wonder they call this Queens Crap, it's where all the neighborhood shitheads come together and crap on Queens.

Anonymous said...

Oh noes it's all the imigrants!!!! No wonder they call this Queens Crap, it's where all the neighborhood shitheads come together and crap on Queens.

--------

You hear that you lugheads!

Now stop sleeping 9 to a room, don't accept payoffs while you spend all your time at your summer home outside the commuity you are sworn to uphold, and get your noses out of the tweeder gravy train.

Do not, I repeat do not, excercise your right as American citizens by expressing anything negative about immigrants.

Yes you are grandkids of immigrants, but you know nothing about the immigrant experiences.

You, and your communities, were losers until they became swamped with immigrants.

Now look at the success story around you!

Jump on the bandwagon... or at least keep your mouths shut!
-----------

Yo prev poster - is that what you wanted to hear?

Feel better now?

Anonymous said...

Hey Marshall, what's with the dump and eyseore surrounding the JFK express terminal in Jamaica???
I don't think any tourist in their right mind would walk around that neighborhood looking for a hotel or restaurant. Jamaica needs help!
Remember what they say about first impressions...

Harry Hawk said...

Well, there is a lot that Queens has to offer. The first is ethnic restaurants that are actually authentic; they have to be since they cater to people who come from the countries whose food they are cooking. Even when a small chain has as store in Queens and one in Manhattan, the one is Queens is bound to be more interesting.

There there are the museums in LIC. Not quite the MET but with places like the noguchi museum, there are many interesting gems.

There of course there is WTB, something I helped create. We bring a lot of tourists from exotic placed called "Manhattan" into Queens by reversing the Bridge and Tunnel crowd.

Anonymous said...

yes thanks for the mobs of puking and pissing manhattanites you bring to queens. how do we ever thank you?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Snake Plissskin said...

Oh noes it's all the imigrants!!!! No wonder they call this Queens Crap, it's where all the neighborhood shitheads come together and crap on Queens.

--------

You hear that you lugheads!

Now stop sleeping 9 to a room, don't accept payoffs while you spend all your time at your summer home outside the commuity you are sworn to uphold, and get your noses out of the tweeder gravy train.

Do not, I repeat do not, excercise your right as American citizens by expressing anything negative about immigrants.

Yes you are grandkids of immigrants, but you know nothing about the immigrant experiences.

You, and your communities, were losers until they became swamped with immigrants.

Now look at the success story around you!

Jump on the bandwagon... or at least keep your mouths shut!
-----------

Yo prev poster - is that what you wanted to hear?

Feel better now?

----------------------------------

Thanks for proving my point.

Queens Crapper said...

What was your point?

Anonymous said...

I love Queens. It's true.

There's definitely an influx of food tourism here.

There's an amazing French bakery called Cannelle Patisserie in Jackson Heights, fab Thai/Chinese/Korean in Elmhurst and flushing. Tasty latin food along roosevelt, great burgers at Jackson Diner/Kabob in Astoria..etc.

What we're lacking is infratruture and planning.
Spend some money on Flushing Meadow. It has so much potential. Gawd, its just so sad that it's languishing there. It should be the crown jewel of Queens. Someone should takeover QMA, rename it to QMOMA and promote the hell out of it.

I want nothing but improvments for Queens. There's just got to be something better than the crappy fedders buildings.

Anonymous said...

Borough hall
has been pushing this Queens tourism crap for over two decades.

It's a boondoggle that has kept
old clubhouse party hacks in some very lucrative patronage jobs!

Hello...
Ms. Osborne, Ms. Schneider,
Mr. Rosenstock, Mr. Finkelpearl
and all the rest of you tax dollar
thieves !

H-m-m-m...and the Queens Botanical Garden has managed to transform itself from a once gloriously blooming landscape into a weed patch dominated by a new "state of the fart" uber/bunker!

Who's going to bother visiting
a 4t rate borough with no attractions that can compete with the golden isle of Manhattan?

It's time to close up
some of these duds and save us tax payers some money.

Tourism my ass!

Anonymous said...

I forgot about botanical gardens here. Every year I haul ass to BBG for the Sakura Festival.

Anonymous said...

Brooklyn Museum had Murakami last year. Basquiat retro few year back. You can disagree about art but they know how to draw a crowd. QMA, are you listening?

Anonymous said...

Repeat after me: Queens is a residential community, not a tourist mecca. Local politicians like the sadly misguided and uncaring Borough President Marshall, with that ridiculous Red Bird "tourist center" propped up outside Borough Hall, had best look to the impact on quality of life that's being left out of the discussion: traffic, overuse of already overtaxed resources, litter and filth (take a look across the street, Helen--the bus stops on Queens Blvd and Union Tpke look like open sewers) and, best of all, the overdevelopment of our neighborhoods with blights like the 21-story hotel monstrosity slated for right across the street from Borough Hall. Way to go Queens Politicians!!! To hell with your hard working, long suffering constituents. Continue to undercut our needs with a preposterous notion like tourism. When the last middle class taxpayer is gone to foot the bill for ridiculous ideas that do not serve our community, what will you do?

Anonymous said...

Continue to undercut our needs with a preposterous notion like tourism.
++++

But the point is that the money is to go to fund organizations and programs that are favored by boro hall (read tweeder programs)

So all this is yet another scam (like the Willets Pt job training) where the money shows up, but then vanishes in the desert.