Thursday, August 13, 2009
Vibrant and diverse in Kensington
From the Daily News:
When El Gavilan Mexican restaurant opened across the street from Derek Mayer's Kensington home three years ago, he happily indulged in their authentic chicken tacos.
But two months ago, he says, the quaint eatery turned into a nightmare of a neighbor, transforming itself into an obnoxious nightclub, with dancing, blaring music and fights.
"Last night, I woke up at 3 a.m. because I heard somebody yelling. There were 20 drunk people congregating outside in the street," said Meyer, 43, last Friday, adding that in May he also saw a knife-wielding man trying to slash a bouncer armed with a baseball bat.
Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Kensington) said 66th Precinct cops raided the Church Ave. club July 29 and slapped its owner with a number of citations.
The charges range from selling alcohol after hours, unlicensed sale of alcohol and operating an unlicensed dance hall, to employing an unlicensed security guard and serving alcohol to minors, de Blasio said.
Hey...move the establishment to Astoria (Mr. Public Safety's backyard). The locals will flock there and then blog about it and Helen will post it on her website as an example of a vibrant, diverse place to visit. DOT will run a bike lane past your dive and City Planning will get federal money to mark it on their latest bike map of the borough. You picked the wrong place to settle, boys! Come to the spot where even the vegetables display diversity!
9 comments:
The soil in the city on former building sites is toxic with lead paint, ashes, and all kinds of goodies.
A few blocks from a number of powerplants adds to the exotic flavor.
I would not feed my pet food from those places.
I agree. I wonder if anyone has tested the soil.
It's a wonderful concept, but a shame that poorer neighborhoods can't receive the quarter of a million dollars that Two Coves was given by the city to start the project.
http://www.twocovescommunitygarden.org/
I am frustrated by your anti-bike lane rhetoric - the city is a dangerous place for those on bikes...and I am unemployed, struggling to even pay for bus/train fare - more bike lanes would be appreciated, not less - so I can have an easier time getting to nearby markets and attractions I used to be able to pay the bus fare for.
I am frustrated by your anti-bike lane rhetoric - the city is a dangerous place for those on bikes...and I am unemployed, struggling to even pay for bus/train fare - more bike lanes would be appreciated, not less - so I can have an easier time getting to nearby markets and attractions I used to be able to pay the bus fare for.
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Welcome to the Big Apple kiddo. You may let the bigshots feed your little head (and thats your problem if myth doesnt fit the reality you let them paint for you) but you can do nothing from the real New Yorkers from telling you what its about.
Dont like it?
Go back to Podunk Pa.
$250,000????????
and not a penny for St Savoiurs?
I wonder who contributed to whose campaign?
We need to start making the local pols' ice cream money giveaways transparent.
Oh, no! Diverse vegetables??? The horror!!! All meat needs is potatos!
Look Crappy, I know you love to try and link "vibrant and diverse" with racially suspicious outsiders, crime, noise, nuisances, etc. But this story sounds eerily like the transformation that's taken place on my street this summer. Only difference is, the guys congregating on the street until all hours of the night, drinking and yelling and breaking bottles on the sidewalk and urinating on our buildings are all young white American men. Maybe of Italian bloodlines, maybe of Polish, but they're definitely local and would not fit under your "vibrant and diverse" rubric. Why do these American a-holes get shortchanged in your brave coverage of New York's seedy underbelly?
Good point - ask the politicans and newspapers. The Bronx and Brooklyn are just as mixed as Queens, but all you hear when this boro is discussed are immigrant! diverse! vibrant! multicultural! blah blah blah. A language of a million words and all they can say is the same hot button dirty dozen over and over ad nausium.
Whites are mentioned but almost always with honorifics like 'Archie Bunker' or 'vanishing' or 'seniors.'
(BTW the sleazy bar scene of Astoria well documented here and that is mostly white)
I'm a blue-eyed Queens native (born in a Hollis clinic, raised in Flushing, lived briefly in Bayside, in LIC since '96) whose parents were also born and raised in Queens (Flushing and Jamaica) who happens to be a vegan bicyclists. And I love calaloo paddies and calaloo in a morning mash.
Two Coves Community Garden does great work and there isn't material wealth dripping from the Astoria Houses. Also, soil is remediated and replaced before community gardens begin.
We gain nothing by pitting against each other people advocating for the things that make our city more livable: bike lanes, green spaces, and historic preservation among them.
Vitriol burns bridges to each when there are so many issues upon which we agree and need each other.
Eric you might just be more believable once you hop off the bike and scrape the developer decals from your little projects.
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