From the Newtown Pentacle:At 46th avenue, the brick horizon opens, and a glimpse of the shining city is offered. Soon, this viewpoint and vantage will be occluded by yet another high rise spire, a warehouse offered to white collar laborers.
What will happen to the fragile infrastructure of 19th century streets, where wounds to the modern asphalt reveal victorian cobblestones? Why is the municipality not requiring the construction of new subway stations and schools, or at least sewers, from these Oligarchs for the rapacious profits they will garner from these grand projects?
Not bad folks these Tower People, on the whole, despite being a denigrated group referred to with smirks and winks by long time LIC’ers. Degreed and lettered professionals on the whole, they are a legion of bankers and lawyers who exist in the warren shadows of Manhattan’s financial district and turbulent midtown by day, but they turn Long Island City from a neighborhood into a dormitory.
A narrow enough lensing of the past can create causality from coincidence, but if you think that Battery Park City or Jersey City is city planning at its best, you’re going to love the new Long Island City.
From Part 3:
It is the end of a year of change - but all years are “years of change”. New York, and the United States on the whole, continue their trend toward apathy and quasi-fascism.
Ceasar is just a few years away now, and will choose to reveal him or her self shortly - and offer clarity and purpose to the masses - who will love their Ceasar, along with the bread and circuses.
And all the poisons in the mud will leach out.
37 comments:
Oh, here we go "tower people"-again.
"..they are a legion of bankers and lawyers who exist in the warren shadows of Manhattan’s financial district and turbulent midtown by day"
Not many of those moving into the new buildings are of that caliber, those people live either in Manhattan or out in Great Neck-Douglas Manor etc. The "towers" in LIC are mostly for young money.
" but they [tower people]turn Long Island City from a neighborhood into a dormitory."
Depends on where in LIC the writer is talking about. The area around Vernon Blvd has a well established selection of bars and restaurants..most weren't there ten years ago.
Look, it comes to this; what do you want for this area? A desolate section of discarded factories and rusted fences with mostly "working girls' plying their trade...Or..a revitalized area of new housing and business to support it.
I guess in Lino's mind, "young money" can't be bankers and lawyers. Nope. Bankers and lawyers are two professions that are on their way out.
Hey, if they want to pay big money to live in brownfields, more power to them.
Lino, pick up a copy of this week's Newsweek and you'll understand better.
LIC is a temporary community. When the people moving in now decide to have kids, they're going to leave.
Ha! All of a sudden LIC is some fragile precious endangered community. How about some truth for a change. It has been an industrial slum for 150 years, and the industry is gone gone gone forever. Welcome, young people and your money. Happy to have you. Also, since when have we started to use the word "oligarch" here in America? It's Soviet silly. Let's not.
Industrial slum? LIC provided a good many jobs for working class people. I'm sorry you hate them so much.
Enjoy the radiation treatments, newcomers. I hear they're even more fun than chemo!
"Ha! All of a sudden LIC is some fragile precious endangered community."
Nope, LIC was never this. LIC is a collection of neighborhoods, one of which happens to be Hunters Point, where the yuppies are funneling into and which they insist is "the real" LIC. The ones that bought in during the boom are already starting to leave after promises of what was coming never materialized. Arrivederci!
The disdain that the newbies have for those that already live here is apparent. And they wonder why they are derided so much.
The fact of the matter is that the people who lived here were not praying for gentrification. They were happy with their neighborhood, which was one of the oldest in Queens.
I can tell you this...your moving in has not improved my quality of life one iota despite the fact that you think the world revolves around you and your restaurant options. Instead, since you moved in we've had flooding, blackouts, toxic chemicals released into the air and no, the shopping options aren't any better. In fact, the old haunts were forced to close because of greedy landlords looking to cash in on yuppie fever.
With every new tower that goes up opinions like this become less and less relevant. Bankers and lawyers are on their way out!? Really? The biggest bonus season in history is coming up. It's so silly and yet entertaining to watch the musings on this site. You run around talking about illegal immigrants, and overcrowding etc. not realizing that the real issue is money. Those that have it set the rules and those that don't sit around and complain about the loss of an industrial wasteland. LIC today is infinately better than it was 10, 20, 30 years ago. The genie is out of the bottle and its never going back.
First of all, "bankers and lawyers are on their way out" was a sarcastic reply to Lino who said bankers and lawyers live in Great Neck and not LIC. Nope, they live in LIC, too.
And using the term "industrial wasteland" shows that your opinion is the one that is irrelevant, you are likely a real estate moron because your family never benefited from having these jobs there. The loss of these jobs to LI and NJ is why many followed them out. Now Bloomberg wants to take the highly toxic "industrial wasteland" and turn it into yuppie apartments. If someone is going to live on an industrial wasteland, let it be the yuppies. They can afford the cancer treatments. You would have to be stupid or suicidal to live in one of them, on top of having a lot of money. If they aren't doing thorough cleanups to site schools, what makes you think there will be proper cleanup when a for-profit developer is involved? So go ahead and laugh at the opinions on this site. You won't be having the last laugh, I assure you.
"Anonymous said...
I guess in Lino's mind, "young money" can't be bankers and lawyers. Nope. Bankers and lawyers are two professions that are on their way out."
You are not very good at reading comprehension.
"Lino, pick up a copy of this week's Newsweek and you'll understand better."
I don't need to. I live among them.
Quote from Lino:
"..they are a legion of bankers and lawyers who exist in the warren shadows of Manhattan’s financial district and turbulent midtown by day"
Not many of those moving into the new buildings are of that caliber, those people live either in Manhattan or out in Great Neck-Douglas Manor etc. The "towers" in LIC are mostly for young money.
What was there not to understand?
Anonymous said "LIC is a temporary community. When the people moving in now decide to have kids, they're going to leave."
Yeah and? This is a city were over 70% of the population rents. The entire city popuation relocates every couple of years. What's your point?
LIC was an industrial wasteland long before the towers showed up. Don't blame gentrification for that. Those jobs were being relocated to Mexico and China well before a shovel was put into the ground. yuppies had nothing to do with that. Blame your government.
"This is a city where 70% of the population rents."
But these are condos for the most part = ownership. High turnover of home ownership is a bad thing for a community. And in the rest of Queens, more than 50% of landlords live on site. In LIC, that's probably about 5%.
The entire city popuation relocates every couple of years. What's your point?
Oh man, spoken like a true moron. You've never been to a real middle class neighborhood have you?
"Blame your government."
Oh, the government (Bloomberg) has been blamed. He rezoned what was left of the manufacturing and we lost even more jobs and, in turn, the people who worked them.
You think you are special because you lived in the same detached home for the past 30 years. News flash - you are not.
Sorry, my definition of a neighborhood has little to do with houses vs. condos, owners vs. rentals, or the term of your lease. If you think that's what make a neighborhood I won't bother explaining the true meaning to you. There are shitty neighborhoods made up of apartments and shitty neighborhood made up of single familiy homes (a number of areas in queens comes to mind).
My definition of a good neighborhood is low turnover of residents and businesses, an involved citizenry, clean streets, low crime, good schools, adequate services and a contextual streetscape.
I have neighbors who have owned their homes for decades and those that have rented for as long. And when I rented, I was very involved with my community. The neighborhood only gives back what its residents bring to it. What are new LIC residents bringing to the neighborhood other than money?
Queens Crapper said
"My definition of a good neighborhood is low turnover of residents and businesses, an involved citizenry, clean streets, low crime, good schools, adequate services and a contextual streetscape."
Then I think we can agree that this is a good neighborhood then.
Nope, you have high turnover of businesses and residents, who are more interested in what restaurant they will be dining at than with what is happening in their neighborhood, lack of schools and basic services and the streetscape looks like hell with small rowhouses in the shadow of ginormous buildings.
LIC is fucked.
One disadvantage to LIC living (which of course is advertised as an advantage by real estate shills) is that you can do everything in your building without ever having to set foot outside. Fresh Direct delivers to your door and the bellman holds the food in the freezer they have downstairs, you can go to the gym or the movies inside the building. This really helps the economy and the neighborhood.
LIC could have been another Hoboken. Instead they chose Jersey City. Interesting and amusing move!
The developers will not be finished until the only views of East River from Queens will be in Astoria Park and the Costco parking lot.
"Fresh Direct delivers to your door and the bellman holds the food in the freezer they have downstairs, you can go to the gym or the movies inside the building. This really helps the economy and the neighborhood."
Yes, there were so many gyms, movie theaters and supermarkets in LIC before the towers arived and forced to close. Not!
You can't have it both ways. One week you are complaining about the tons of business opening up and driving up rent, but then the next week no one is supporting the local economy. Which is it?
"white collar laborers" An Oxymoron
"Yes, there were so many gyms, movie theaters and supermarkets in LIC before the towers arived and forced to close. Not!"
There always was a supermarket in LIC, the tower people have chosen not to patronize it.
The other establishments might have come if the tower people didn't have them in their buildings as part of their packages.
"One week you are complaining about the tons of business opening up and driving up rent, but then the next week no one is supporting the local economy."
Huh? Businesses AREN'T moving in. They're leaving.
neighborhood pub...gone
neighborhood diner...gone
neighborhood artists...gone
neighborhood tennis club...gone
neighborhood...gone
Last two anon postings I wont even bother responnding. Your ignorance of the area speaks for itself. Clearly you don't live anywhere near LIC. I could rattle off a dozen new business that have opened in the past 6 months and a dozen more which are in the works and give you street address so you could check it out if you desired. Unfortunately this is so typical of most of the posts here. Everyone wants to spout off at the mouth without having a clue what they are talking about. Asks crapper. He reads the papers and local media. He distorts it and only presents the news that supports his agenda, but he reads its.
Yes they opened last year and will likely close this year. That's what happens when you have a temporary community.
Come back this time next year and give us a report on how many of those businesses closed.
As far as Ive seen and read only a few dog day care places opened for people who dont know how to take care of their dogs and maybe a few sushi bars or a small clothing store. That neighborhood is a joke around the country known from previous artists who lived there. Its a suburban little corner wanna be part of the city built on a toxic oil and chemical dump and nothing else.
Oh yeah its obvious theres real estate brokers posting that are the defenders of that little self important area. Were you concerned people about pushing out long standing home owners which happened quite a bit in the area?
Big ol melting pot I'm sure.
Oh yeah, businesses in LIC are closing left and right...
http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/long-island-city-retail-expands-beyond-the-warehouse
I bet you'll find a way to spin this...
The stores that have shuttered are longtime merchants that were up for renewal and opted not to pay the new higher rents, said Patricia Dunhy, senior vice president of Rockrose Development Corp. "That's what happens when you have gentrification of an area," she added.
That sounds pretty shitty.
If you think the opening of a Mexican cantina, a dog spa and a children's clothing boutique proves the neighborhood is a real one, then you're insane.
One disadvantage to LIC living (which of course is advertised as an advantage by real estate shills) is that you can do everything in your building without ever having to set foot outside.
---
Then meet, mate and move in two years.
Hell, its just as good as the revolving door immigrants and unlike buidling those distracting schools and hospitals, handling the odd complaint about train noise is a piece of cake.
Oh yes, the cancers from living even 6 months on a toxic dump will not arrive for a few decades so connecting the dots (and paying the piper) will never happen until its too late.
The poblem with LIC is that both Manhattan and Brooklyn have a glut of buidlings.
Who wants to move on a glorified Roosevelt Island where there is one of everything (translation, poor service and hight price)
When the glut of buidlings in the other boros (and NJ) come on line over the next few years, the glut of LIC buildings will flood the market.
Then we will see a repeat of Harlem 100 years ago when a big jump in housing coinsides with a severe long term depression.
LIC (along with the Dutch Kills hotels) will become immigrant barracks and student dorms within a decade.
I want to plunk down my money down there, don't you?
"The disdain that the newbies have for those that already live here is apparent. And they wonder why they are derided so much."
This is apparent in all the dog shit smears on every single block that goes between Vernon blve and 5th street. Whatever happened to people walking thier dogs in the gutter? My children play on my stoop, and if you cared for your neighbor as mucha s your care for yourself and your precious critter, you would not let your dogs piss and shit on people's property.
"The fact of the matter is that the people who lived here were not praying for gentrification. They were happy with their neighborhood, which was one of the oldest in Queens."
Lived here since I was 3 and we had everything we ever wanted: a butcher (not "the butcher" deli), 2 supermarkets, a hair salon, a parochial school, parks, uncrowded subway platforms,etc. Couldn't ask for much more, really.
"I can tell you this...your moving in has not improved my quality of life one iota despite the fact that you think the world revolves around you and your restaurant options. Instead, since you moved in we've had flooding, blackouts, toxic chemicals released into the air and no, the shopping options aren't any better. In fact, the old haunts were forced to close because of greedy landlords looking to cash in on yuppie fever."
Amen.
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