From the NY Times:Today, an empty retail space at the foot of a new residential building is a common sight, as are “coming soon” signs, like the one on the waterfront advertising a library that remains a vacant lot for lack of financing. Other basic services are missing, as well.
“The most mandatory thing we need here on the boulevard more than anything is a butcher, and a hardware store,” said Gianna Cerbone-Teoli, who grew up in the neighborhood and owns the restaurant Manducatis Rustica on Vernon. “And a good bread man, a bakery,” she added.
Brian Hennessey, who moved into the 5th Street Lofts in 2008 with his wife, Verena Arnabal, and their new daughter, Maya, made the jump to Long Island City from Murray Hill and hasn’t looked back. The couple shop at the Queens Costco when Foodcellar gets too pricey, and on weekends they hang out with a laptop at the teahouse, Communitea, on Vernon Boulevard.
“They just have the right recipe for success here,” he said. “It’s very easy to get to Manhattan. It’s at the right price point. It’s got all the luxury amenities that people want in the yuppie crowd, and it’s got a good community feel to it.”
Still, Mr. Hennessey is clear-eyed about what the neighborhood needs. Parking is a problem: when friends come to dinner, he has to help them find spots. The service interruptions on the No. 7 train are annoying. He wonders if facilities for dogs will ever come to be, as they aren’t allowed in most of Gantry Plaza State Park and there are few other places to take them.
Those issues may intensify in the coming years. The city’s Economic Development Corporation plans to develop up to 5,000 waterfront units at Hunters Point South, 60 percent of them as middle-income housing; construction should begin next year, said Gayle Baron, the president of the Long Island City Business Development Corporation. And Rockrose, which has already built several waterfront towers, has the rights and plans to build several more.
“I can only imagine that we’re going to wish these days would never end,” Mr. Hennessey said. “When the people come, I can imagine this becoming a very busy part of town.”
Standing over a cappuccino at her restaurant’s counter, Ms. Cerbone-Teoli is circumspect. Some of her regulars are old-timers, but some are new arrivals, and business is good.
As the neighborhood continues to find its way, she hopes that some kind of centralized planning will prevent overdevelopment and disorganized growth.
Keep hope alive!
17 comments:
Blah blah blah yet another puff piece for a developer that refuses to discuss displacement, filling a community with people that have no long term stake in it, a development subsized by tax payers who are getting their services cannibalized to sustain it, and the great secret of LIC:
very few of the people actually patronize the businesses there.
That is right. There is no there there.
And after the "affordables housing" brown skins move onto the brownfields (ya gotta keep the area voting for the Democrats) the fun begins.
Why, its going to be as much fun as Suna's Silvercup check to check with Queensbridge.
The family metioned should be arrested for child abuse.Wonder how her body/brain will grow breathing in all the polluted air.Plant some trees!
Figures they come from Murray Hill.
As my friend from the Upper West Side says, "Murray Hill is where you live when you just graduate from college and have no money."
parking, parking, parking, blah, blah, blah
Eat & drink at Dominie's Hoek!
Trust me; keep LIC dog-unfriendly, or it will start looking like Murray Hill-- sidewalks full of dog shit-- from the idiot dog-lover crowd.
Better than the Corona beer cans that will start to line the highways and byways within a decade.
Another disingenuous cut job by Crapper. Do you ever even try to be honest? Why didn't you paste this part of the article:
IT’S got sushi bars. A teahouse. An upscale grocery store. A cocktail lounge where the word “mixologist” could reasonably be uttered. Multiple options for doggy day care. It’s one stop from Manhattan, the views are fabulous, and, joy to the world, there are no alternate-side parking rules.
With all that and more, has Long Island City, 30 years after it was first labeled “hot,” finally become a self-sustaining neighborhood?
The evidence that this semi-industrial section of Queens is approaching some kind of critical mass is growing. More than a dozen new and converted condominium developments have opened in recent years, and several are sold out. And while thousands of housing units have appeared, a huge number of others — 5,000 or more — are due to be delivered by both public and private enterprises in the coming years.
Prices are rising, too, having mostly recovered from a dip during the Lehman Brothers slump. Though values for condos have not approached the levels of those in sister neighborhoods across the river in Manhattan, it’s not uncommon to pay more than $700 a square foot in Long Island City. Rentals in new buildings aren’t cheap, either; monthly lease rates in some ascend to heights of $3,000 and beyond (but come with unfettered vistas of Midtown, of course).
Perhaps more important for the new residents paying those prices, the list of local amenities is far longer than it was five years ago.
Why didn't I paste that? Because it's basically a real estate puff piece up until the end. See, I am not a weekly Queens paper, the Daily News, etc.
And if you think your neighborhood has "arrived" because you now have sushi bars, a teahouse, an upscale grocery store, a cocktail lounge and multiple options for doggy day care, then you really need to get a life. That doesn't make a great neighborhood. Just a transient yuppie one.
What is it with these newbies bragging about how much they paid for their place? That's so gauche. New money!
Love it or hate it, I worked in the Eastern part of LIC of over 20 years. The massive turn of the century building I worked in was strictly in an all industrial or warehouses area - without residential buildings. This area was ripe for office buildings that are 10 stories etc and was close to the subways. In fact MOMA opened temporarily a block away. idling the # 7 yesterday, I realized while passing Queens Plaza, the area has changed dramatically with a hodgepodge of mix use towers that have and are sprouting everywhere, especially where I would never dream of living. If you go to the waterfront at Hunters Point, the 3-5 buildings on the shoreline are in an appealing location but lack food shopping and service stores for everyday needs. Th point is LIC is now a non-descript new construction place without planning for appeal but rather it all about development at any cost.
The defender of Queens West if thats what the new yuppies call it thinks the neighborhood has good stores and dog daycare is really full it. The new "neighbors" are rude to the long time residents, dont know the history, and must not have a clue that their jammed in buildings will contribute to another electrical blackout, cause the infrastructure cant handle that many more dwellings sucking off the power plants.
Do you folks know that there was 8 days without power in Astoria in 2006 that has all the power plants so the neighborhood should be the last to go without energy when the residents put up with the bad air etc.
As far as the folks who cant take care of their trophy dogs and leave their dogs at pooches lic and camp bow wow while they go out for wine after work, you should know Camp bow Wow has been abusing dogs and the ASPCA is investigating it and Pooches LIC has hurt a dogs nails by cutting them too short when the dogs owner didnt even ask for that so the dog had to go to the vet emergency and also pooches its been reported is taking aggressive dogs that are unsupervised.
Maybe you naive residents in Queens West should do your homework cause your being taken in many ways. Firstly with extremely poor built paper thin condos built on a landfill not properly cleaned.
Good luck suburban kids, aging yuppies,and trustaplants from east coast states.
Th point is LIC is now a non-descript new construction place without planning for appeal but rather it all about development at any cost.
PENNY LEE SHOULD BE FIRED!
The new LIC is great. No amount of trashing by QC will change my mind. Plently of other people think so too and are voting with their dollars by living and opening businesses here. People will always find a reason to complain.
Have they even half filled that L Haus yet?
If you like it so much, why do you feel the need to come here and defend it all the time? Just go enjoy it.
The basic services should have been there first, before the dog salons and the like. That's how every other town in the city was settled.
Give them there dog emenities. Atleast then
life there will be fit for one.
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