Tuesday, August 17, 2010

LIC baby boom

From the Real Deal:

Price was a major factor for Letia Frandina, who moved to Long Island City from North Carolina two years ago, around the same time that she gave birth to her son.

She chose an apartment on Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City because "it was closer to my husband's job than anywhere we could afford to live in Manhattan," Frandina said. "Even on the Upper West Side the commute would have taken longer."

Frandina, who gave birth to her second baby late last month, noticed that there were many other young families in the area, but few children's clothing stores. Last year, she opened a children's consignment store, Little Closets, at 46-46 Vernon Boulevard. Nearby, daycare Lolly's Learning Center opened around the same time.

When a new, 8,000-square-foot children's playground opened in LIC's Gantry State Park over Memorial Day weekend, "it was mobbed within the first 10 minutes of opening," said Verma, who blogged about the event. "It was filled with soccer moms and nannies."

In fact, there are so many children in Long Island City that they're quickly outgrowing the schools in the area. For the first time this year, "a significant number" of students who applied to attend pre-K at P.S. 78, located in the City Lights building at 48-09 Center Boulevard, didn't get in, Frandina said. TF Cornerstone will soon begin construction on a new 600-seat K-8 public school at Queens West, and a 145,000-square-foot middle/high school is planned for Hunters Point South, but classes there are already expected to top 40 students each, Verma said.


Oh so we are already short on school space even though we have a condo glut but are planning to build more? What magnificent planning!

Crappy predicted this years ago and was laughed at by the brokers in LIC. Listen to Crappy. I'm more accurate than Nostradamus.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Plotting....not planning.

The NYC real estate industry is always eager to overbuild so they can line their pockets even more.

There's always some gullible wannabee hipster from the boonies way down south or the mid-midwest that can be lured to NYC with great promises of a better "vibrant" life.

FOOLED YA DOPES!

Anonymous said...

Lets see how hubby likes his commute when the 7 line goes out of service for repairs.

Anonymous said...

who could have forseen this?

i have be relegated to the fact
my wife and i will continue renting and saving until we can leave nyc altogether

this city is going down the tubes

long island? lol no thanks
jersey- lmao

Erik Baard said...

It seems we can't win in LIC -- either we're cursed as "hipsters" with no sense of community or rootedness or mocked for having families. As for me, working toward a family and living in a pre-war walk-up.

Neighborhoods are always too complex for caricature.

Babs said...

I love this pic - depicts today's modern mom beautifully - from the color on the walls to the way the baby is wrapped!

Deke DaSilva said...

Crappy predicted this years ago and was laughed at by the brokers in LIC. Listen to Crappy. I'm more accurate than Nostradamus.

From a future documentary, "Crappy - The Man Who Saw Tomorrow":

James Earl Jones, Voiceover:

"In the 73rd quatrain, Crappy speaks of a great calamity that will befall upon the people of Long Island City:

"The hipsters who build their towers in the sky, will one day be forced to reckon with a calamity not seen since the days another tribe also built towers in the sky - the people of Babel. I am Crappy, and this I have foreseen......"

Anonymous said...

damn out-of-towners having their anchor babies here so they can stay in my city... who will stand up to end this madness??

Anony2 said...

They couldn't afford Manhattan, but they could afford a tower condo and a store in LIC ???

Anonymous said...

What about these people making a the biggest financial commitment of their life without checking out that fact that they live in an area that was an industrial zone for a century and therefore has no local schools and they just might need them?

Snake Plissskin said...

I want to raise my kid in a toxic brownfield, how about you?

Morons.

Snake Plissskin said...

I want to raise my kid in a toxic brownfield, how about you?

Morons.

kingofnycabbies said...

According to a comment on the liqcity site, the Little Closets store featured here is closing. Don't know if it's true, but, if so, it sure undercuts most of this piece (and the splenetic reaction).

Anonymous said...

Shudda stayed down south, hipster douchebag.

Anonymous said...

Crappy predicted that Long Island City would be hugely popular with families and that more schools would be built?

Sounds great.

Queens Crapper said...

No, In predicted that the current infrastructure would not be able to keep up with the demand in LIC and that the schmucks who don't live there would be the ones picking up the bill for luxury living.

Anonymous said...

Seed your brats to private school!

Can't afford it?

Then move back to the Carolinas!

That's what happens when a duped condo buyer purchases a second best "almost Manhattan tower".

You're supposed to check out schools, transportation and houses of worship before you invest in a home you fools.

Anonymous said...

Maspeth Mom says...
Luxury living is in the eye of the beholder... sitting on a roof top deck looking at other roofs/old leay wooden wter towers is not my idea of luxury. They give these building fancy lobbies and fancy names and expect people to buy into the "dream". What are they really getting??? No fresh air, no grass, no room to run no room to play. A granite and steel appliance kitchen - Big deal!!

Anonymous said...

I don't know ANY native born New Yorker that can live in a overpriced 'luxury' 'designer' high rise, raise kids, hire an illegal nanny to change their nappies, and OPEN A NEW STORE.

These are the clueless swine that voted Bloomberg in for a third term AGAINST the wishes of New Yorkers and have all benefited by the Wall Street bail outs with our tax money and pushed out the middle class from this city by their greed.

They will all burn in hell for eternity.