Monday, April 8, 2013

Mitchell-Linden library on the move


"The current Mitchell-Linden branch librarian told me that in about 6 months from now, this library will be relocated to a spot on the same street, Union Street, but 2 blocks south of its present location. This picture is at the purported 32 Avenue and Union Street location, in the ground floor of a 72 luxury condo unit building, around the corner from the Flushing swimming pool/summer day camp site." - Found Out in Flushing

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

That Asian owned building must be in dire need of a street level tenant...so why not subsidize him with a library? That storefront has been sitting there vacant.

Anonymous said...

Pool and summer day camp?
Ah, the Stavisky "North Flushing Swim Club".

That was their old stronghold...the mikvah of politics...where Leonard's local supporters used to gather like geese around a pond to schmooze.

The "North Flushing Senior Center" has replaced it as Toby Ann's political base. She caresses her voters, by giving them $500,000 a year in discretionary funds, to run it. Meanwhile the seniors have to pay for their lunches.

Is this a money laundry or a senior center?


Anonymous said...

Could the moving of the library from its present location indicate plans for developing the old shopping strip along Union Street?

Those one story "taxpayers" would look underutilized to a greedy developer.

Maybe someone is drooling to build high rise there.

Does the sleepy eyed Mitchell Linden Civic Association have any thoughts on this?

Anonymous said...

It looks like some kind of plan or plot might be in the works.

First Key Food supermarket closes, and now the library moves further away.

It could be become a strain on those "olde tymers" still living in these co-ops.

Cut the food supply and remove the cultural sites, etc. and the hollowing out of the nabe to accommodate the newcomers begins.

Or am I thinking too wildly?

Anonymous said...

What is Arlene Flieschman's (CB#7 board member) or John Choe's opinion on this?

Don't the both co-chair the local civic association?

FluShingRezident said...

Only in NYC would that shithole be considered a luxury co-op. At least the other location had parking behind it - for those rare times I stopped in the check out their DVD collection.

What a terrible location for the masses of children that now call libraries their afternoon living room (thanks for ruining libraries for the rest of us!).

This will be a nightmare when the parents double park on Union to pick up and drop off their kids and books - and you know they will!

Anonymous said...

Only in Flushing could the developers of this property call their 72 units LUXURY.

Maybe I'll stop in on the ground floor and visit the accupuncturist and have him put a couple of needles in my eyes so I can appreciate the surrounding LUXURY.

Anonymous said...

"Only in Flushing could the developers of this property call their 72 units LUXURY."

Exactly my first thoughts.

NYC has it's own concept of value. You'd be surprised what the rest of the country knows.

Anonymous said...

Just don't let the homeless foul up the rest rooms like they did downtown Flushing librury.

Anonymous said...

Have you been in Asia? Cigarettes are "Healthy". Cult is "Beautiful". Sewer is "Luxury". They can't say what they mean even in thei rown languages.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 10:

I'd be more concerned about your inability to spell the word "library" than the condition of the rest rooms there.

Unknown said...

What a bunch of incredibly stupid and inconsiderate remarks have been posted here. From your lousy spelling and grammar, to the obvious racist thinking. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Anonymous said...

Why is the library moving? There was nothing a makeover or the addition of another floor that couldn't cure the old site. Most of Flushing is adding floors to buildings. I'm really curious that the new space is bigger than the current library (with another 700+ sqft to be added at the new site later on). One of the librarians told us that the new place is smaller, such that they are throwing out / selling lots of books right now, before the move!

They say this branch is over crowded / one of the busiest in Queens. We'll it's about to get less busy, because me and my kids aren't walking to the new spot. And neither are my charitable donations to QPL either. Their loss.

That intersection is also a very busy one (32nd and union), and dangerous. Lots of people turning, and with 1 lane of traffic, people get pissed waiting for the person in front of you to turn while you cannot go around him. Then the traffic gets backlogged and folks drive wrecklessly. Throw in lots of kids and some double parkers, and it will be a mess. Unfortunately it will take some child pedestrian traffic fatalities to make that obvious. Any fool could see that.

And as for the glass reading room with a view, well that's built right to the property line - so it won't be quiet. But from your window seat you can choose to watch the traffic or share your book with passers-by on the street.

What I really suspect is - this move is just another step closer to erecting the high-rises at the old location (as per the blog from 2009). I'll even bet that there is some sort of relation to the high rise proposal and the district rezoning issue of the old location / surrounding blocks. (This issue too confuses the heck out of me!) Last month I asked at my Linden Hill coop meeting if they had heard anything further about the proposed high rises; because many of my coop's members attend / are active in the civic association. Amazingly, they replied in a dumbfounded way NO... even though these members brought up the potential high-rise at our co-op meeting 4 years ago!

I also suspect that the landlord of the new space got a really sweatheart deal on this arrangement. Nobody in their right mind wanted to move into that crap-hole on that corner. There was a pharmacy in there for mabye 6 months. There claims to be some martial arts and dance thing there now, but I never see anyone coming or going. And this space was supposedly BAE Medical, but never looked occupied. And last, there appeared to be a temporary campaign office in there, for one of the folks recently running for election... ( I think it was Phil Gimm)

What they should have done was move into the old Key Food. That's closer to jhs 185 and ps 21 and has parking. Downtown flushing, northern bvld, Hmart on Union, there's enough Asian supermarkets in the neighborhood. The library would have fit there nicely - grin - .