Crews are tearing down a long- shuttered building that housed a lumberyard at 32nd Street and Astoria Boulevard to make room for a sprawling residential development at the site.Former Lumberyard To Become Residences
Construction crews will start work this month on a 39,000-square-foot, 25-unit residential complex that will boast underground parking for 13 vehicles and a 4,000-square foot, ground-floor community center, Lawrence Ross, Besen Associates development representative, said.
The six-story structure will feature six studio units, 15 one-bedroom units and four two-bedroom units, Ross said.
Local homeowners were pleased to learn that the site will be transformed into residential units... "It's good to hear that we won't be losing parking spaces to another business."
Yes, it's much better to lose parking spaces to other residents instead!
38 comments:
This must be the only paper in the only community board that thinks more development is great.
Did the paper interview residents whose kids are in the overcrowded schools, people waiting in the overcrowded Astoria General ER, people wading through the increasingly dirty streets (courtesy of our new residents), people whose eletric power has been resembling third world service over the past year?
Of course not. This tries to reinforce the BS that people in that community have heard from the politicians and 'elite'
Development is good. NOT!
Another example of the crap in that paper. I ride the train to work every morning and it is getting more and more crowded.
Driving is getting to be a pain, too.
And the previous post is right about the dirt and overcrowding. Astoria is facing urban deterioration because the people that run our community only care about the money...
Astoria has so much new exciting housing on line that is coming on line! Choices! Choices!
Do I want to live on an industrial dump along 21st Street, or along the el on 31st Street, or FACING THE NOISE AND TRAFFIC ON GRAND CENTRAL, YOU JERKS!
MYTH
"We live just a few blocks from the local [114th] police precinct, so there are always cops in the neighborhood," 33rd Street resident Demetrios Poulos said. "We're pretty close to Astoria Park. That's good for the kids, especially in the summer. This is probably one of the best places to live."
REALITY
Melee at Astoria Pool
Perhaps, just perhaps, the owner of that newspaper, rather then supporting the long term health of his community, is a creature of the culture in community board 1: take the money in real estate and run.
No wonder people like everyone's hero Avella parses his words by saying development is not good (except of course where it is appropriate - in other words, go ahead and downzone, the yo's yo's in Astoria will take anything.)
Reading stuff like this attracts developers to Astoria like flies and vermin to sh*t.
What residents want development? No one on my block wants it, and we are ticked off that call after call to our councilman and buildings on all the illegal conversions on our block go ignored.
Then they go ahead a write something like this. Mr Poulos, all I can say is you had better not walk down our block. After all our community did for you and your ilk, to encourage something like that to our community is irresponsible.
It's a lumberyard. Wow, a lumberyard is better than housing. Unreal.
I think most of the posters are just old and grumpy
and hate anything new and different. What else
explains your support for dilapidated shacks? That
older building looks atrocious! All that's missing is
a mangy dog and a bathtub full of moonshine!
Those older buildings are the real crap. Why would a
tiny shack that looks out of backwoods Mississippi be
worthy of preservation? Granted, the new housing won't
win any design awards, but they're a million times
better than that shack. Nobody would buy that old
crap, except as a teardown.
25 units and 13 parking spaces. And that's good?
Bingo...."crawford" posts again !
He's got to be a friend of George Delis and the CB#1 crew that favors the tacky, glitzy, Geeko/Roman (Euro-Stucco) style of apartment block construction !
Crawford is right. Reading the complainers on this blog, you would never guess that we live in New York City! I am glad that Queens is finally undergoing a construction boom. The fight should be to make sure the new construction is useful and of high quality, not to keep the old existing crap there as is.
Crawford should explain where all the increased city services are coming from to take care of these units. You know, little things like power... Oh, that's right, Con Edison is ready for the summer. That's why on the first hot day, we had a blackout!
No one said the building was worthy of preservation, but the proposed building is out of scale and allows more units than is currently existing in its surroundings.
Hospitals, schools, etc...when will we hear about those things replacing lumber yards? Why must it always be multifamily crap? When the city is able to adequately service the people already here, then maybe I'll think new big development is ok.
"Crawford" is probably a pimp for the NYC real estate/building industry....wadda ya think folks ? !!!
"It's a lumberyard. Wow, a lumberyard is better than housing. Unreal."
Better for who, blockhead? Maybe I want to fix my house so I will go to a lumberyard.
How are dumping more people into my community better for ME when my taxes don't even come back here to take care of the population that already lives here?
"I am glad that Queens is finally undergoing a construction boom."
Obviously someone who lives in the suburbs and has never sent his wife to the ER at Astoria General, his kids to a local public school, or faced a 10 story wall of noisy neighbors in what used to be a quiet backyard.
Guess what mister, I live in Astoria, and me an my neighbors around the community are sick and tired people like you encourging the worst in our community, by badgering elderly to sell out, encouraging people to cash out, by subdividing properties and not caring who goes into your buildings, by being an absentee landlord and running your properties into the ground.
You are bleeding our community.
Astoria will never be an Elmhurst.
We are going to take our community back from bums like you.
"Those older buildings are the real crap. Why would a
tiny shack that looks out of backwoods Mississippi be
worthy of preservation?"
Yes, lets make big shacks that look out of backwoods USSR like the Pistilli crap on Astoria Park and that embaressing joke that used to be the Steinway factory, or that disaster that used to be Long Island Savings bank on 30th Ave. Some of the HANAC stuff ranks (nice word) right up there with Chinese taste fround from Flushing to Shanghai.
CB1: the community board from hell!
While I agree that some of the developments in Astoria and around most of the city has little to be desired, some of your complaints are not thought out. its a 25 unit building with 13 parking spaces. 6 of the untis are studios (Working folks commuting to the city most likely). I dont think that those living in a studio, will be owning a car as well, Only 4 two-bedroom apartments....so not too many people being added into the school system from this complex. and the others are 1 bedrooms....same goes here...The people moving here are usually single people taking on roomates. Not families. And most of the single people dont have cars. Worry more about additional train service and what the city plans on doing if the congestion tax is put into place, that will increase the traffic...not some of these buildings.
It would be nice if the people here realized that people who live in Queens tend to shop, dine, recreate, and socialize in Queens. The hipster-yuppie "I don't need a car" attitude is not popular here, mostly because you can't get to a lot of places in Queens without a car.
"The people moving here are usually single people taking on roommates. Not families."
Witness the death of a neighborhood.
You mean the birth of a temporary community, Julie...
There seems to be some envy going on here. Young, successful people invigorating a neighborhood should be a good thing. I would expect comments like this in some retirement community in Florida, not in the middle of New York City.
Young successful people do not move into the crap you developers are thowing up around here. Go to astorians.com and read some of the commnents. It is the shoddiest possible construction, the cheapest possible appliances, and the most ackward possible layout.
People are horrified at what is going up in Astoria.
No shopping or anything that is easy to get to - facing a highway with polluting traffic.
It is easy to get to the train though. A perfect dorm for the immigrants (say 6 guys to an apartment sleeping in shifts each paying you $500). And of course, they send all their money home, get drunk and rowdy on weekends, and created the transient rootless pool that is the new Astoria.
Successful people stay in Manhattan. There is nothing for them in Astoria except good restaurants (that of course, are also in Manhattan) and a small town low scale skyline that you jerks are trying your damnest to destroy.
No book stores (99 cent stores are abundance), no upscale boutiques(they do have shoddy ugly Eurotrash clothing great for Copacabana), no places to hang out (except Bohemian Hall that you thugs wanted to bulldoze a decade ago - well there all all those unsightly Eurocafes that clutter our sidewalks that cater not the the community by the Greek diaspora from the Island and those creepy hooka places - the less said the better about them)
Hey you idiot..... who's posting with multiple identities trying to cover more ground......your writing "style" reveals you as a majority of one !
You just keep on pimping for the 20 year olds' vision of what Astoria (and other parts of Queens) should become and keep turning up the heat by continually bashing the 50+ year olds !
That's really going to make you a lot of friends and influence people with your lame flawed arguments !
And, by the way, I don't fit into either of those age categories.....I'm from the planet "Escopius 9" (you've probably never heard of it) and I'm here to observe the flora and the fauna !
Nanoo....nanoo (good bye) !
See the above for the typical counter-arguments from the complainers. No logic, underlying prejudice and juvenile insults.
To the person who made the coomment about these apartments sleeping 6 people each paying $500/month. No Landlord wants that, nor does any landlord cater to that living situation. It happens usually without the landlord knowing...and when the landlord finds out, and tries to evict them....the wonderful tenant geared court system usually fails in stopping it. Those looking to sleep 6 people, arent looking at these new developments. And another thing, "unsightly euro cafes" that were mentioned....were there to cater the eurpoean population that made Astoria what it is. The last time I checked....they still cater to that same population. Granted some of them are coming from outside Astoria, but this has been happening since they opened. How is this a bad thing? I think these types of places are much better than a bunch of "pret a manger" opening up. High end boutiques???? If those were to open...you people would be on here in a second condemning them for coming into queens and not staying in Manhattan, and how terrible it is that the mom and pop shops had to leave. I am seeing a lot of double standards here.
"No Landlord wants that, nor does any landlord cater to that living situation. It happens usually without the landlord knowing...and when the landlord finds out, and tries to evict them...."
umm, I guess you wrote this wanting to be taken seriously?
"Granted some of them are coming from outside Astoria, but this has been happening since they opened. How is this a bad thing? "
Its well known that Astoria demographics are changeing: the local cafe set is decreasing, yet they continue to expand their footprint on public sidewalks.
Things came to a head last summer when, business as usual, they took their walls off and air-conditioned the sidewalks. They lost a lot of local support while those that actually live here struggled to get power.
As to it being a bad thing or not, you don't seem to know Astoria well, or perhaps selective in what you see, or perhaps stuck back in the 70s.
Check out astorians.com. Lots of grumbling about the rather limited options in their community.
Never thought of it. Yes, I used to patronize that lumber yard. Never was impressed with Home Depot.
More people just add to the traffic. We don't get services that we should now in Astoria.
Can someone tell me how more people are good - or are you saying the people that already live here are riff raff?
A lot of landlords would eagerly welcome up to 15 people living in one apartment WHO ARE PAYING RENT opposed to having a single vacancy in their buildings !
It's all about their bottom line greed !
Meanwhile Astoria gets a swift kick in the bottom judging by the paltry amount of services that are delivered here to residents by NYC !
Welcome to "Dormitory-ville USA" second only to Corona !!!
CB1 is known as a community board where illegal conversions are all but public policy.
I understand the Greek-American Homeowners Association is one of the leaders supporting this.
I wonder how many supporting that group actually still live in Astoria.
Yoickkks, I hope Dykes Lumber in LIC doesn't "go under"...Great moldings there!!!
Who are all those contented "developers" who puff on their hookas (like the caterpillar in "Alice In Wonderland") counting all the money that they've made from their (questionable??) real estate holdings while seated in in some flashy Euro trash cafe on Broadway !
Are they remnants of the old Ottoman empire ?
Hell no, the Byzantine Empire. The dropped the ball and could not hold on to what they recieved from the Romans the same way the current crop will mess up what they received of Astoria from the Germans.
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