From the Queens Chronicle:
With the advent of food-based television networks and social media, the 72-year-old deli has become something of a tourist attraction, with guests coming from all across the globe to munch on the authentic kosher cuisine.
So why at 6 p.m. on a recent, rain-free Friday night was the eatery almost entirely empty, save for one couple?
According to Parker, the answer is painted green just a few feet outside.
“The bike lanes aren’t hurting us, they’re murdering us,” Parker told the Chronicle. “This is our busy season. If things don’t turn around, you could expect layoffs in January or February. I can promise you that.”
From the Queens Chronicle:
At the famous Ben’s Best Deli, business is down 17 percent, and in the middle of dinner time last Friday, there were two people in the place when it’s usually packed. Up the street at Topix Bar and Lounge, business is down 10 percent. At Domino’s Pizza, seven of 22 drivers have quit since August. Many other stores are suffering too.
They all have the misfortune of being located on the 1.3-mile stretch of Queens Boulevard where the city eliminated 198 parking spaces so it could install bike lanes. And the result is that they’re being crushed.
The situation is reflected on a stretch of Cross Bay Boulevard where new curbside bus lanes have eliminated parking at key times of the day. A manager at the C-Town Supermarket there says business is down 20 percent.
All this damage to our society so that a vocal minority of residents can ride bikes safely on the one hand — and there’s no arguing against safety, but it didn’t require this — and bus riders can shave a few minutes off their trip on the other.
50 comments:
As someone affected by the folly of Community Board 11 with our infamous and accident-increasing bike lanes, this really feels like tyranny. The message basically is, "We don't need to care about you, fuck you and your quality of life". When my husband retires, we,will try to afford a nice 2-bedroom, 2-bath apartment in senior-friendly Great Neck, where no one pretends this is Europe or Amsterdam. 2 miles east of where we live, there are no bike lanes causing more traffic and livelihood-ruining nightmares. Someone needs to get rid of Vision Zero. It's a dictatorial strong arming of good citizens who work hard and are just trying to get from here to there. I have no idea,why there are so many knee-jerk Democrats who blindly voted for DeBlasio, the dictator of NYC, who rides around in a chauffeured Chevy Suburban, hypocritically enough.
No worries comrade! Once all those stores are out of business, the gov't will provide all your pastrami needs.
Well, we all saw this coming. The damn bike lanes were voted down by the community board in Elmhurst but deBozo pushed them through anyways, and I knew it would spell trouble for all the mom and pop shops further down in Rego Park, what a damn shame
Click on this:
“After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world. I am strongly of the opinion that the great majority of people will always find these the moving impulses of our life.” - President Calvin Coolidge
NOT BICYCLING
Deals before wheels.
Oh, it could get worst.
Watch the city say "WE WILL FIX THIS MESS" and put up concrete barriers to separate the bike lane. Then what are we supposed to do, sit behind a truck or car that's making a delivery or picking something up.
Or, eliminate all the parking against the curb and make it for DELIVERIES ONLY.....Or make it like Manhattan where some street are deliveries only after 9pm.
Never mind us, the average Joe.....How about emergency vehicles? Getting to a point that they try to avoid the blvd when responding to calls. Actually know of an emergency vehicle that traveled East on QB to Woodhaven Blvd, South on Wdhaven to 63rd Drive THen East again back to Qns Blvd.....Instead of just going straight up QUEENS BLVD
Bottom Line is the CITY DOESN'T want you to drive
It appears that most people working in nyc govt are not native NY’ers. They have no clue that this place runs unlike anything they know.
These bike lanes have made it less safe for everyone.
The bike lanes aren’t hurting us, they’re murdering us,” Parker told the Chronicle. “This is our busy season. If things don’t turn around, you could expect layoffs in January or February. I can promise you that.”
So, follow the Astoria model and put in a money laundering eatery. Success or failure is incidental.
Bike lanes in an aging society? Really?
What can anyone say except: YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID.
So now we have four more years of MR. STUPID & COMPANY.
Don't blame the voters entirely. The DEMOCRATIC MACHINE is what broke this and we, the taxpayers are not able to countermand this kind of STUPID.
WHY? BECAUSE MONEY TALKS AND THE REST OF US WALK! (especially to the gym)
I'M SO MAD I COULD SPIT.
All this mayhem, projected layoffs, businesses closing just so
people who take the bus to work can cut some time off their traveling.
That's what they "tell" us.
But the truth is?
And what happened to governing for the good of the many?
WHY do the many taxpayers have to put up with this idiocy?
WHY? Just follow the MONEY.
Who and how many in City Hall are benefiting from the
kickback of the green and red paint?
Who and how many in City Hall will get a kickback from the
maintenance of the green and red painted lanes?
And, last but never least, how many TICKETS will this cash cow generate?
And, who and how many does that also benefit?
We, the taxpayer will never know for sure but when a fish rots
it starts at the head.
Sooooooo It's all about the MONEY, honey. Never forget that.
P.S.: What happens when it starts snowing?
How will the plows get into those small lanes?
And when they can't get into those small lanes
to plow them how will the cars get around
the double parked delivery trucks?
I'll bet Mr. Stupid has not even considered that.
UNLESS -- special plows for that purpose? Hmmm.
Another boondoggle (with kickbacks, of course).
These bike lanes were the stupidest thing I ever saw.
The bike lanes are part of Agenda 21.
Thanks to the communist mayor, in NYC is getting implemented.
People think voting is optional, but they really need to read up on current events and then head to the voting booths.
Did I mention ride share using electric cars? That's next.
De Faustio is micromanaging this chaos on the streets, if not every other city service that's meant for the true residents of Queens. These bike lanes are, like the goddamn BQX also, for projected communities and not for the community that actually exists.
These lanes are a big fuck you to the citizens of Eastern Queens, mostly the commercial sector which is mostly independent run businesses and not chains or pretentious hipshit restaurants/bars, bakery/bars, or cafe/bars and fucking beer gardens. These bike lanes are meant to usurp the businesses and the people living there that have been there for decades and decades. And even the people that choose not to live in overpriced newly niche areas of Brooklyn and now Queens (who woulda thunk that).
Like I said up top. de Faustio is taking a micro management approach to governing this city that was once your city. It's like how Manifest Failure Hillary took over the DNC to solidify her wretched candidacy
Oh, and when Mr.Stupid (nice) campaigned and claimed that it was your city, he was referring to himself.
P.S.
I usually take Queens Blvd. when I commute to the city to work. Been doing it for over 2 decades. And in the last year and a half when the DOT ejaculated that green paint and whatever that sand shit is, the amount of other riders I have seen doesn't even amount to the fingers on my hands.
The car haters are clueless about and calous to the reality of millions of New Yorkers in the Outer Boroughs who DEPEND on their cars every day. They want to force people out of their cars. This is an attack on people's quality and way of life.
The never-ending cycle of asshole city agencies, the idiotic heads who run them, the corrupt elected officials who don't give a shit and the worst, THE ASSHOLE NYC citizens who keep pulling the lever like a robot putting the same hacks in office over and over and over again, hence the 2nd and probably even more destructive term of Mayor dicHead.
New Yorkers who claim to be the most educated, most in-tune, etc, etc are actually some of the dumbest in this country that I have come across.
"It appears that most people working in nyc govt are not native NY’ers. They have no clue that this place runs unlike anything they know."
Ah THAT'S the key. As the fucks er... folks at Transportation Alternatives where they're from guaranteed less than 10% of 'em are from New York...
"2-bath apartment in senior-friendly Great Neck"
Who wrote that, are they crazy or been in a bunker for 10 years ?
The Persian, and WORSE Persian housewives that have taken over Great Neck drive like maniacs hit and run kill you in the street broad daylight.
Great Neck is no longer old Jewish people, they all cashed out.
That North Shore LIJ hospital took over and "f_cked up" the whole town importing all these hospital people from the Mid East and India. Great Neck Plaza is another friggan country where daily you will find Benzi and Lexi killing each other over a parking space outside the nail salon. I wont even get into those sec 8 shitholes on "Spinny Hill" and all the new towers on Cutter Mill Road--All new Democrat voters
North Hempstead Manhasset try's to keep both development and "the destructives" out but now thanks to Great Neck voters a town board of Democrats swing the vote.
Great Necks already finished (4 towers of Sec 8 people of color and bluecoats who work in the hospitals and perhaps 1 real Jewish Deli left north on Baker Hill. Days numbered for Manhassets 5 unincorporated villages because Queens disease is spreading EAST like wildfire! Add what now nearing $10,000 school tax.
Look at the mess and "Flushing Style" crap going on Little Neck, must be 5 rub joint whorehouses in the apartments above the Northern Blvd adult video and commercial storefronts & restaurants.
I'm so disgusted looking at the shit that invaded the town I already sold one house and have been living back in Ridgewood, thank god Holden was elected.
Yea, A little harsh but its the truth
The businesses aren't important anymore.... everybody buys from Amazon anyway... Not me
At the Domino’s Pizza next door, a manager named Alamgir, who declined to provide his last name, said seven of the chain’s 22 delivery drivers have quit since August.
The reason? They were tired of getting tickets for parking in the new deliveries-only zone.
“I’m starting to look for bike riders to deliver the pizza now,” Alamgir said.
The irony is that after the bike lanes reduced his business, he is looking for cyclists to do deliveries. So the lanes will get used after all, just as the City planned all along.
This is our future:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/25/chinas-bike-share-graveyard-a-monument-to-industrys-arrogance
Did I mention ride share using electric cars? That's next.
that's when bedbugs take over the city.
Stop bitchen and go after your councilman. THATS where all NYC-based problems start. They can pass legislation TOMORROW to stop this garbage.
There should be no double parking ever. Trucks can park somewhere and use a dolly.
Dumblasio does not care about small business, he cares about the large real state developers that privide bribe err campaign contributions and about the moochers coming from down south to live in shelters and provide him with votes
The DOT engineers and proponents of this bike shit are all from Amsterdam.
Hey Joe, I wrote about the 2-bedroom in Great Neck. No I don't live in a bunker, and I'm crazy in a fun way. I have a number of friends who live in Great Neck, none Persian. There are plenty of nice 2 bedroom apartments in Great Neck and Great Neck Plaza, in case you've been living in a bunker for,the last 10 years. Mind your own business, Joe the Troll. I'll be happy living in a senior-friendly community without busybodies and bike lanes. Why you have to attack someone else's life choices is the question. Maybe you're a CB11 operative or a mayor DeBlasio aficionado. Stash it
The DOT engineers
Now that's a misnomer.
Nacho said...
There should be no double parking ever. Trucks can park somewhere and use a dolly.
You sound clueless. If you ever had to make deliveries for a living you’d be homeless too.
I recently had a doctor's appointment in Rego Park. I live near Queens College and knew that using the LIE to get to the appointment after 3 p.m. would be disaster. So I decided to take Queens Blvd, since the office was right on Queens Blvd. Boy, what a total mess I signed up for. From Jewel Avenue to the PC Richard on the western side of QB, the traffic was literally inching along. I never got above 10 mph, which made me rather late for my appointment. Using the service lane was near impossible, due to the stupid green bike lanes---which never see a bike using them! DeDumDum has created yet another mess for the city. Thank you so much to the 86% of NYC voters who sat on their fat rear ends in apathy rather than make their way to the polls to kick this incompetent commie bum OUT. And his worthless give-away-the-store city council members. They want to greatly expand housing for the homeless---and attract every bum from out of state and out of the country to come and get it, too. We the taxpayers are nothing but an ATM machine for these giveaway artists and the bums they cater to, all for that magic "D" on voting day.
I thought I’d be able to move this year,4 more years to get out of this city. I’m just sad at what has happened
To the woman thinking of moving to great neck= Nassau county has the second highest real estate taxes in the state....
You want to eat at some hole in the wall "deli", then take the M or R train...there's a stop less than a block away.
I love this Comment to the story on the Chronicle website:
"Most New Yorkers walk, ride bikes etc, the minority of us have/use cars. I bike to work daily, yes DRESSED up, why not...it is a great way to get around. perhaps you should modify your menu to VEGAn and watch business Boom again, stop killing animals and serving corpses!"
Some asshole actually believes that bullshit... We're doomed, as doomed as doomed can be...
Dream on Ms. Tsouris, I hope you speak Farsi.
Your friends must be blind, Enjoy your new barracks living accommodations
I have a number of friends who live in Great Neck, none Persian.
Yeah we know the types Tsouris. A HUGE number of liberals that work in the NYC University's and schools live in retire in Great Neck. I worked maintenance in a building one summer, almost everybody in the place worked for some NYC gov office, school or college. It was freaky like some kind of commune where they will scold & shun you if you don't embrace diversity so you better check it out carefully.
I can clearly understand why so many American born conservatives don't like Great Neck North and its new emm...albatrosses of diversity.
The bike lanes are always empty! I drive on Queens Blvd. every day from 8:30 am until the evening. I have seen 2 bike riders on the green lanes since they have been created. Am I the only one who notices that there are no bikes on those lanes? And on another Queens Blvd. note, can our govt. address the crusties that have plopped themselves down to beg for money?
These bike people can avoid dying by growing up and buying a car.
Gary W said... "No worries comrade! Once all those stores are out of business, the gov't will provide all your pastrami needs."
Your comment made me think that deFaustus & Company are planning ahead to benefit themselves and REBNY.
When (not if) all these businesses along Queens Blvd. (and Woodhaven as well) close their doors, landlords of these small strip malls will be forced to sell to developers.
REBNY will step in and build 12 and 15 stories (or higher) condos and co-ops. This will increase the City real estate tax base. REBNY developers will get 25 year tax abatements.
Then follow the money to deFaustus and City Hall.
Why didn't I see that sooner. Thanks Gary.
Nacho said...
There should be no double parking ever. Trucks can park somewhere and use a dolly."
When deliverys take twice as long cause they park blocks away
costs & rates go up, Natcho will b happy to pay more!
Bullshit
He'll go on Amazon just like everybody else and we get another empty building.
Then another homeless hotel for the un employed
""bike people can avoid dying by growing up and buying a car""
NAA Never happen just looks at them, most look like dirty unshaven hipshit artists or immigrant future lifetimes of welfare and socialistic handouts like in Europe.
Likely have no credit history who get dumped into the **assigned risk pool** with $3500+ a year liability insurance minimum in New York City.
Forget leasing or buying an actual car, comprehensive coverage for this populace.
The New York mayor and all the democrats know this, they esteem for this new ignorant breed & feed socialist society. They had been engineering this in New York for years courtesy of stupid unsighted voters.
-As in massive counties of Sheep who have become so desensitized they continue to literally sign their own death warrants and hand their keepers the knife.
-Ned
www.nra.org
>"The bike lanes aren’t hurting us, they’re murdering us."
That's the idea. Queens didn't vote for the Mayor, and he wants us replaced.
Let me be a contrarian voice here. Ready your slings and arrows ... I use the bike lane daily (and I am not the only one). I am also not a liberal, hippie, or a bum with no credit, nor an immigrant living off a lifetime of welfare as it was so delicately put in other comments. I am a tax-paying, local homeowner, as well as a fully insured car owner. I have lived here for twenty years. I know change is hard and some people are frustrated. But for every person who uses the bike lane a little pressure is taken off the road and subway systems. I am one less car on the road adding to the traffic you are stuck in. Also, I have driven my family around queens on a daily basis for years and know that traffic didn't all of a sudden get terrible this summer when the bike lane opened. Maybe it was good before the Worlds Fair but it has been terrible at rush hour for as long as I can remember. The arterial lanes with parking on both sides become instantly jammed with one double parker or delivery truck. At least now we can get by. Especially emergency vehicles. I can understand peoples frustrations but at the end of the day less cars on the road actually make it better for those who drive. You should want more people to use the bike lane. It has only been around for a few months. The green paint is still wet. Give it time and its use will increase. The future of our city is better with less cars.
"But for every person who uses the bike lane a little pressure is taken off the road and subway systems. "
Why would we set up a system that results in fewer people contributing to mass transit?
To all the bitter voices who think Great Neck is hell, you don't know what you're talking about. Why are you so concerned with my life as a senior citizen? Gay cocken effen yom, as my mother used to say
Ms. Tsouris said: "To all the bitter voices who think Great Neck is hell, you don't know what you're talking about. Why are you so concerned with my life as a senior citizen?"
Some people don't have anything to do except being negative. However, there is a solution to your problem:
Change your blogger name to something that does not reflect your gender, religion, nationality, or political point of view and you will find that the nasty comments become very few and less pointed. Since I did that, I can say what I like without the nasty barbs.
When you move to Great Neck you will find a greater sense of peace and greenery -- something that is sorely lacking now in the most congested parts of Queens County.
And, get even with these nay-sayers by having a wonderful life in the future wherever you live.
Anon today, thanks but this is who I am. I appreciate your good wishes, and the same to for you and your family! Let the nay-sayers have their day. Obviously they need hobbies or should put all that negative energy into activism or charity work and benefit someone
"Gay cocken effen yom"
A gay cooking an oven yam?
George you don't have a clue, do you? Gay cocken offen yom means go shit in the ocean. Old Yiddish saying
Zei gezunt.
georgetheatheist said: "Zei gezunt"
Knowing he meant this expression for a specific comment, it can also be used for the traffic situation on Queens and Woodhaven Boulevards.
None of us will "be well" or "have good health" until we can amelioriate this situation.
Has anyone thought of starting a petition to present to the powers that be?
If someone knows how to create a petition regarding the bike lane on these boulevards, I for one would give of my time to collect signatures and maybe other readers would too.
Perhaps it would be a lesson in futility but maybe not. I've heard it said: "You don't know 'till you try."
Please leave your comments. Let's see how many of us want to try to change this terrible situation.
Why would we set up a system that results in fewer people contributing to mass transit?
We already have that. It's called free and cheap parking.
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