As if you needed another reason to come move to Long Island City. Now Toll Brothers is sweetning up the deal at 5SL, by offering buyers 1 year of living for free at 5th Street Lofts, thats right, no mortgage, no common charges, no real estate taxes, That plus the buyers protection plan, as stated in this email i got last night. I mean people how can you resist now?
Posted By: Eric Benaim
So for the past several months there has been construction going on at 4730 Vernon Blvd, No one knew exactly what was going on in there, other then it was a restaurant, Well i think its about time everyone got a peak inside. Testaccio - will be a high end Italian Restaurant focusing on dishes from Rome. Owners Carlo & Paul Bardone along with long time friend Alviero Pirani have partnered with Chef Ivan Beacco - Former Head Chef of Borgo Antico - and have retained the design firm Dizon Collective, to take on this project, mixing both rustic and modern elements, on three levels, seating over 100 people, featuring Brick Oven Pizza, where the Brick Oven was recently shipped to NY from Rome. “This is just what LIC needs, a taste of Manhattan” says the two brothers and owners of the restaurant. The restaurant is scheduled to be open sometime in late August or Early September, But Long Island City will be able to get its first taste of Testaccio
in the Taste of LIC
Happening Tuesday June 9th at the Gantry Plaza - Begining at 6:30pm, Gift certificates will be raffled off…
This weekend, the NY Times ran a story on parking permits and the Mayor’s plan to reduce by 20% the number of permits given to city employees - police officers, firefighters, teachers and other city employees. As you can imagine, those drivers who work in jobs that traditionally have had parking permits as part of the employment package are not happy with this plan. These jobs are not the highest paying jobs, especially compared to salaries in the private sector, so the parking permit softens the blow a bit.
This, in part, encourages people to continue to have cars, and cars will continue to be a problem as NYC gets more and more populated. Where are all these cars going to go? Thank goodness new developments provide some off-street parking spaces (though at a price).
For a year, I worked as a parking appeals officer. I read appeals people wrote regarding parking tickets they were given. My boss used to say that parking was the great equalizer on campus - it didn’t matter if you were a student, staff, or faculty - you were each given a parking permit and had to abide by its rules.
A lot of people felt they were above the rules and would park wherever they wanted to. And when they got a ticket, it pissed them off sometimes. I was once left a message from an angry woman who said that God was going to strike me down because she had been issued a parking ticket.
One of the things that I had no tolerance for was abuse of placards, disabled placards in this case. Some of these people felt that they could just borrow grandma’s disabled placard, or park in front of a fire hydrant regardless, so this part of the Times article really struck a nerve:
When the city announced plans to crack down on the abuse of parking permits issued to city employees, Christopher Stephens felt a shiver of furious recognition.
He once oversaw parking permit violation cases as an administrative law judge in the city. One day, in Queens, a woman seeking to nullify her parking ticket confidently claimed breathtaking powers for her Fire Department placard.
Are you a Fire Department employee? Judge Stephens asked. No, she replied, but my father is a retired fire chief. “No way is that legitimate! No way!” Mr. Stephens, 39, now a lawyer for the city, said on Friday. “She is not a Fire Department employee, her father is no longer a Fire Department employee, the vehicle does not belong to the Fire Department, and the vehicle was not being used for Fire Department business.” He ruled against her.
I say, right on! It seriously irks me that people feel that they can flaunt the rules like this.
The placard cuts start March 1. It will be interesting to see if this affects the future parking situation in any way, and I’ll be curious to see how much backlash comes out of it.
Related:
Paring Down Parking Permits, and Raising a Fuss HD yes man
Parking Permits in Queens? download contract killers [previously on OuterB]
More parking workshops ! The first round of workshops was last November, held by the City Department of Transportation (DOT). These public workshops will further address community concerns about the possible impact of congestion pricing on neighborhood parking, especially those that risk being “park and ride” nabes for out of town drivers. Here’s the 411 on the workshops:
Tuesday, 1/29
Long Island City
6:30 p.m.
Doors open at 6:00
Citicorp Building
1 Court Square
Long Island City
Wednesday, 1/30
Forest Hills, Queens
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Doors open at 6:30
Forest Hills Jewish Center
106-06 Queens Boulevard
Forest Hills
Related:
DOT Parking Workshops - Second Round [NYC DOT]
Workshops to Address Queens Neighborhood Parking [previously on OuterB]
Well, the “Astoria Castle” finally got its gates. It does not improve things.
There’s more construction across the street. Who knows what it’s going to look like in the end!
The Slummification of Kissena Boulevard [Citizen of the Month]
Update for the Long Island City Sundial [LIC Sundial]
This is still one of the best videos on Long Island City [LICNYC]
Is Queens the New Brooklyn? [drawger.com via Jackson Heights Life]
Hello, G Train! [NY Times]
Photo credit: Dmadeo
on Wikimedia Commons
The radio today told me that there’s going to be no way around paying to cross the East River. Congestion Pricing - in one form or another - is coming. The five options are:
Numbers 1 and 2 seem the most workable, number 3 the most penalty-laden, number 4 just plain lame, and number 5 seems too unrealistic.
If they decided to charge a toll on the East River bridges, I wonder how they would fit toll plazas into things - where would they go? That kind of construction would be pretty awful for Queens on the 59th street bridge. How would that disrupt the neighborhood?
It will be interesting to see what happens, what the final decision is. One needs to be made by end of the month.
Spotted tonight on the way home, the artist’s rendering of the senior housing going up in Astoria just west of the Astoria Blvd subway station. There used to be a parking lot there. In the near future, it will be affordable housing for people of our grandparents’ generation. This sign is on the Astoria Blvd side of the construction.
The building has really grown since the last time I posted about it. I think the picture is a little misleading, but that’s the nature of these sorts of renderings.
Related:
Astoria Senior Housing Construction [previously on OuterB]
This weekend I was running down by Astoria Park, and walked a segment of 19th Street alongside the Pistilli Riverview East building - the side that looks onto the park. And you know, apart from the stucco covering, that part of the building really looks just fine. I mean, the nature of the original building has a kind of monolith air to it, but the ornament and the way the windows are situated within make for a nice industrial look. But that 21st Street side is still just ghastly.
Some of my current work requires me to bone up on certain American mythic personalities, so I’ve been paying close attention to the trailers being released of the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight . First, it looks fabulous - I love Christian Bale as Batman and Batman Begins was truly excellent. And second, in this trailer, about a third of the way through, a building is blown up and I swear, it reminds me so much of the 21st Street side of the Pistilli building. See for yourself and let me know if you agree:
But with all this being said, I’m sure it will be nice to have new neighbors in that part of town. Despite the fugliness of the east side of the building, it’s gotta bet better to have people there than the previous tenants - rats and (rumored) prostitutes.
Related:
Pistilli Riverview East in Astoria Wins Honors
[previously on OuterB]
New bike parking in LIC! [Streetsblog]
Ireland lives in Butcher Block
in Sunnyside. [Let's Meet Up in Queens]
The HDC rates the landmarking of Sunnyside Gardens one of the best in 2007. [Historic Districts Council Newsstand]
Tales of the X68 Express Bus From Midtown to Floral Park, Queens . [NY Times]
Muss project gets OK from state on remediation
. [Times Ledger]
Photo credit: Vidiot
on Flickr via a Creative Commons license
Broker for Modern Spaces A Full Service Real Estate Company, Based out of Long Island City. A Real Estate Obssessed Broker / Blogger, Native New Yorker and resident of Long Island City. Lover of Architecture both old and new, Dedicated to giving good service, feel free to email me anytime
