Heads up, liQcity readers. There was a violent attack on a woman early Wednesday morning (3:45am to be precise) on Vernon Blvd and 10th Street near the Costco/ConEd area. Three men accosted a 20 year old woman, dragged her to a parking lot, and raped her. The police have released this sketch of one of the attackers »

As we close out November and head into the final month of 2011 (yikes!), here’s a peek at what’s going on with Long Island City’s favorite Community Board 2. In case you are new to liQcity and/or Long Island City, CB2 meets the first Thursday of every month in Sunnyside, and makes decisions about the Hunters Point area of LIC, as well as Sunnyside, Woodside & Maspeth. Public meetings are an opportunity to speak to CB2, as anyone can sign up for 3 minutes of speaking time in front of the board.

CB2 also holds public hearings on specific matters, and usually when they impact Hunters Point, they are held in town. Recent public hearings include garnering public opinion on the recent DOT proposal for 48th Ave (which was shot down with machine guns by local residents), and interrogating the latest proprietors seeking liquor licenses for Vernon/Jackson area.

Topics on the agenda for this Thursday’s CB2 meeting that impact Hunters Point/LIC area are »

Dear Long Island City,

liQcity is pleased to announce our first produced event – liQpop – with local powerhouses M. Wells and Dutch Kills, as well as many other amazing LIC entities. It’s a fundraiser for your favorite neighborhood blog. That’s us! Here’s why »

The main drag of the Long Island City waterfront. – Photo by William Garrett

The public hearing held by CB2 with Long Island City residents on Tuesday was quite an event. We forgot the popcorn! To recap, the agenda included the DOT proposal to remake 48th Ave with an enhanced median and an additional 37 parking spots, as well as allow for public opinion on the latest slew of liquor licenses applications for Hunters Point.

First up was the DOT proposal for 48th Ave »

Henry contemplates his new playground in LIC. – Photo by Benjamin Peryer

The answer is yes. Well at least some of LIC is definitively going to the dogs. The new and improved Vernon Blvd dog run has been officially opened for a couple of weeks now, with a few renovations still in the works.

While dog owners in Hunters Point area rejoice, others are not so excited. Case in point is an interesting piece of graffiti discovered on a LIC sidewalk, to which liQcity contributor Steve Hofstetter has an equally interesting response »

Friday, Oct 21st

• Manducatis Rustica has $5 martinis and margaritas every Friday night starting at 6pm. 46-35 Vernon Blvd, LIC

• LaGuardia Performing Arts Center is hosting Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre Friday & Sat 10/21,22 at 7:30pm. 3110 Thompson Ave, LIC

• The Secret Theatre hosts Laura Ward/Octavia Cup Dance Theatre in ‘Red and Black: Dances from the past and future’, expressionistic contemporary ballet en pointe. Friday 10/21 @ 8pm. 44-02 23rd St, LIC

Saturday, October 22nd »

Big news this morning. No, it’s not what’s going on with the European markets. Also not the release of the Amercian hikers in Iran. US Embassy attack in Kabul? Wrong again »

On June 22nd, Long Island City resident Fausta Ippolito died tragically and much too soon from a rare form of colon cancer. She left a multitude of grieving family and friends, and fond memories in the hearts of all who loved and admired her »

Long Island City’s Fire Ladder 115 has a fan. – photo by Jesse Winter

In planning a memorial post for 9/11 and Long Island City, liQcity checked in with Ladder 115 to find out if any of our local firefighters had perished as responders to the attacks. Turns out, the answer is none and it’s an interesting story why not »

The namesake Gypsy Rose Lee.

It’s round 2 or 10 of Long Island City vs the Strip Club, and who knows who’s winning, but we’ll find out more at CB2′s public hearing next week.

The proposed ‘Gentlemen’s Club’ called Gypsy Rose (named after the burlesque dancer pictured) at 42-50 21st St in LIC, is going before CB2 regarding their liquor license next Wed, Aug 3rd 6:30pm at CB2′s office at 43-22 50th St, Sunnyside. While community board hearings in general are action packed, this one is destined to be a blockbuster.

Strip Club, schmip club. Funny thing is, in reading CB’s announcement of the public hearing, the OTHER entity going before CB2 for a liquor license at next week’s hearing is actually way more interesting »

Cityscapes strip club in Queens Plaza closed down last year, Long Island City.

Despite Long Island City’s ‘gentrifying’ trend in the last decade, it seems our hood’s industrial nooks and crannies are still attractive to strip club owners. Although, before we get into the new one on the way, we should mention that one of the more notorious strip clubs in LIC, Cityscapes in Queens Plaza, has been shut down for sometime now. But that does not seem to be fazing new proprietors »

Still life at Gantry Park. Taste of LIC 2011, Long Island City. — photo by JetBlue

By Benjamin Peryer

It’s the most aggressive, competitive, and painstaking challenge LIC chefs have faced the past six years since The Chocolate Factory’s premiere event: Iron Chef: LIC Edition.

Alright, not exactly. It’s the annual event, perhaps the biggest in our neighborhood, that feels like a block party with your most talented friends—Alex Schindler of LIC Market, Giuseppe Falco of Pachanga Patterson, Hugue Dufour of M. Wells, just to name a few—and some of the most delicious food in New York City.

It’s the Taste of LIC »

A summer night at the old WTB, Long Island City. Photo by Ciprian Toma

Some interesting cancellations for LIC this summer:

• Water Taxi Beach.  Oh how sad LIC is about that. No more and screaming drunk people walking from the waterfront to the subway at 4am. No more abusing the Waterfront Crabhouse staff (which included spitting at them by the way). No more pissing on our streets and homes. How tragic for us. The East River might overfloweth from the tears we shed. However, luckily for those who are in desperate need of a psuedo urban beach, there are two other WTB locations in NYC. Have fun!!

• The 4th of July Fireworks. Macy’s has informed the City that because this year is the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, they would like to shift the event south to include the Statue. Macy’s has proposed that there be four barges between Battery Park and Leroy Street, and another two barges near Liberty Island. Ok, now that is an actual loss for LIC – though it is kind of crazy, it’s always been a boon for LIC businesses.

Oh well. You can’t win them all. At least we won one.

Hunters Point, Long Island City circa 2008

Our favorite community board, CB2, is holding their last community meeting for the summer Thursday, June 3rd. Aka tomorrow, at 7pm. (The next one is in September.) It’s also a Public Hearing for the following:

• SUNNYSIDE/WOODSIDE REZONING – CITY PLANNING HAS UNDERTAKEN THE REZONING OF THE SUNNYSIDE/WOODSIDE AREA.

• CAR SHARING TEXT AMENDMENT TO THE ZONING RESOLUTION WHICH WILL CREATE REGULATIONS TO ALLOW CAR SHARE VEHICLES TO PARK IN OFF-STREET ACCESSORY GARAGES AND LOTS AND IN PUBLIC PARKING FACILITIES IN ALL ZONING DISTRICTS.

• IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION FOR A CONSUMER AFFAIRS RENEWABLE REVOCABLE CONSENT LICENSE FOR AN UNENCLOSED SIDEWALK CAFE, CAFE TOURNESOL, 50-12 VERNON BLVD.

The Full Board will meet on Thursday, June 3rd at 7pm at Sunnyside Community Services, 43-31 39th Street in Sunnyside, Queens.

On another related topic, it seems the Hunters Point waterfront community is actively getting organized. Posted on liQcity comments related to the proposed integrated Middle/High School slated for Hunters Point South, is a letter submitted to the School Construction Authority and local politicians, signed by 200 Hunters Point residents »

At last night’s CB2 Public Hearing, the School Construction Authority and Mayor’s office fielded highly intelligent questions from the somewhat merciless community in attendance, regarding the plans for the proposed Hunters Point South 6-12th grade school (officially designated as an Intermediate (IS)/High School).

IS/HS 404 Public Middle/High School, Hunters Point South, 1-50 51st Ave

• It’s fully WiFi’d, has it’s own library, a regulation HS gymnasium, and of course the rooftop terrace cafeteria. The Borden Ave entrance will welcome the 6-8th graders, as well as the 96 Special Needs students, who are the only students bused to the school.

• The high-school entrance will be on 51st Ave, as to separate the three compartmentalized schools inside the facility: Special Needs, IS (Middle School, 6-8th grade), and the High-School component. All school ‘components’ will share some common ‘amenities’ and there will be some overlap in the use of the building’s 26 classrooms. At 1071 seats, that’s an average of 41 kids per classroom. Whether it will actually breakdown like that was unknown to the SCA.

• The IS/HS will serve the entire School District 30.

Questions raised by the community »

The proposed K-8 Public School 312, Queens West, Hunters Point, LIC

At the CB2 public hearing last night, the School Construction Authority and the Mayors office, in conjunction with the City Planning presented their plans for two new schools imminent for the Hunters Point waterfront: a K-8 school (PS 312) at Queenswest, and a 6-12th grade school at Hunters Point South (to be discussed in a separate post). Both remarkably swank schools are slated to be state of the art, and are quite ‘condo-like’ in aesthetic, especially the planned PS 312 »

Rendering of impending HPS Middle/High School, 51st Ave, LIC

A few weeks ago, the SCA (School Construction Authority) under the DOE (Dept of Edgimication) made a presentation to CB2 regarding the planned middle/high school for the Hunters Point South development compound, which will be located on an extended 51st Ave, between 2nd St & Center Blvd. The SCA is working to open the 1071 seat school by September 2013, and is currently soliciting community feedback regarding the school’s design plans »

The next Community Board 2 meeting is tomorrow, May 6th at 7pm at Sunnyside Community Services. The agenda includes presentations from the Council on the Environment regarding the Greenmarket, and the Queens Library Health Link Community Outreach Coordinator. Additionally, anyone interested in commenting on any LIC related matters can sign-up for three minutes of speaking time at the meeting.

And now for some Hunters Point related highlights from CB2′s March meeting (April’s minutes will be approved tomorrow):

Hunters Point South dog run, Long Island City

The Hunters Point South dog run, which is still surviving despite impending HPS development, seems to have gotten a recent makeover. It’s somewhat unexpectedly bedecked with hand-painted local advertising, and a few courteous signs on the entrance gate.

The local group DOG LIC »

Apparently things got pretty heated last night during the 7 train Town Hall at LIC’s Manducatis Rustica. In a packed house, MTA reps came face to face with locals – all frustrated, some straight-up irate – who sounded off on the 7 train but also on the infernal noise of the MTA exhaust fan. According to Fox, Van Bramer is demanding a follow-up meeting with the MTA to move forward »

It has come to liQcity’s attention through multiple local tipsters that there’s been a bunch of recent muggings in the Hunters Point area, especially near the waterfront, that have apparently gone unreported through the local police. The buzz is:

• A woman was mugged on Friday evening around 11pm at 47th Rd & Vernon Blvd. She was struck from behind and robbed of her possessions, including her coat. She was also denied the ability to file a police report with the 108th precinct, since she did not have ID on her. (direct from woman attacked)

• A woman was mugged the prior weekend also at 47th Rd & Vernon Blvd, apparently also struck and robbed of her possessions, around 10pm. Police report supposedly unfiled. (from friend of woman attacked)

• A man was mugged by multiple attackers, also robbed of his possessions at 44th Road & Vernon Blvd at an unknown time & day last week. Police report supposedly unfiled. (from friend of man attacked)

• Four Vernon Blvd buildings/businesses between Jackson Ave & 46 Road were burglarized within the last two weeks. All incidents were supposedly able to file police reports.

liQcity has received other accounts of recent local muggings »

Hunters Point, Long Island City

Community Board 2, which represents Sunnyside, Woodside, LIC, and a portion of West Maspeth, is holding their regular Monthly Meeting and Public Hearing of the Full Board for: Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 7pm at Sunnyside Community Services, 43-31 39th St, Ground FL in Sunnyside. It’s always the first Thursday of every month. The meeting’s agenda is available online; anyone interested in commenting can sign-up for 3 minutes of speaking time at the Public Hearing.

This particular meeting has no listed agenda items pertaining to Hunters Point, but in the future we’ll highlight anything having to do with HP as well as any Public Hearing info that CB2 alerts us to in advance. The next CB2 meeting is on March 4th, 2010.

• Community Board 2: 43-22 50th Street, Woodside, New York 11377. Phone: 718.533.8773. Emails: qn02@cb.nyc.gov; commboard2@nyc.rr.com.

• CB2 2/4/10 meeting agenda [CB2]

• Community Boards fear mayoral hit list [BoroPolitics]

While we’re at it, here’s the general contact info of some of our local politicians »

Exterior detail of the Long Island City Public Library at 37-44 21st Street

In the age of the Computer, when some of us barely remember what our handwriting looks like, it’s nice to know that libraries still exist, albeit with increased electronic functionality. Long Island City’s library offerings are somewhat slim, but they offer useful services and and a nice quiet place with free WiFi. Oh yes, and they have books. Remember books? »

LIC millstone, Queens Plaza, LIC

You probably remember our links to several articles about the saga of the 17th century LIC millstones which are currently in danger of damage due to the machinery and construction of the Queens Plaza reconstruction effort.

Quick update: supporters like the Greater Astoria Historical Society and others who would like to protect these artifacts have started a new website to pool info and get community input regarding where the millstones should be moved. That is, if they can get them out of the construction zone first. For that reason, there’s also an online petition you can sign to rally support to protect the millstones and other ways you can get involved.

From the LIC millstones blog »