All Aboard. NOT. – Queensboro Plaza, Long Island City

Long Island City, starting tomorrow Saturday, January 21st, 2012, the MTA will be shutting down service on the No. 7 train for the next 11 (eleven) consecutive weekends, through April 2nd.

Gulp. »

Headed to Manhattan this weekend LIC? Nope. – Photo by William Garrett

It’s a mixed bag of news from the City and the MTA about the 7 train. First, more announcements of 7 train weekend shutdowns. Local businesses and residents can rejoice in the opportunity to uh… get to know each other better?

There will be no 7 line subway service between the Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza stations on the following weekends »

The 7 train runs through Queens Plaza… sometimes. – Long Island City

Ok, sans the fanfare, here’s the deets on 7 train weekend subway service in Long Island City for the remainder of October »

The elusive 7 train, gone this weekend. Bye from Long Island City.

As we in Long Island City eek our way through October, it looks like winter is showing up a bit early… not in the weather of course, but in our subway service. Yes. You guessed it. It’s a weekend shutdown of the 7 train, coming at you… tonight! According to the very confusing service advisory on the MTA‘s very informative website, there will be no service on the 7 train between Times Square and Queensboro Plaza from Friday through Sunday, and both sides of service will run on the Manhattan bound train on Monday & Tuesday.

Just in time to experience the beginning of LIC’s time-honored winter tradition, here’s LIC resident Steve Hofstetter with some comic relief on the matter »

Now you see it, but this weekend you won’t. No. 7 train, Long Island City

The MTA seems to have a new PR department, and a slightly functional one at that, as they have begun sending out alerts to local media groups IN ADVANCE of subway shutdowns. In this case, the No. 7 train will not be running this weekend, beginning Sat, July 30th until 5am Aug 1st. So LIC’ers, at least our Friday night is intact.

Here’s a taste of the new MTA’s communications department, which also includes an unsolicited explanation of why service is cut this weekend »

Long Island City’s Borden Ave Bridge (front) – photo by Mitch Waxman

During liQcity’s blogging hiatus, it seems a miracle happened in Long Island City… the Borden Ave Bridge reopened!! Though it was officially cleared in January 2011, work was slated to continue through April 2011, and according to the DOT website, should be complete by now »

The new subway routes impacting Long Island City, courtesy of MTA

It’s alphabet soup for us this morning, as our favorite transportation authority (yes, that’s you MTA) has cut and pasted a few letter trains, effective yesterday. The V train is out, replaced by the M train (though not entirely) and the G train now ends at the ‘new Court Square terminal’ in LIC. Which is not finished yet? Oh, and the W train’s gone too, though that doesn’t really effect LIC too much, save for a few local stops in LIC/Astoria. Which the N still covers…

The V train turning into the M train however, does have an impact »

Parking in Long Island City

It’s no secret that trying to find parking in LIC, is a… challenge, to put it nicely. As a NY1 video recently picked up, there’s not enough parking for the local biz on Vernon, and because there’s no meters on side streets, people can park for as long as they want.

On the other hand, residents claim there’s not enough residential parking as it is, because out-of-town commuters languish in unregulated spaces for months. Alternate-side is apparently imminent and will swoop down upon us one day… though no one knows when. It seems that will overturn long-term commuter parking on the streets, but not solve the problem for local biz on Vernon who need their patrons to be able to park quickly.

Supposedly more parking spaces are on the way for LIC »

No. 7 train will grace these tracks again this weekend, LIC

We have never used the word ‘woohoo’ in a title, but in this case, it probably doesn’t even do the news justice. It seems that our friends over at the MTA (yes, now they’re our friends) have finished the 7 train repairs three weekends ahead of schedule, and Long Island City’s precious chariot will operate on its regular weekend schedule, starting this coming weekend. That deserves another woohoo »

Phantom 7 train, Queens Plaza, Long Island City

Hot on the heels of the B62 debacle and the G train blues comes more disappointing news for LIC from the MTA: 7 train service is being suspended for 7 consecutive winter weekends, from January 29th through March 29th, 2010. Hunters Pointers can rejoice in the return of the nabe’s favorite MTA shuttle bus from Vernon/Jackson to Queens Plaza. Aah, fun times. And so convenient too! »

New B62 bus stop at Jackson Ave and 11th St, Long Island City

Well it finally happened. The legendary B61 bus route, which ran from Red Hook (Brooklyn) to Long Island City has been split into two routes, and the brand new B62 line now runs a humble route from Downtown Brooklyn to Queens Plaza. Though the intention was to ease congestion and improve bus service, the general consensus about the B62 has been quite… unsatisfactory. The MTA disappoints? Shocking »

Sheila Lewandowski of the Chocolate Factory Theater, Long Island City, laments the decline of attendance to the weekend 7-train shutdown.

Long Island City’s struggle with the 7-train is still in the news. Very in-depth NYT article chronicling the repeated annual shutdown of the 7 train, and how Queens residents deal with the cold blow »

Hello liQcity readers. If you’ve noticed since the holidays posting has been sparse, it has. It will continue to be so until the end of Jan, picking up steam as some new contributors and partners come on board in Feb. We’ll throw some linkage and vitals out to you as we can, and please stay tuned for a greatly improved liQcity thanks mostly to all of your feedback. LIC is a great community and we are proud and honored to be a part of it.

Speaking of LIC community, a group of LIC business owners and residents are actively campaigning to get the City to help LIC business and general activity continue on the weekends while the 7 train is shut down for the next two months. (Seems they have wisely given up on our very disappointing transportation authority.)

An LIC business owner and resident writes »

7 train, Court Square, Long Island City

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My. Actually, it’s the MTA again… everyone’s favorite local transportation authority.

It’s been a long time since liQcity’s inbox has been slammed with complaints about the same topic (read: never), but the MTA’s proposed shutdown of the 7 train between Times Sq and Queensboro Plaza for the next consecutive 9 weekends seems to have struck more than a few nerves in Hunters Point.

In fact, on Sunday there was an organized protest by local politicians and community members against the MTA calling for increased reparations to our forsaken village »

More bad news from the MTA. How surprising. Despite rising subway fairs and tolls, there seems to be very little money for the neglected ‘stepchild’ G-train.

Poor bastardized, outcasted G-train. You really could be the lifeline subway connection between two very important and vital boroughs in NYC. BK and QNS have definitely had their fair share of rivalry, but as more people continue to move out of Manhattan and into our more ‘spacious’ boroughs, and development kicks it up hundred of notches… the stronger the bond gets between the Kings and Queens.

Yes there are buses, but we all know it’s not the same »

Courtesy of outerB

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is holding their second round of workshops to address Queens parking issues, especially fallout on ‘commuter’ neighborhoods in lieu of the pending congestion pricing plan.

If you care about parking in the hood, here’s the deets:

Tuesday, 1/29, 6:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:00. Citicorp Building, 1 Court Square Long Island City