From Crains:
Plans for a 20,000-square-foot library in Long Island City, Queens, along the East River, are moving ahead in a timely fashion, despite a possible lawsuit involving who should pay for the clean-up of the site.
The state’s Queens West Development Corp. said it plans to sue Honeywell International to pay for the $5 million to $10 million clean-up of toxic waste on the three-quarter acre plot at Center Boulevard between 48th Avenue and 47th Drive. The state claims that a Honeywell predecessor firm used the site to make and store roofing materials, and says it will sue because yearlong negotiations with the company have broken down »
Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm, Long Island City –photo:Jesse Winter
Standard Motors has a farm, EE-I-EE-I-O… Long Island City celebrated the success of its first rooftop farm this week, with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by local press & politicians. The farmers, Brooklyn Grange, jumped through many hoops to sow their rooftop farm and are starting to see the fruits of their labor. Luckily, so are we.
The one-acre farm on the roof of the Standard Motors building on Northern Blvd is impressive to say the least. Growing speciality vegetables, the farm is already selling to prominent restaurants in the city, as well as their own market in the SM lobby, and can barely keep up with their abundant bounty. So far they’re growing: kale, spinach, rainbow swiss chard, basil, thai basil, mint, cilantro, mustard mix, green salad mix, mizuna, merlot lettuce heads, crispino lettuce heads, bok choy, komatsuna, Italian dandelion and coming soon, cucumbers and puntarelle.
Filming is hard work. Vernon Blvd & 47th Rd, Long Island City. –Jesse Winter
If you’ve ever driven, biked, skateboarded, or walked down Vernon Blvd in LIC, chances are you’ve run into a few potholes… well no more! At least not on the blocks between 47th & 48th Aves. Hallejulah and praise a non-denominational deity: Vernon Blvd has been REPAVED.
Apparently we’re not the only ones excited, because NY1 has created a rather lengthy editorial video documenting the entire process, complete with community and politico commentary. Not to mention highly detailed information about how many tons of asphalt used and the number of DOT workers etc… seems they really want to be clear that they’re working hard for Long Island City.
New ball-field at Murray Park, 11th St & 45th Rd/Ave, Long Island City
With all the hoopla surrounding the opening of LIC’s new fancy waterfront playground, we forgot all about the City’s renovation of Murray Park, which we noticed a long time ago. It’s a city project, so for a long time there wasn’t really any work going on, and consequently we stopped paying attention.
Lo and behold, imagine our surprise when walking by and seeing a giant patch of shiny green in the LIC upland landscape, in the form of a new ball-field. There’s not that much green around in Long Island City save for the Gantry, so it really catches your attention. Attached to the ‘field’, is a less-fancy playground than our skylined, waterfront version, but indeed nothing to scoff at »
Long Island City gets another playground, Gantry State Park
It may be controversial, but it’s open. This Memorial Day weekend, the Queens West Development Corp opened a new 8,000sf children’s playground this morning in LIC’s new section of Gantry State Park »
Rendering of the (upcoming?) Long Island City Farming Park, LIC
Well we seem to have stumbled upon yet another rooftop farm planned for Long Island City. It makes sense if you consider all the heavy-duty industrial rooftops sitting vacant and soaking unobstructedly in the sun all day, and it’s a smart vision to employ it as farmland. Adaptive reuse in action, folks.
The Urban Farming movement is definitely getting tons of PR these days in general. Here’s a great overview of the technologies urban farms are experimenting with in many cities, including the Long Island City Farming Park, which from the rendering appears to be located somewhere in the LIC/Sunnyside overlap.
Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, 44 Eagle St, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
We are huge fans of the urban farming initiative, and consequently have been really excited by the gigantic rooftop farm coming to Long Island City, on Northern Blvd at the Standard Motors building. But it looks like the organizers, Brooklyn Grange, are experiencing a few… growing pains »
Hunters Point Library site getting detoxed.
Here’s a full reprint of the Queens Chronicle article about the status of the Queens Library at Hunters Point, on Long Island City’s Queenswest waterfront:
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will be accepting public comment regarding a planned July 7 cleanup of a vacant piece of land in Hunters Point, the agency announced. The land has been empty for about 10 years and is currently owned by the Queens West Development Corp. According to Thomas Panzone of the NYSDEC, when cleaned, the land will be for residential use. A public library and a park ranger station are also planned for the site, Panzone said.
The contaminated area, referred to by the department as “Parcel 8” is bordered by 47th Road to the north, Center Boulevard to the east, 48th Avenue to the south and Peninsula Park and the East River to the west. It is being decontaminated as part of the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, aimed at addressing environmental, legal and financial barriers that often occur when attempting to redevelop and use contaminated properties.
According to the NYSDEC, the area contains creosote and coal tar-related compounds, left over from the days when the land was home to a roofing manufacturing operation. Creosote can be harmful if ingested, inhaled or touched. It was stored in tanks and drums contained in stills on the land, while fuel oil tanks were used for heating and product processing also polluted the property »
Hunters Point firehouse #115, LIC
More budget cuts to hit Long Island City, only this time it’s not the MTA. It’s the FDNY and Dutch Kills is in danger of losing a very important firehouse (aren’t they all?) No. 116, which also serves Roosevelt Island. Needless to say, no one is very happy about this, and there’s already been the obligatory political/press protest of the firehouse closing on Friday.
Officially FDNY has not announced exactly which firehouses they’re shutting down in the city, but No 116 appears to be on the potential chopping block. For those wondering about Hunters Point’s equally vital firehouse #115, so far there aren’t any rumors or politicians chaining themselves to the station, so we’ll take that as a good sign. Though this is hardly good news in general »
New E/G/V subway entrance on Jackson Ave, Long Island City
Around this time last year we started keeping track of the Court Square subway transfer construction and the Jackson Ave beautification project, which are both still currently ripping Jax to shreds. It’s not exactly beautiful yet, but there is quite a bit of progress »
Construction begins on FDR Park on Roosevelt Island – shot from LIC
Us Hunters Pointers tend to ignore our little friend to the west, Roosevelt Island, but these days it’s a little hard to, considering the bulldozers and huge piles of dirt sitting around on the southern tip of the island. Turns out it’s the construction for the LONG stalled memorial park dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt which has been dubbed Four Freedoms Park, after FDR’s famous speech.
The park was conceived in the early 70s around the time when the island (known as Welfare Island) was renamed for Roosevelt. The architect, Louis I. Kahn, who had completed his designs, died unexpectedly in ‘74 and the project was put on hold in ‘75 due to the fiscal crisis. Now, in 2010, the proverbial shovels are hitting the ground after 36 years to make the memorial into a reality. But not without a need for donations for its expected $50M pricetag (!) – and.. some divisive local opinions »
New playground construction in Gantry Plaza State Park, Long Island City
Hold your horses, LIC kiddies. Even as the warmer weather creeps closer, the shiny new playgrounds of Long Island City’s parks are still not quite ready for playtime. Almost, though.
LIC 5Pointz detail as shot by NYS
Since there is a world outside of Long Island City (really?), here’s another local blog to throw on your radar: New York Shitty, a blog about Greenpoint, which if anyone hadn’t noticed is LIC’s southern neighbor.
The sidewalk does not end at Jackson Ave, it keeps going over the Pulaski Bridge, into a mixed residential and industrial Brooklyn neighborhood, much like our own, but not entirely.
Greenpoint is like LIC but with a more concentrated townhouse community embedded. It’s been a great neighbor in years passed… an abundance of retail, bars, restaurants and fantastic grocery stores »
It appears this morning, a man was touring the Avalon Riverview North luxury rental building at the LIC waterfront, and unexpectedly jumped off a balcony on the 25th floor of the building. As in suicide. There are a few stories circulating about the specifics, but it does appear that a man jumped to his death today from the 25th floor of Avalon North.
7-train, Queensboro Plaza, LIC
In a bizarre twist of news from the MTA, apparently you can thank the snowstorm for something:
[Via CB2] “This is to advise you that all service diversions scheduled to take place on the 7 line in support of track and tunnel work in the Long Island City area on the February 27-March 1, 2010 weekend has been CANCELLED due to the snowstorm affecting the New York Metropolitan Area. Work is scheduled to resume on the March 6-8 weekend »
LIC exhaust fans from above – Photo
LIC’s recent Town Hall stirred up everyone in attendance over the 7 train shutdowns, but that wasn’t the only MTA-related issue under fire. The noise of the exhaust fans parked on 50th Ave between 2nd & 5th St – which seem to be right up there with the LIRR drone on the list of extreme LIC annoyances – is back in the spotlight »
Parking on Borden Ave, LIC
Well, well, well. It seems the neighborhood activists over at One Hunters Point condos at the corner of Borden Ave & Vernon Blvd are very busy these days making noise about problems in their immediate environment. First, a successful letter writing campaign to the MTA to decrease the drone from the nearby LIRR train engines (more successful than our politicians with the shuttle bus) and now this »
Borden Ave Bridge going towards Hunters Point, Long Island City – Photo
Ye olde Borden Ave Bridge – literally, it was built in 1908 – is the small but hugely important bridge on the industrial Borden Ave ‘highway’. It’s the best and easiest way to get to the waterfront off the LIE. Hunters Point Ave (aka 49th Ave) is the current detour, running parallel to Borden. But it heavily bottlenecks at the Hunters Point Ave exit, because of all the diverted traffic from Borden. Check out this aerial view.
Necessary repairs on the bridge have been underway for months »
Former exterior of the Titanic House on 11th St, Hunters Point, LIC
Anyone traveling down 11th St in Hunters Point would have a hard time missing the Titanic House. Started by Joe Coletti to fill the absence of a proper monument to the tragedy in NYC, his house became nothing short of a neighborhood curiosity – popping up on the internet and in the news, and of course, often stopping the unsuspecting passerby in their tracks.
The Titanic House has been a fixture in LIC for years »
Abandoned construction site, LIC
Blogger Queens Crap posted this week about a rat-infested and dangerous construction site in Long Island City, at 45-64 Pearson St across from the storage place. A disrupted local resident wrote in to report:
“The DOH finally came and gave the stalled site on Pearson St a violation, but they did not bait the area – nor did the property owners clean anything up. Rats still patrol the street. If you look at the DOB site, the deadbeat developer didn’t even go to his 5 hearings. They are all in default for $17,000. [...] Now, the illegal fence has collapsed and the DOB has been notified. The illegal fence is obstructing the sidewalk and it is now partially in the street »
Sunset over the LIRR on Borden Ave, Long Island City
Today we received an email from a local tipster who informed us that a letter was sent to the LIRR by residents at One Hunters Point, who, as we all know, have been legitimately tormented by the endless train idling. Turns out they actually received an “encouraging response from the LIRR which articulates a full set of actions to address the complaint.” Check it out »
Court Square subway transfer construction progressing, LIC
We took another walk around Court Square, but this time all the way down Jackson Ave to Queens Plaza. Construction (and impending construction) prevails again, so we decided to check in on a couple of projects going on in the area, including MTA improvements, new developments, and, of course, Queens Plaza’s multi-million dollar facelift »
LIRR and Hunters Point cityscape circa ‘06, Long Island City
LIRR trains have been idling for hours on end on LIC’s Borden Ave for years, yet it was only after continued complaints from new One Hunters Point condo residents that everyone really started paying attention »
Remediation at 46th Ave and the East River/Anable Basin, Long Island City
Ahh yes – winter in LIC. Add ‘the sounds and smells of toxic cleanup’ to ‘chestnuts roasting on an open fire’ and you’ve got the picture, as two active remediation projects are going on in Queenswest along the LIC waterfront »
Construction in Murray Playground, Long Island City
Chalk up Murray Playground as another slice of Long Island City getting ripped up and renovated. The park, which stretches between 21st and 11th Streets, 45th Road and 45th Ave, is getting a new look »
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