liQcity Linkage: LIC to get that library we’ve all been praying for.
A piece that no longer exists at 5pointz studios - photo by Barrybar
Queenswest has a $20M library in the works? The price tag seems a bit steep.
Residential parking permits in LIC? Well that’s one option. [Queens Chronicle]
If you’re moving in to the Rockrose buildings, bring your goggles. [Queens Courier]
Music events in LIC this weekend [licpop]
It could very well be true that the current class of yupster transplants doesn’t see the need for a branch of the Queens Library in the Hunter’s Point section. That conveniently leaves out every one who lives here, which is pretty much standard operating procedure in the mindset of yupster transplants. In the rest of the borough, the Queens Library must have some people going to it: it is the largest circulating library system in the country. As to the comment about the NYPL’s main branch being two stops away: the famous building with the lions in front of it on Fifth Avenue is not a circulating library (the Mid-Manhattan branch across the street is), and it belongs to a different system altogether. And since everything about the new buildings is about convenience and delivery of goods right to one’s doorstep, it makes as much sense to say there’s no need for a library here as to say, no need for a Starbucks here in LIC because there’s one at 42nd and Sixth (actually, I like the sound of that….).
Just a note on neighborhood boundaries… this blog and some others seem to be making a distinction between “Court Square” and “Hunters Point.” Which is way odd.
Court Square is in Hunters Point. Queens West is in Hunters Point. Hunters Point is everything between the Bridge, the Sunnyside yard, Newtown Creek, and the East River. Court Square a park which has some subway stops nearby named for it. It is an “area”… like the Union Square area, for instance. But not a separate neighborhood altogether.
I live next to the Citi building. I am in Hunters Point. Heck, the Hunters Point historic district is right next to the City building.
I think in the age of computers there is still room for books. Just look at how packed Barns & Nobles gets. The library will also serve as a community center with rooms for community groups to meet. I hope they include some sort of small auditorium where small concerts, lectures and movies could be presented.
Just the fact that some seem to be openly questioning whether a new neighborhood library is worthwhile — a LIBRARY?! — is enough proof to me that something is seriously awry in the attitudes of the new “elite” descending on Hunters Point. Believe it or not, there are still many people left in the city, rich and poor, old and young, who enjoy going to libraries to read, do research, or just have some quiet, reflective time. This city and state throw hundreds of millions of tax dollars away on roads, infrastructure to aid condo development, rebates, waterfront esplanades, opera houses and god know’s what to soothe the lives of the city’s rich. Libraries are as important to the culture and vitality of NYC as its museums and other institutions — and you don’t need to be a Rockefeller to enjoy them. Libraries are also evidence that despite how increasingly hostile, superficial, narrow-minded, and greedy the city apparently is, there are still a few oases left.
It’s the $20 M price tag that’s really my personal issue with this. And whether or not the library will serve as a community resource that people will actually use, in the face of a neighborhood with a lack of resources in general.
Not to mention the public library branch already at Court Square…
Its actually interesting and good that the well-heeled residents of Queens West have been clamoring for a library, as they are the greatest boon to the working classes (who can’t afford their own computers, need free books and references, etc). I guess if it is a lot larger and has more amenities than the Court Square branch, it will draw from further afield, though. Is there a branch close to Queensbridge, for instance?
It does seem like an odd priority there, but I’m all for more libraries, if there is demand.