Long Island City Thursday afternoon linkage

Amber hues on 11th St, Hunters Point, Long Island City
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Jimmy Van Bramer wins District 26 City Council seat [Queens Courier]
LIC provided the beat for the fleet [Queens Courier]
Dutch Kills volunteers aid marathon runners [Queens Gazette]
More LIC Marathon photos [Newtown Pentacle]
After 50 years, Dutch Kills gets housing OK [Queens Gazette]
LICBDC-sponsored event offers small business advice [Queens Gazette]
East River commuter ferry service could be halted, again [NYT]
East River ferry service could get sunk again [Gothamist]
LIC’s 108th Precinct Community Council meeting [Queens Gazette]
Reader recommended best LIC bars for people over 30 [30 to Midnight]
LIC’s Brooks 1890 Restaurant named Restaurant of the Week [Queens Gazette]
Getting thrifty with LIC’s Housing Works [Broke-ass Stuart]
Prisoner advocate for LIC’s The Fortune Society speaks [WNYC]
Yes, we eagerly await all the broken campaign promises that many here foolishly bought into. I for one can’t wait to see this plan of buying stalled construction sites implemented. Also looking forward to the appointment of the Van Bramer rent mediation czar.
congrats brooks, will try to stop in on a saturday night
is that courthouse used for anything anymore?
I wish the ferry service ran more often during the week. It’s the perfect way for moms to get to and fro with a stroller (no stairs).
Actually, I like to daydream that we have a beautiful Calatrava pedestrian bridge to get across…
There must be something that I am missing, but I feel like with $900,000 subsidy I could run the east river route, not charge the passagers anything and still make a profit. How much money is needed to make two round trips to lower manhanttan in the morning and 3 in the afternoon? Something is up here.
If you think you could run an entire commuter ferry service for a year on $900k, then go ahead and try.
It’s hard to buy a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan for $900k, much less run a transportation business with a significant capital investment, safety requirements, union employees, ticketing, seasonal challenges, etc., for that.
capital investment? I think those ships are paid for…and what seasonal challenges? someone is lining his pockets….
What are the costs – payroll, fuel, boat leasing, G&A? Biggest item is the boat leasing. Have no idea what one water taxi goes for, but lets say its $500,000 to buy one outright. Are you telling me that it costs $400,000 in payroll and fuel and other misc. expenses to run this one boat up and down the east river 5 times a day on weekdays? This does not include the money they collect in fares. If the city agreed to give me the $900,000 upfront, I bet that I could make it work.
I’m with you, #9. I’ll be skipper…
yes #4 the court house is definately used. I believe it takes the overflow from Kew Gardens Criminal Court.
A few years back the building had been fully restored. It is quite an interesting building.
thx, i always wondered because i never see anything going on at the courthouse
The courthouse can be seen, masquerading as a prison, in Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon A Time In America,” in the scene in which James Woods welcomes Robert DeNiro out from a term in juvie. It was also used in the opening credits of the Judd Hirsch sitcom “Dear John,” and more recently in the short-lived Oliver Platt/Anabella Sciorra TV show, “Queens Supreme.”
courthouse square is the next area to be developed. you have the new condos on jackson, the new hi rises, and plans for new stores on jackson. i didnt know the courthouse was still used either, thought it was just a historic bldg.
i agree its the next area to be developed but its several years away, at least….
I want on a tour of the NY Water Taxi a few years ago with an urban planning group and the owner told us very proudly that they just had bought two or three new boats and that hey cost $3.5MM each because they are state of the art. So for whatever it is worth this should help the people that trying to figure out if they could run the system with $900K. I am not saying you can’t run it with $900K but I also know that owning a boat is the biggest money sucking machine in the world because my brother owns a small boat and it is expensive to maintain.
oops I meant “went”
whatever….I just want a pedestrian bridge…a cool one..
i second that, a bridge across the river would be perfect. will never happen of course.
If London could do it why can’t we? Of course ours would have to be a little longer and higher.
http://www.yourlocalweb.co.uk/images/pictures/00/12/millennium-bridge-and-tate-modern-1175.jpg
Maybe once Plaxall builds out their land across from Anabel Basin, they can put a walkway/bridge there.
A few decades away, but still.
london can do it because they’re more forward thinking in terms of urban design and sustainability and are willing to spend some money on it
#16, even if the boats are $3.3M, I’m sure that is not the annual outlay. Those boats are either leased or financed and that the annual payment on a long term lease, or under a note is signifcantly less than $3.3M. In fact assuming a 10% interest rate its less than the $500K number I threw out. Not arguing with you, but why is this guy pleading poverty? Run the route. You are getting plenty of taxpayer money to do it.
Having lived in London when that bridge was inagurated, I recall it was actually a disaster. It wobbled and they had to go back and re-engineer the entire thing. It was a big embarrassment, not to mention expense. Nevertheless, having learned from whatever went wrong there, we could do something better, greener, and more beautiful.
24, true. But they also got the engineer in right away and fixed the damn thing with lightning speed. Compare that to the dithering that goes on in NYC, like the Borden Avenue Bridge. London designed, built and then fixed the bridge over the Thames in no time. Plus, they use lottery cash in the UK to fund great public projects like this one. “Better, greener and more beautiful” in NYC? I won’t hold my breath.
does anyone know when (or if) that pub on Vernon near Manducatis Rustica is going to open? I thought it was already supposed to have opened.
The old McReilly’s space #26?
Lightning speed? The bridge was built in two years, but then closed for another two years for them to fix it.
Let’s see how long it takes to build the Kosciusko replacement once they actually start construction.
I for one would like a guarantee that UES types are not allowed to use the bridge to come slumming over here, but you can’t please everybody, so let’s just concentrate on pleasing you, however pathologically whimsical your suggestions may become.
Thanks, Townie.
Just about every iconic construction project in NYC was labeled with words similar to “pathologically whimsical” at some point in their planning. There is no compelling argument why a pedestrian and bike bridge over the East River couldn’t be a realistic architectural achievement. We’re only held back in NYC by “pathologically small-minded” people who think just like Townie.
Listen pal, constructing a little passarelle over the Thames or the Seine is one thing, but an estuary with the currents and commercial traffic of the East River is an entirely different matter. In London, between the City and the South Bank, the Millennium Bridge crosses 1214 feet of water with the greatest individual span being a little over 470 feet. The East River, however, is not the Thames and is nearly twice as wide at this point, not to mention the fact that the height requirements of East River bridges are considerably greater than those of the Thames, but I guess this doesn’t phase the bold New Visionaries who so suddenly descended on this backward and visionless neighborhood. The population of Bankside and Newington south of the Thames might justify such an expenditure of time (and vision) given that the inhabitants close at hand number in the tens of thousands. However, I am to be labeled “pathologically small-minded” by some Anonymous blank because I don’t yet see why the whims of a few hundred new “property-owners” ought to be converted into some far-reaching and extravagant policy in New York City.
I beg your pardon.
Actually, I was the one who whimsically suggested the bridge. And I am not a property owner. I just like good design ideas. Characterized as “pathologically whimsical” is frankly a compliment to me.
Life must be a ball.
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Congrats Jimmy. We look forward to a Councilman who stays in touch with our community.