Petroleum smells + Pile Driving + Exiled Arts Org + Sidewalk cafes = LIC?
Ivy covered building on Vernon Blvd, Long Island City
It’s been a while since we’ve hooked up some LIC linkage… this morning we have a little petroleum smell with your coffee. Aah, but that’s old news. What’s new news is the pile driving that started somewhere around Vernon/Jackson yesterday morning. We’ve been getting reports that Arris Lofters are losing lots of sleep thanks to Rockrose’s pile driving on the infamous site of the Building That Should Have Been Landmarked. Well, there are lots of those sites in LIC, and Queens in general. But we digress.
You can thank the End of Tax Abatement in LIC for all the pile driving we’re going to hear this summer and fall. It was a teardown frenzy this spring as everyone raced to get their foundations in the ground before June 30th.
Petroleum odor from Long Island City site has residents, politicians fuming [Daily News]
Vernon Blvd residents petition to save parking spaces [Queens Chronicle]
Let Flux Factory take you on an adventure [NY Times]
Sidewalk cafes popular in LIC/Astoria. You don’t say. [Queens Courier]
I heard the pile driving too. I hope it’s not going to be too bad.
Those pile drivers sound like cash registers to me.
It is very scary - we do not know what we are breathing in here.
Actually, No. 4, what we’re breathing in has been made public and described in detail in the environmental disclosure documents for Queens West. People tend to live in denial about LIC and its past land use history. The neighborhood was home to some of the most vile industries to ever operate. It’s just wishful thinking to believe this crap isn’t causing at least some health problems for residents, despite how well they eventually clean up the mess on the site.
Minty fresh oil. That was the strangest thing I’ve read today.