A new Jackson Avenue for Long Island City - Beautification starts in May 2008
Some more news from the NYC Economic Development Corporation(NYCEDC): the planned Jackson Ave beautification project, which has threatened to begin for a couple years now, is threatening yet again to break ground next month. The project plans to divide Jackson Ave with a landscaped median, incorporating outdoor furniture and sculpture.
From the NYCEDC:
“Jackson Avenue, running diagonally through LIC, is the key thoroughfare for the LIC Core. Historically, it was the route for horse-drawn carriages carrying passengers from Eastern Queens to the Manhattan-bound ferries departing from LIC’s East River shoreline. The new design will transform Jackson Avenue into LIC’s main boulevard. The design features planted medians and sidewalks accented with new lighting, street furniture and artistic elements, perhaps taking the form of new sculptures along the path of this critical roadway.”
Nobody seems to know how or when the term LIC Core replaced Court Square, but liQcity is not having it.
what does this all mean?
that court sq is the sweet spot in lic, surrounded by all means of trasport, yet tranquil and beautiful. i like what i see, but with all things government, i’ll believe it when i see it.
that court sq is the sweet spot in lic, surrounded by all means of transport, yet tranquil and beautiful. i like what i see, but with all things government, i’ll believe it when i see it.
#2 it means that more condos are coming.
This shit looks like Midtown. If I wanted a glassy, glossy, over-designed public realm, I wouldn’t be living in Queens.
I’m moving to Ridgewood if this happens. If my building still exists.
yeah. this doesn’t look so appealing.
Move to Ridgewood. Move to Jamaica. This vision for Jackson Ave looks beautiful. Do you know what a dumpy, gross, dirty aesthetic it has now? Are you kidding me? This is so needed.
This looks pretty to me! And safe. I guess that’s a girls perspective.
Long way to go for things to look like this
how far down jackson is this supposed to extend - does anyone know?
those sculptures in the medians look ugly. boo.
Haters, (you know who you are) You must be kidding me! You realize that there is piles of trash currently scattered all the way down Jackson Avenue… it is a complete unmaintained disaster right now, and it has so much potential to be the cultural center of this thriving neighborhood. I usually get a kick out of you, bashing anything that threatens to “Yuppify” your way of life, but this is too much. I literally got caught in a storm of trash blowing in the wind the other day standing on the corner of Jackson and 46th… Hey, maybe you like that kind of thing, maybe the jokes about you hippies not showering are true… Adding a streetscape to the area will be great for all of us.
#13, i think you are missing the point of some of these posts with your generalizations. i personally wouldn’t mind seeing some money put in to clean up jackson avenue or even some sort of of beautification, but this picture looks cheesy and generic.
and obviously a project like this will create a lot of noise and disruption to the surrounding neighbors.
As a Court Square resident who plans to stay here for the duration, I’m quite happy to see this finally happening. I’d love to see the median become a gallery for the display of street sculpture (mind you, not the kind displayed in the artist’s rendering, which looks inspired by mid-80’s corporatist, brushed steel movement).
I’m wondering what the proposed configuration is. Does this mean that the sidewalks become smaller or that we lose in street parking or that the number of lanes are reduced. Unless the planned median is only 1 foot wide, the space has got to come from somewhere. Where are further detailed plans available? Anyone?
#6, when LIC was rezoned, Jackson Avenue was designated the area’s bustling business/commercial district, like Atlantic Avenue in downtown Brooklyn. Vernon Boulevard and the side streets to the river will probably still maintain the more human scale that most people like about Hunters Point.
The more trees they can plant, the happier I will be. I don’t care about sculptures, put your money into trees and grass.
But the city doesn’t do a good job of caring for trees and plantings. Private developers on Jackson Avenue should step up and take on the responsibility for greening LIC.
this looks like a huge improvement. since moving to court sq a few months ago, one thing i noticed was the abundance of litter, it needs to be cleaned up. i’ve contacted eric giova (sp?) about this, things have improved then you get these am ny and metro news people leaving papers unsecured and the winds blows them verywhere. since i’ve yelled at them recently, they seem to be more considerate. i’m very happy for these plans. the future for all lic is bright.
My landlord got a ticket on our door the other day on 23rd street for there being litter on the sidewalk (mind you, it blew in from lord knows where)… they are enforcing things around here.
It looks great. I just wonder if it will actually be done in my life time.
What is going to happen to the parking? This is still an industrial/manufacturing zone. We need wide margins because the trucks are 24/7 in LIC.
As fast as development is happening is also as slow as the municipality is in LIC. I will be shocked if they make headway this summer.
Where are the hookers in the photo?
to #13……Wahhhhh! Noise and construction! Wah!!!! You people are amazing! This strip is an eyesore and here is a plan to truly beautify it which will bring better retail, which will encourage more people to want to live in LIC which will increase property values! You’d rather it stay as it is??
If you want peace and quiet get out of the city!
Why would anyone want to move to Ridgewood, NJ?
Increasing property values only helps the landlords… the rest of us it helps push out.
yeah.. renters are pretty much doomed in LIC and NYC in general.
This is a heinous rendering. I don’t want a Jackson Ave mall, I don’t want “better” retail, and I want to stop encouraging people to move here. I am rapidly being priced out of my neighborhood, and I’m annoyed.
Additionally, I think everyone wants the neighborhood to be clean, wants services, etc., but don’t we want this neighborhood to retain some of its character? This picture reminds me of New Roc City in New Rochelle. Yuck.
I get a chuckle reading the comments about LIC. Members of my immediate family lived in the area since the 1920s–through its disintegration as a residential community, its evolution as one of the most highly industrialized areas in the country (the Newtown creek once carried more barge tonnage than the Mississippi), its devolution into a ramshackle collection of empty or under-utilized warehouses and factories, and finally its rebirth.
What I find “funny” is the typical urban, Northeasterner’s–dare I say liberal, progressive–complaints about the government not cleaning things up, not planning appropriately, not doing this that or the other.
I’ll say this, NYC government is what it is, but I’m certain the garbage on Jackson Avenue was put there by City Sanitation trucks. People put it there and people–if they’d get off their butts–could clean it up. Hey, what a concept? Not relying on the government to get things done.
-R
Ooops!
In the earlier post that’s: “…certain the garbage on Jackson Avenue wasn’t put there…” not “was put there.” My error.
-R
#29
What character? Hookers, dirt, trash, hideousness? I can never understand why anyone would prefer to live like dirty rats in filth.
Hey, loser if you are tired of being pushed out of the neighborhood, get a better job.
#29. You speak only for you very bitter self. I wasn’t aware that LIC belongs to you. I have been living in this neighborhood since the times when they were selling crack under the 7th train stop on 45th road and hookers worked the 44th drive all day. I certainly welcome the change. Jackson certainly meant to be a large comercial street and I find this rendering pretty cool.
I am very happy to see new condos, restaurants, child care, shops and other amenities. I’d like to see more not less. I am sorry that you are priced out from LIC but I fail to see why we should stop neighborhood’s progress just because you won’t be able to afford living here. Like #32 said if you want to stay here - get a better job!
Now, what character should we be retainging. Crack houses? Polluting factories? Or, pehaps wise guys’s social clubs? Should we also retain bars near Queens plaza where people were shot every other day or shit that is still floating in East river? Give me a break!
You sound like the guys who protest Blend getting a liquor license! Pathetic!
No. 30, what’s so “funny” about NYC planning what a developing neighborhood should look like and how it should evolve to meet the needs of all residents? Some of the most effective buildings and projects in NYC are the result of thorough long range-planning, like Battery Park City, 42nd Street, and the World Trade Center, to name just a few.
And since when is careful thinking a partisan issue? In the past 8 years, haven’t you learned what happens when those in government don’t think ahead and plan before they act?
#34 - Honestly, tell me your not a liberal/progressive–maybe you list even a tad more to the port than that . The line “evolve to meet the needs of all residents?” could have come out of the Stalinist playbook, afterall. Look, what you perceive as a helter-skelter planning process, or worse yet, no planning process at all is anything but. The changes you’re seeing in LIC have been in the “planning process”–to the extent that large-scale projects can be planned and processed in a democratic, free-market environment–since the early 1970s. (You could look it up: See New York magazine’s cover story about LIC, “Urban Paradise Lost”, circa 1980.) And that, by the way, is the same process that resulted in Battery Park City, the “new” Times Square and the WTC. (By the way, the LIC planning problem is larger and much more complex than any of those projects. The Hunter’s Point South development alone is a third the size of Battery Park City.
What’s more, I notice you didn’t respond to my gibe at LIC residents who complain about garbage and litter but won’t get off their keesters to clean it up. Hmmm, a convenient and self-serving oversight, no doubt.
And finally, as for your final graf about the last eight years, will you please get it out of your head that George Bush is to blame for every thing you perceive to be wrong with the world. Enough already.
-Formerly #30
Everybody is making such a fuss about this rendering but renderings always look glossier than reality. I am sure the streets will not shine and the sun set will not always be orange. This is only an approximation of what they are going to do, which is to put a few planters and some trees and call it a day. So let’s relax and hope that they do at least that.
More Trees in LIC Please.
It looks like the median strip on Jackson Avenue will replace the parking lanes on both sides of the street. So six lanes will be reduced to four lanes. After the median is installed, traffic on Jackson Avenue will slow to a crawl with all of the double parking. Skip the median and leave the parking spaces, but by all means, yes, please add trees and benches to Jackson Avenue (just not in a median). Also, medians with tree plantings make it hard for drivers to see when they need to make a left hand turn. Looks nice, but it’s not very practical. Dan
I remember seeing ridiculous drawings like this when the first Citicorp building went up in the 80’s.
Maybe in another 30 years, hey?
Yeah, RIGHT!
Landscaped median, not “medium.”