New York City Is Hoping to Clean the Industrial Grit Off Long Island City

They did it with Staten Island, and they can do it with the District of Overbuilt Underserviced Condo Housing Eyesores Between Astoria and Greenpoint. Necessity is the mother of invention.

"The city and federal governments plan to pour more than $75 million into sprucing up this section of Queens, which sits directly across the East River from Midtown Manhattan."

What filth?

InFamous, I think the City is concerned about how LIC looks:

http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/queens/lic/hunterspt/newtowncreek/blissville/index.htm

http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/queens/lic/hunterspt/newtowncreek/borden/index.htm

It's embarrassing to the City's image when people go between LaGuardia and New York and have to see LIC.

Looks like Chernobyl.

Hate to break it to you guys, but cars don't travel through LIC between LaGuardia and NY.
Those pictures are a decade old. Some of those structures aren't even there anymore.

http://www.queenswest.org/

Stevejhx, how are the projects, hookers and criminals in Chelsea?

I bike many of those streets on a daily basis. The pictures are not a decade old. At most 2-3 years, and some are actually very recent judging by the model years of the Freightliners in the pictures. I live in LIC. The pictures don't bother me a bit. I guess I'm either weird or just a native New Yorker who doesn't know any different. :beer:

Chernobyl is more recent than Three Mile Island, which was the other natural analogy.

how is this supposed to be a negative article about LIC? Actually sounds a lot like how Guiliani cleaned up Chelsea...

You think Boston Bloomberg is going to send The Gays to LIC?

He sent the lesbians as is evidenced by the Home Depot, but The Gays want no part of it. We like Chelsea and Hells Kitchen.

stevejhx, are you spokesperson for The Gays? If so, I would like to be spokesperson for The Jews Who Went to Catholic School (JEWCS). We like BOTH the UWS and UES!

Isn't Chelsea the epic center of gays in the world?
I have nothing against gay people, but i certainly don't want my kids growing up in a neighbor where their friend's parents are gay.

I wouldn't want my kids growing up in a neighbor either.

Sorry Alan, if you are gay i have no intention of offending you.
Really...gays are cool with me...if i have kids, i just don't want them hanging around with you.

"I have nothing against gay people, but i certainly don't want my kids growing up in a neighbor where their friend's parents are gay."

Why is that? If you have nothing agianst gay people why it wouldn't matter who your neighbors are? What a stupid statement.

"Really...gays are cool with me...if i have kids, i just don't want them hanging around with you."

Wow. People like you still exist, and in NY no less. Sad.

InFamous, I was just making fun of your typo.

But really you shouldn't have kids.

Add one point to JuiceMan's score.

InFamous, people like you are why I haven't spoken to my sister in a year.

JEWCS - how about Catholics who Grew Up in Jewish Neighborhoods (CGUJN's)? That would be me.

My summers were lonely - I was the only one who didn't go to camp.

"I bike many of those streets on a daily basis. The pictures are not a decade old. At most 2-3 years, and some are actually very recent judging by the model years of the Freightliners in the pictures. I live in LIC. The pictures don't bother me a bit. I guess I'm either weird or just a native New Yorker who doesn't know any different. :beer:"

Maybe a decade old is a bit off...but it's at least 4-5 years old.
For example, in the first link, the 6th picture down (corner of Jackson ave & 48th street)...you can see that ECHELON condo isn't in the picture. Echelon condo completed about 3 years ago and prior to that it was a construction site for 1-2 years...i don't see Echelon and i don't see construction.

In case anyone was still wondering whether steve is still an old man obsessed with Long Island City, this thread confirms it.

Subtract one point from LICC's score.

All kidding aside, this is a nice step for LIC - I think even you can admit that, Steve.

Infamous said, "Isn't Chelsea the epic center of gays in the world?"

"Epic center" is not a term, you idiot. It is a word: epicenter. If you are going to be homophobic, at least use good grammar.

And, FWIW, saying you don't mean to be offensive doesn't somehow magically make it OK for you to then say offensive, stupid things.

"this is a nice step for LIC"

Well yeah, anything would be an improvement. If it were up to me I'd fill the fire hydrants full of Windex and set the sprinklers loose, but it's outside of my control.

KW - I kind of like Epic Center. I think Disney has one in Florida.

Can we stuff the gay talk stuff?
It doesn't belong on these boards. This thread is suppose to be about the filth in LIC.

Thank You.

how can you construe this as anything other than a positive for LIC? $75mm coming their way to 'beautify' it, from the fed gov't so really no cost to them?

but more illuminating is the fact that even steve's own family won't talk to him

"even steve's own family won't talk to him"

I don't talk to them because they are antigay & my friends are not welcome at their house and they would rather my friends spend Christmas alone because my friends make them "uncomfortable."

Deal with it. I do.

Personally, i like the hunter's point area (waterfront) the way it is now. If they would only get that damn library build. But 75 million is quite a sum...can't complain.

$75 million won't even be enough to clean up the dead fish. The cleanup of the Gowanus could cost $400 million, and the Newtown Creek is longer & more polluted:

http://www.plannyc.org/node/37448

Really the only option is to cut it out like a melanoma.

How much would it cost to bring Chelsea's sky-high cancer rates all the way down to levels below LIC's?

This is obviously a good thing for LIC, but the article points out why it has so far to go.

They 'aint getting rid of the elevated tracks and massive traffic. Congestion pricing would have been great for LIC, but that did not happen.

Though, am I reading this right? Isn't this focused more on queensboro plaza area and such, not really the condo glut spots?

As long as it would take to make rich people with good health insurance move to LIC.