Long Island City
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New York City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents our section of Queens, asking to expand bike share to Western Queens:
There are already 36,000 members of bike share (citywide)…and I want these members to be able to come to Long Island City, Astoria and Sunnyside. Bike Share will help drive tourists to Western Queens…and would help bring people to the world class cultural institutions and restaurants in the area.
Over the the two weekends since New York City Bike Share launched, I have seen a handful of cyclists hurriedly riding the unmistakable blue-and-white bikes around Long Island City. Sarah got her fob in the mail yesterday, and I’m expecting mine any day now.
At the moment, there are no stations in Long Island City or neighboring Greenpoint. The closest ones are at Metropolitan and Wythe Avenues in Williamsburg (2.5 miles away) or at Second Avenue and E 60th Street in Manhattan (2.8 miles away). With a 30- or 45-minute check-out period, these intrepid riders either misunderstand the concept of bike share, are incurring significant late fees, or are only passing through the neighborhood to get a few weekend miles. Imagine if these riders could dock their and hang out in the neighborhood. Our western Queens hamlet would undoubtedly benefit.
Getting to Central Park for my Sunday softball games is pretty easy from Long Island City. I just ride over the Queensboro Bridge and head west on one of the streets in the lower 60s until I reach the Dairy and walk under the drive to the ballfields. The ride takes less than a half hour.
But Sunday was the annual National Puerto Rican Day parade. This one of the biggest parades of the summer, and its route along Fifth Avenue, from 44th to 79th streets, creates a “wall” that is difficult to cross. (The Gay Pride Parade is also big but its route along Fifth Avenue doesn’t block Central Park from the east side, as its north end is in the upper 50s.)
To get to the field, I have resorted to some creative solutions. Sometimes just take my bike on subway to the west side and ride the rest of the way. I once took the subway the entire way to Central Park, but that took much longer than one would expect. Subway service on a Sunday is sparse compared to weekday service. Another time, I took the East River Ferry to East 34th St and rode the rest of the way, but it cost $10 round trip for a five-minute ride.
This year, I took the Williamsburg Bridge, headed north along Avenue A, then west along Ninth Street, and up to Eighth Avenue. The trip was about six miles longer than my usual crosstown trip through the Upper East Side, and took just less than an hour. But I was warmed up for the game, ready to go.
Glass in the Bike Lane
Glass in the Bike Lane
On 44th Drive in Long Island City, there is almost always glass in the bike lane. It’s troubling. Not only does this cause flat tires for unsuspecting cyclists as they commute down this important neighborhood arterial, it also bodes poorly for cars parked on the street. Presumably, someone smashed their windows.
An eyewitness told me that the van at far right end of the photo had run down this bike rack just moments before I walked by to find it in its fallen state. I had thought that someone had taken down the rack to steal the bike, but my source says there was no bike parked at this rack.
I use that rack from time-to-time, and now some idiot driver took it out. Damn you!
With the coming bike share, there have been some complaints that the racks will ruin neighborhoods and take up “valuable” on-street parking spaces. But we should remember that parking on the street might not be the best idea.
Here are two storms: one in the summer and the other in the Winter
Because of the impending snow storm, which some are calling "Nemo," the MTA has some good news for those of us who are impacted by the shutdown of weekend 7 train service.
With weather forecasts calling for significant snowfall beginning Friday evening, all planned subway service changes this weekend are cancelled.
This would be great news, except that there won’t be any 7 train service between Queens and Manhattan.
7 service operates in two sections:
1. Between Flushing-Main St and Queensboro Plaza
2. Between Queensboro Plaza and Vernon Blvd-Jackson Av
It’s probably too cold to go anywhere this weekend anyway.
Update: It turns out that because of the storm, all service changes on the 7 train are cancelled and that we would have service between Queens and Manhattan after all.
Remember the “Freshmen Fifteen”? Someone once told me that it was a reference to the weight gained by new college students who spent their first year overindulging on dorm food. To me, that seemed like a plausible phenomenon with an implausible explanation: I think it is more likely due to these new co-eds discovering, among other things, the magical combination of pizza and beer. And after enough beer…more pizza. I don’t exactly remember whether I gained much weight during my freshman year, although it seems likely that I did because I remember eating a fair amount of pizza and burritos, although I didn’t drink back then.
The idea of the “Freshman Fifteen” was in the front of my mind when Sarah suggested that I not only try the many lunch specials in Long Island City but to also document them. Since I work from home on Fridays, I’m having lunch at various eateries in Long Island City over the next fifteen weeks of the spring semester. The challenging part of this project comes not from the quality of the food: the places in this neighborhood are actually pretty good, and there are some deals to be had. With some lunch specials starting as early as 11:00 AM and ending as late at 4:00, I will have to resist the temptation to eat at more than one place in a day. Doing so might force me to retitle this project the Friday Forty, after the number of pounds I’d gain.
I begin putting on the “Friday Fifteen” on January 25.
This is how Christmas tree stands in New York City get restocked. After living here for as long as I have, I’m surprised I’ve never seen our French-Canadian vendors get a delivery until now.
