54-46, that's my number: the Queens thread

positives: some jobs

negatives: shit jobs, huge tax giveaway, further strain on infrastructure, further homogenization of nyc, etc etc

I'm sure there are numerous articles outlining the pros and cons but the first things for me were that i) they shouldn't get any kind of "deal" to entice them to come to nyc ii) infrastructure that has been neglected will be under more pressure iii) tech douchebros /seattle 2.0

yeah xpost ^^^

tech douchebros /seattle 2.0

say no more

for reals though , i hadn't really bothered to read anything about it but what the fuck with the extra incentives for the biggest company in the world? fuck them

Like how dare deblasio and cuomo promise them so much corporate welfare when amazon probably would've picked nyc anyway. Toronto was the only one who had a normal proposal.

People outside of nyc seem more upset than those in nyc.

well the people that would work at a lot of those jobs would not be able to afford to live anywhere near NYC

There are still places in Queens that would certainly be affordable to the people in those jobs. I wasn't ultimately against Amazon coming but hated the way they did the deal. I will not miss them, notwithstanding that my apartment value would have risen slightly as it is within 20 mins commuting distance of the site.

The subway lines that run there are bursting at the seams and constantly delayed.

I own in Astoria and absolutely do not want them here with the way that shadyass deal was done.

LIC is really on a collision course with reality even without Amazon, but I'm glad they punked out.

Will never understand how Bezos blew this Queens move so badly. If he had (a) asked for far fewer tax breaks and (b) pledged $50 million (or whatever) to help fix the subway system, he would've owned New York forever. Robert Moses rose to power by doing *nice* things for people!

— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) February 14, 2019

good luck being hot dog vendors at Citi Field y'all

the trains are a fucking nightmare

there's some debate about how many cheap shitty jobs they were going to bring and how many high-level fancy pants jobs.

the cheap jobs they say would be opened up to the local housing projects and communities, which sounds nice, but there wasn't going to be that many of those jobs.

the fancy jobs? New York has plenty. Are there a lot of 6 figure coder dudes with skillz who can't find jobs in New York? I work on the same floor as Spotify. My dr's office is the same building as Tumblr. They're all over the fucking place.

Queens doesn't need to attract tech bros to move across country or hemispheres to move into a neighborhood that's already too expensive.

But yeah there are cheap places in queens people can move to.

What would I do with 3 billion dollars in western queens? I'd open up numerous small business incubators to help maintain and keep small industrial start-ups. Which already exist but are having trouble maintaining. Wouldn't that be good for the city?

When Bloomberg started moving the entire city to residential zoning we lost a lot of light industry jobs and people were like whoah, I still live here and now I can't work here, and they moved towards preserving the industrial business zones, like parts of east williamsburg and greenpoint.

Industry City is a success. I think the Navy Yard is finally a happening place. Are they just gentrifying to fancier businesses? The Falchi Building and the Pfizer Building exist. New York wants more of that and cheaper. There's a huge need for certain kinds of specialized light industry/manufacturing emerging in this post-contemporary conformist artisanal world we live in. No they won't create as many jobs as the old factories, but they hire people for manual labor and handicrafts, not just coder bros.

Because so much is based in NY, we'll always have a good amount of those types of companies, but I see more exciting things happening elsewhere, solely because they have the SPACE.

I dunno just thinking.

After I had given my notice at my last job the department head and I were talking about next things to do in life and I was talking about wine and he was talking about retiring. He did retire, but then went back to Skadden Arps. And now he's at Google! Which is one way to go I guess. We used to share an elevator bank with Sirius radio which was crazy who you would end up being in an elevator with.

I've been seeing a wait for 28 minutes (always 28 minutes) in the evening a lot for the N, W going into Queens.

fwiw iirc part of the new Amazon campus was going to be incubator space iirc fwiw

that was probably just because the location they were taking over from Paxall is ALREADY renting small studios and workspaces out.

yerac have you been to Irving Bottle? My friends opened it in bushwick and I did all the branding/design/signage/wine label for house brand etc.

I remember seeing the signage you did on fb. It looks great! No, I don't get into brooklyn that often now. I am kind of annoyed that I lived in ewilliamsburg for like 12 years and now all of a sudden things like Brooklyn Steel opens up directly behind my old house.

I don't know from wine but my daughter's best friend's father works at Astoria Park Wine & Spirits and we went and played in kiddie pools in the backyard.

irving bottle is a nice store! i used to live right by it but am a ridgewood dweller now

cool. yeah I don't know anything about wine but i've bought some really pretty things there that also happen to taste good.

astoria has the weirdest selection of wine stores, i think half of them are fronts. One that opened near me is barely stocked and the person working was saying the owner just wanted to open a store in general and duplicates the wine selection from a friend's shop near Ditmars.

But maybe that was also a way to get around NY's weird law about a person can only hold one liquor license in all of the state and must live a certain distance by the site. Which is why you have family members holding the other licenses and there is The Bottle Shoppe and Bottle Shoppe in wburg.

Yeah Irving Bottle looks super nice. It's such a hassle to get places nowadays though. I kind of wish I still had my car here.

Nice to see this thread actually having some activity. FWIW I know nothing about Astoria wine shops. I'm in Forest Hills and usually go to Empire on Queens Blvd because it's walkable from me and has a relatively large selection.

I don't think I have ever been to Forest Hills proper, but I used to go to that Trader Joes there maybe every other week when I lived on Maspeth in ewilliamsburg. I just found out that there is a Rosa's Pizza that opened in astoria too.

We just noticed that.

Before the amazon announcement today, I was looking at apt listings in Sunnyside and Jackson Heights because I still prefer those areas to astoria and there were a couple that touted the Amazon HQ2 in the description.lol.

I wonder what the realtors will list now? I know, proximity to the 7 line and a quick, seamless 15 minute commute into Manhattan (ha ha).

As others have pointed out, all the very worst people of nyc are the main ones upset that there will be no amazon.

Anyone going to see Franklin Bruno tomorrow at E77?

Maybe you are going to see him tonight at Laura Cantrell’s gig at Sid Gold’s Request Room.

sounds like a fun set!

http://www.grubstreet.com/bestofnewyork/absolute-best-restaurants-in-rego-park-and-forest-hills.html

Was surprised to realize I've tried less than half these places and didn't even know a few of them existed. Can confirm that Nick's Pizza, Net Cost, and Xin Taste are all v good. Knish Nosh too I guess, I just never really feel like eating a knish.

nick's pizza + eddie's sweet shop is a devastating combo

I'm kind of down on Eddie's Sweet Shop tbh. Ice cream is too sweet and service is too slow so that it arrives melting.

yeah the quality of the treats is lacking but like barrington levy says the vibes is right

jahn's in jackson heights is also a quality vibes ice cream shop

Brian Charette to hit in forty minutes at the JH Jazz Festival.

Sounds great

Including guitar player, with whom I have been unfamiliar up until now

Matt Chertkoff. Believe he is playing the 8PM show at the Queensboro as well.

Been having fun at the Jackson Heights Jazz Festival this week and hope to have some more today on the last day.

1. Finally made it to Terraza 7 last weekend for a 3pm kids show by Sonia De La Santos, who Opal is a big fan of. Some of her band are regulars there. What a cool place for sure. A bit nervous having 2 year olds dancing up there on the mezzanine though.

2. Went back to Forest Park for the first time in many many years. First time with Opal. Was great, have no idea why we've been neglecting it. Didn't even realize there was a parking lot over by the carousel. Opal loved the carousel and the train ride and she said "you know what would be a good idea? If I got one of those balloons". We had to disagree with that. Then played in the playground and fountain area by the skate park. Will definitely be taking more advantage of that and make it part of the rotation.

i'm told the forest school on mondays at forest park is a good time for toddlers/kids. haven't taken mine yet as my "work from home" day is friday.

had a great time at the queens county farm museum recently, kiddo loved feeding the goats and running around. also it's 5 minutes from the strip of amazing indian places on hillside ave in floral park. highly recommended. and free!

yeah we've done the farm. Also big fans of the petting zoo that's part of the Queens Zoo in flushing meadows.

yes! paired of course with a trip to lemon ice king of corona.

all good toddler outings culminate in destination food. college point target -> little pepper. jacob riis -> roll n roaster. etc.

TS: roads vs aves