Photo courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr

After previous failed attempts at an effective compost program in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams on Monday announced a new “no frills” system aimed at making it easy and less costly for New Yorkers to dispose of food and yard waste. Under the new program, the city’s Department of Sanitation will collect compost and organic waste from every residential building in Queens starting on October 3. New Yorkers can put any food waste, yard waste, and food-soiled paper in a Sanitation compost bin to be picked up weekly. According to the mayor, the program, which will be available to 2.2 million New Yorkers, is the largest curbside composting program in the country.

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Photo by Pat at Juno on Flickr

A three-day music festival that aims to raise awareness about the current climate crisis will take place in Queens next month. From September 16-18, the inaugural Big Climate Thing festival will be held at Forest Hills Stadium, the nearly century-old tennis stadium-turned-venue, with performances by world-class acts, including Haim, The Roots, The War on Drugs, Sheryl Crow, Courtney Barnett, and The Flaming Lips, among others.

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All images courtesy of Modern Spaces

Applications are now being accepted for 23 mixed-income units at a new luxury rental in Queens. Located at 50-11 Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside, Fifty11 is a nine-story mixed-use building with 75 units, comprised of a mix of studios, one-, and two-bedroom apartments. New Yorkers earning 80 and 130 percent of the area median income, or between $43,612 for a single person and $187,330 for a household of five, can apply for the apartments, priced between $1,197/month for studios and $2,850/month for two bedrooms.

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All renderings courtesy of VUW Studio

At a time when finding an affordable apartment in New York City feels impossible, here’s an opportunity to live in a luxury Long Island City building for less. A housing lottery has launched at Gotham Point, a two-tower mixed-use development in Hunter’s Point South with 1,132 apartments, a majority of which are priced below the market rate. After welcoming its first residents to the South tower this spring, the taller North tower is now accepting applications for 463 rent-stabilized rentals at 1-15 57th Avenue, Long Island City, NY. The 58-story building is open to New Yorkers earning between 30 percent and 165 percent of the area median income (AMI), or between $16,183 and $273,075 annually.*

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Rockway Line NYC Ferry on Sunday, April 08, 2018. Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office on Flickr 

New York City will launch express weekend service from Lower Manhattan to Rockaway Beach on Saturday. NYC Ferry’s “Rockaway Rocket” will run on summer weekends from Lower Manhattan to the Rockaways and cost passengers $8 each way. The shuttle pilot program is an effort by the city to raise revenue and increase ridership and is part of a broader overhaul of the ferry’s fare system.

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Image courtesy of Lars Plougmann on Flickr

New Yorkers trying to escape the heat on Tuesday were disappointed when the city closed all of Rockaway’s beaches to swimming due to a number of shark sightings. A city lifeguard told Gothamist there were at least two reports of shark sightings: a surfer who reported that a shark had collided with his surfboard at Beach 67th Street and a lifeguard who reported seeing a shark off of 102nd Street. By Tuesday evening, city officials reopened the beaches.

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Photos courtesy of NYC Parks / Daniel Avila

Construction kicked off on the second phase of Sunset Cove Park, a Jamaica Bay-facing city park in the Queens neighborhood of Broad Channel, NYC Parks announced on Wednesday. After partially opening in 2019, the park’s $4.2 million second phase includes a new covered outdoor classroom and a boardwalk made up of reclaimed wood from the Rockaway Boardwalk, which was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

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Photo credit: Compass

Ridgewood, Queens was once part of Brooklyn–call it Far East Williamsburg–until its secession in 1979. But the neighborhood might as well be part of that larger-than-life borough today; it has long been a creative (if quiet) neighborhood in some ways barely distinguishable from neighboring Bushwick. This colorful turn-of-the-century single-family home at 62-46 61st Street has enough historic details for anyone with city townhouse dreams. The 1,890-square-foot four-bedroom home has a full basement and the added bonus of three private garages. Inside, vintage chic meets elegant proportions. 6sqft previously featured the home in 2017, when it was listed for $850,000. It’s now asking a more gentrified $1,375,000.

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Image courtesy of the Landmark Preservation Commission

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) on Tuesday voted to designate two districts in the Queens neighborhood of Cambria Heights as historic districts. The two areas, known as the 222nd Street and 227th Street Historic Districts, contain 96 well-maintained Tudor-style rowhouses that incorporate Storybook design elements. Both historic districts have been deemed by the LPC to be extraordinarily well-preserved and give the area a “highly distinctive sense of place.”

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Rendering: Binyan Studio

A new three-building development in Astoria with hundreds of apartments officially launched leasing on Tuesday. Developed by Cape Advisors, Astoria West, located at 30-77 Vernon Boulevard faces the tiny urban “beach” Hallet’s Cove and contains 534 rentals and more than 40,000 square feet of amenities. Available units range from studios to two bedrooms, priced from $2,920/month.

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