Search Results for: Long Island City

Drivers traveling in the busiest parts of Manhattan will be charged an extra fee under a new initiative approved by state lawmakers Sunday. The first of its kind in the country, the "Central Business District Tolling" program installs electronic tolling devices on the perimeter of a zone that covers all neighborhoods south of 60th Street in the borough, with the exception of the West Side Highway and FDR Drive. While details for the program remain unclear, including how much it will cost drivers, the congestion fees will not be implemented until 2021.
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From campus strikes to student government, Harlem’s City College is home to many firsts

Shepard Hall at the City College of New York via Wikimedia

March 29, 2019

From campus strikes to student government, Harlem’s City College is home to many firsts

Now that “Operation Varsity Blues” has shown afresh the ways in which the nation’s elite can buy admission into prestigious universities, it may be instructive to consider the history City College, the flagship of the CUNY system, and the first free institution of higher education in the nation. Founded as The Free Academy of the City of New York in 1847, City College has long nurtured brilliant students from all walks of life as the “The Harvard of the Proletariat,” and served as an engine of upward mobility for New Yorkers and other strivers from around the world. As the home of the first student government in the nation, the first student-led strike, and the first degree-granting evening program, City boasts a legacy of equity and equality that reflects the best ideals of the city it serves.
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History

Walt Whitman’s New York City: 10 sites where the poet left his mark

Walt Whitman (1881) courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution

March 20, 2019

Walt Whitman’s New York City: 10 sites where the poet left his mark

In his famous 1856 Poem, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” Walt Whitman writes to future New Yorkers, “I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence, just as you feel when you look on the river and the sky, so I felt,…I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine, I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan Island.” Whitman, who so deeply captured the experience of living in this city, left his mark not only on Brooklyn and Manhattan, but also on the world as the father of free verse poetry, and one of America’s greatest artists. Since this year marks Whitman’s 200th birthday, we're joining the ongoing celebration of his life and work by returning to the streets he walked, following in his footstep to 10 sites across New York associated with the poet.
Walk With Whitman

History

Corey Johnson proposes new city-controlled transit system called Big Apple Transit or ‘BAT’

Via City Council Speaker Corey Johnson

March 5, 2019

Corey Johnson proposes new city-controlled transit system called Big Apple Transit or ‘BAT’

In a self-proclaimed atypical State of the City address, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Tuesday laid out his vision for city control over New York City's mass transit system. Johnson said municipal control "means we decide how our system is run, we decide how we raise money, and we decide how we spend it." He added: "Municipal control means saying goodbye to the MTA." The new entity would be controlled by the mayor and called Big Apple Transit, or "BAT."
Is it goodbye MTA?

NYHS exhibit celebrates cartoonist Mort Gerberg’s witty take on city life and social issues

Mort Gerberg, “No, not a ‘D’ – it’s a ‘B’! You know, like in Beowulf…Botticelli…Brahams…”, cartoon for the Saturday Review, 1965 Courtesy of the New York Historical Society

February 22, 2019

NYHS exhibit celebrates cartoonist Mort Gerberg’s witty take on city life and social issues

Sometimes, the daily grind of New York City life - from waiting for the subway, to getting hit with unidentified "New York Drip," to sharing an apartment with God-knows-how-many people, can be overwhelming. Other times, you just have to laugh. Beloved cartoonist Mort Gerberg has been helping New Yorkers laugh about the various predicaments of city life, current events, politics, and even sports for more than 50 years. Now through May 5th, the New-York Historical Society is hosting "Mort Gerberg Cartoons: A New Yorker's Perspective," a retrospective of his work that offers over 120 cartoons, drawings, and pieces of sketch reportage spanning the whole of Gerberg's career.
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Events & Things To Do

February 20, 2019

The 11 best things to do on Roosevelt Island

By Ben Kharakh

Roosevelt Island: it's an opportunity to get away from New York while still being in New York. Whether you drive, bike, or take public transportation, this narrow strip of land sandwiched between Manhattan and Queens has much to offer in terms of a day's delight. You've got parks, the arts, and enough photo opportunities to make your Instagram friends totally jelly. From the famous abandoned Smallpox Hospital to the flashy new buildings of Cornell Tech, here's everything to do on your island excursion.
Our top 11 picks

Events & Things To Do

Staten Island Levee project secures funding, will move forward

Rendering of original sea wall plan via Governor Cuomo’s office

February 19, 2019

Staten Island Levee project secures funding, will move forward

Mayor Bill de Blasio, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, United States Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, and United States Congressman Max Rose announced today that funding has been secured for the Staten Island Levee project. The news gives the green light for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to build a long-awaited 5.3 mile sea wall that would protect waterfront communities in Staten Island from future storms.
Good news for Staten Island

Via NYC Ferry

January 10, 2019

Staten Island, Coney Island to be added to NYC Ferry system

The city will launch two new ferry routes by 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday during his State of the City address. Staten Island and Coney Island will be added to the NYC Ferry system, providing a much faster commute to Manhattan for outer-borough New Yorkers. "It shouldn't be this hard to get around in the greatest city in the world," de Blasio said. "And so we’re giving people more and better options." With the addition of the Staten Island route, all five boroughs will be a part of the NYC Ferry system by next year.
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Transit

City Council votes to name NYC streets after Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, and Woodie Guthrie

Via Flickr

December 27, 2018

City Council votes to name NYC streets after Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, and Woodie Guthrie

The New York City Council last week unanimously voted to co-name streets in honor of three NYC music icons, Notorious B.I.G., the Wu-Tang Clan, and folk singer Woody Guthrie, Gothamist reported. If the bills are signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, the block in Brooklyn where B.I.G. grew up will be called Christopher Wallace Way, after the rapper's birth name, Staten Island's Vanderbilt Avenue and Targee Street will be known as the Wu-Tang Clan District, and Woodie Guthrie Way will be found on Mermaid Avenue, marking where the singer lived in Coney Island.
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Policy

Via CityRealty

November 30, 2018

NYC Council to grill city leaders on Amazon deal

Citing concerns about the closed-door deal that drove Amazon to choose Long Island City as home for its second headquarters, the New York City Council announced it will host three hearings to question both city leaders and company exeuctives. Council Speaker Corey Johnson said the first hearing will take place on Dec. 12 to look at how the deal happened, as the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. "One of the major perversions of this is that was all done behind closed doors, with nondisclosure agreements, and without the public or elected officials who weren't including feeling like they had any say," Johnson told the WSJ.
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Policy

After more than 20 years, Coney Island brings back holiday lights along Mermaid Avenue

Photo courtesy of the Alliance for Coney Island

November 29, 2018

After more than 20 years, Coney Island brings back holiday lights along Mermaid Avenue

By Dana Schulz

For the first time in more than 20 years, Coney Island's Mermaid Avenue, its main retail corridor, will light up for the holidays. Alexandra Silversmith, the Alliance for Coney Island's executive director, told us that the snowflake-themed display "invites shoppers to visit Mermaid Avenue and support our local merchants while simultaneously welcoming residents home."
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Events & Things To Do

City scraps controversial plan for a new 40-story jail on top of the Manhattan marriage bureau

80 Centre Street via Wiki Commons

November 29, 2018

City scraps controversial plan for a new 40-story jail on top of the Manhattan marriage bureau

By Alexandra Alexa

On Wednesday, city officials announced that plans to build a 40-floor high-rise detention center at 80 Centre Street will not be moving forward, reports the Daily News. The site had been proposed earlier this year as part of a plan to close the jail at Rikers Island and relocate the inmate population to four local jails spread throughout the boroughs. The de Blasio administration cited logistical challenges associated with moving the current tenants, which include the Manhattan Marriage Bureau and offices of the Manhattan District Attorney, as reason for the decision.
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Policy

5 of the best suburbs outside of New York City

Photo of Beacon, NY via Wikimedia Commons

November 26, 2018

5 of the best suburbs outside of New York City

By Cait Etherington

There was a time when New Yorkers, even those with the means to live in some of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods, willingly packed up their homes and fled to the suburbs. While it may be difficult to imagine now, at different points in history, moving to the suburbs has been considered desirable and even a sign of one’s upward mobility. After all, why cram into a walkup with your family of six when you could spread out in a rambling suburban bungalow with a two-car garage? Today, many aging members of Gen-X and their younger millennial counterparts—who often came of age in the suburbs—are stubbornly toughing it out in the small urban apartments for the entire life cycle, but this doesn’t mean that the suburbs don’t have a lot to offer.
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Real Estate Trends

New Long Island camping cabins bring modern, affordable design to state parks

Photos by Albert Vecerka/Esto for WXY

November 26, 2018

New Long Island camping cabins bring modern, affordable design to state parks

Photos by Albert Vecerka/Esto for WXY Aimed at bringing new visitors to the state's parks, the NY Parks 2020 initiative funded a $9 million project that created the first vacation cabins and cottages to offer accommodations in Long Island's Wildwood and Heckscher State Parks. The architecture firm WXY, headed by Claire Weisz, was chosen to design the new cabins. The first of these, 10 cabins ranging in size from 670 to 784 square feet, became available to rent on Memorial Day weekend. They represent an unusual attempt to introduce modern creative design where we traditionally find rudimentary and rustic construction while providing high quality, affordable accommodations for park visitors.
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Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City

“Manhattan Island in the Sixteenth Century,” from the Memorial History of New York, 1892, via NYPL

November 20, 2018

Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City

Currently, most Lenape belong to the Delaware Nation and live in New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Ontario, but the word Lenape means “Original People,” and the Lenape are the Original New Yorkers. In fact, the name Manhattan comes from the Lenape “Manahatta,” meaning “hilly island.” Although the Lenape stove to “walk so gently on the earth,” without leaving an impact on the land, they influenced the city’s physical geography in ways we can see and feel today. From Bowling Green to Broadway, Cherry Street to Minetta Lane, here are 10 sites in Manhattan that reflect the legacy of the Lenape.
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Despite city-wide ban, Amazon wants to put a rooftop helipad on its NYC HQ

Image: Maxpixel CC public domain.

November 13, 2018

Despite city-wide ban, Amazon wants to put a rooftop helipad on its NYC HQ

On the heels of news that Amazon has chosen Long Island City, Queens for one of its two new headquarters, making the promise of 25,000 new jobs a hopefully-someday reality, comes the fine print request that the company would like a helipad for its new East River waterfront HQ, please. Slate reports that the request appears deep in a 32-page memorandum of understanding with the city and state.
Rooftop helipads have been banned since 9/11

October 23, 2018

With $450M invested, Staten Island’s New York Wheel is a no go

Staten Island’s New York Wheel project, SIAdvance reports, is dead. Cristyne Nicholas, a spokesperson for the project, has announced that the would-be world’s tallest Ferris wheel, dreamed up to anchor the redevelopment of the borough’s North Shore, will never be a reality. “After years of planning, the developers of The New York Wheel announce, with great disappointment, that the dream of building a world class attraction in Staten Island will unfortunately not come to fruition," Nicholas said. Construction on the privately-funded project that has been in the works for over half a decade was halted in May of 2017. $450 million had already been invested in the 630-foot Ferris wheel, which was originally scheduled to open in October of 2016. The total cost of the project was estimated at nearly $1 billion.
So what happened?

Policy

City will spend $250M+ connecting and greening 32 miles of Manhattan waterfront

Concept rendering of Harlem River Greenway Link view toward RFK Bridge.

October 11, 2018

City will spend $250M+ connecting and greening 32 miles of Manhattan waterfront

The NYCEDC, the NYC Parks department and NYC DOT announced today the results of a study on how to close the 32-mile loop of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway along with plans to invest over $250 million to get the project started in Inwood, Harlem, East Harlem and Midtown. The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway announcement outlines a strategy for connecting open waterfront spaces that total over 1,000 acres that will add about 15 acres of quality open space and integrate the Greenway into surrounding neighborhoods.
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LIC group wants to rename Hunter’s Point South Park to make it more recognizable citywide

Via Flickr cc

October 1, 2018

LIC group wants to rename Hunter’s Point South Park to make it more recognizable citywide

A Long Island City parks group wants to change the name of Hunter's Point South Park, a waterfront green space in the Queens neighborhood, the LIC Post reported on Thursday. The Hunters Point Parks Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that manages the 11-acre park, says despite being a "gem of Queens," the park does not have "the city-wide recognition it deserves."
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Uncategorized

Cuomo will bring a Hurricane Maria Memorial to Battery Park City

Battery Park City via Flickr cc

September 25, 2018

Cuomo will bring a Hurricane Maria Memorial to Battery Park City

By Dana Schulz

To mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria last week--along with new reports that confirm 3,000 Puerto Ricans lost their lives in the third-most-powerful storm to ever hit the U.S.--Governor Cuomo signed an executive order establishing a new Hurricane Maria Memorial Commission to provide recommendations pertaining to the site, design, and installation of a permanent memorial in Battery Park City. New York City has the largest number of Puerto Rican residents in the U.S. mainland and, to date, Cuomo has set aside $13 million to aide the more than 11,000 displaced Hurricane Maria victims living in New York state.
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Uncategorized

Study recommends creating a High Line-style park along Brooklyn’s Prospect Expressway

Rendering via BHA

August 31, 2018

Study recommends creating a High Line-style park along Brooklyn’s Prospect Expressway

A new study recommends building a cantilevered linear park to run along the Prospect Expressway in Brooklyn, akin to the High Line. Developed by students from NYU Wagner's capstone program, PX Forward proposes ways to reimagine the 2.3-mile-long corridor, whose construction was led by Robert Moses between 1953 and 1962. As it stands today, the expressway cuts through neighborhoods like South Slope, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights and Kensington, exposing residents to unsafe conditions due to high traffic and noise pollution.
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Architecture And Design

August 27, 2018

Top-floor Tudor City studio can be your ‘sun-drenched jewel box’ for $424K

By Dana Schulz

What it lacks in space, this Tudor City studio makes up for in views and location. The 600-square-foot, top-floor, corner apartment has a compact kitchen and a Murphy bed, but it's also lined floor-to-ceiling with built-in shelving and cabinetry. And the huge pane-glass windows not only let in tons of light, but provide incredible views from the 23rd floor of the UN, East River, and Long Island City.
See what else $424,000 gets you

Distinctive Homes

Image of Rikers Island via Wikimedia

August 15, 2018

City proposes four jail sites with community amenities as Rikers replacement

Four new borough-based jails have been proposed for New York City as part of a plan to close Rikers Island, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday. The proposed facilities, which include building sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, will contain about 1,500 beds each and offer on-site support services. The new jails would include space for educational programming, recreation, therapeutic services and staff parking. There will also be community facilities and street-level retail space, providing amenities to the surrounding neighborhood.
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Policy

August 14, 2018

Private seven-acre Connecticut island with a garden wonderland sells for $21.5M