LIC Spot

One of the biggest worries from Long Island City parents is that there will not be enough space for their children as they begin to go to school here. An online petition has been started to encourage the NYC Department of Education to do something about it.

This brings us to the question of the day: Is Long Island City ready to school our children?

Feel free to sign the petition here.

photo by Jesse Winter

It’s been pretty dark and stormy these last few days (weeks!)…and photographer Jesse Winter was able to capture this eery shot in LIC.

Just in case you are wondering, we are happy to post interesting pictures of Long Island City from LIC Spot readers. So please send them as attachments to contact@licpost.com and you will be notified if it gets posted.

photo by Jesse Winter

Congratulations to our council member Jimmy Van Bramer and his partner Daniel Hendrick on their recent marriage in Long Island City.

How did they meet? From the New York Times:

Mr. Van Bramer, having just arrived, went to the bar for a glass of wine when he looked up and saw Mr. Hendrick. “He was this handsome redhead with glasses,” Mr. Van Bramer recalled. “I just kind of said to myself ‘Who is that?’ ”

Mr. Hendrick was soon chatting with the man who had invited Mr. Van Bramer to the fund-raiser, leading Mr. Van Bremer to assume that the two were dating. A short time later, the friend told Mr. Van Bramer that he was not dating Mr. Hendrick, and he had more good news: Mr. Hendrick had asked about Mr. Van Bramer (“Who is the guy in the suit?”).

Mr. Van Bramer approached Mr. Hendrick and very soon began a mental survey of his new acquaintance.

“As we were standing there talking, I went through my checklist,” Mr. Van Bramer said. “I thought, ‘He’s good looking, he’s smart, he’s employed and he’s able to talk about politics.’ He met every one of my requirements.”

Mr. Hendrick also had a checklist.

“I thought he was sweet, handsome, intelligent and above all, I really loved his political activism,” Mr. Hendrick said. “He wanted to make some changes in the world.”

That conversation led to a first date at a movie theater in Queens, and they began dating steadily, with Mr. Hendrick, who lived in Long Island City, spending time at Mr. Van Bremer’s studio in Woodside. Though Mr. Van Bremer wanted them to live together, he did not want to appear desperate.

“Every time he would leave a shirt behind or a toothbrush, I thought that was a good sign that he was leaning toward moving in,” Mr. Van Bremer said.

Then one day, Mr. Hendrick brought over one of his most treasured possessions, a sugar bowl that he had bought in Siberia during a college trip.

The sugar bowl, which Mr. Hendrick put on the kitchen counter, never made it back to Long Island City, and neither did Mr. Hendrick, who moved in shortly thereafter.

photo by Jesse Winter

Walking down Vernon Boulevard past 46th Rd. you’ll notice a gated lot with a handful of bizarre things that will stop you on your tracks. Metal cows, a blue car and a couple of giant tanks. Well, you can thank LIC Spot for the detective work because we’ve figured out why they are there.

The cows are the work of Isabelle Radtke. A local artist who has created these metal life size cows that have been in numerous galleries (including Socrates Park).

The large blue tanks belong to Plaxall and are filled with plastic pellets. They hope that some day it will contain beer.

Finally, the car…is just a car!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It’s a piercing sound that can be heard miles away off 47th Ave. and it’s beginning to anger some neighbors. In fact, the banging can start as early as 7am and doesn’t stop until the late afternoon hours.

So what can we do? Well, with any urban renewal situation, the best thing to do is to wait a bit longer. Also, purchasing a nice set of noise reduction headphones and earplugs may help!

It’s not often that we promote events taking place outside of LIC (it’s Williamsburg, pretty close), but this one is worth the trip. It’s the Great Hot Dog Cookoff and it’s over 20 teams competing to make the craziest hot dog creations ever!

The event is tomorrow (Saturday) and will run you $45, but you get to taste almost 30 hot dogs, drink plenty of beer and eat all the ice cream you want. Plus, it all benefits the New York City Food Bank.

Check it out by clicking here.

Photos by Jill Slater via ApartmentTherapy.com

If you own a telescope in Long Island City and like peeping into other apartments, save your time. ApartmentTherapy.com has featured a gorgeous 3-bedroom apartment at The View. The broker for the apartment, Scott, has staged this masterpiece for potential clients.

We don’t know the rent…but it can’t be cheap! Or is it?

Scott, we’d love to throw a party before it gets rented! Call us!

Flooding at the Vernon Blvd. 7 train – photos by Jesse Winter

What happens when there is a downpour and the sewer gets backed up in Long Island City? The 7-train stop at Vernon Blvd. gets flooded with…you guessed it..poop water!

If you’re taking this stop tonight make sure to wear rain boots and a hazmat suit!

Image courtesy of Rachel Sterne

An article at Giagoam states that Bloomberg is starting to test free WiFi hotspots at phone booths throughout the city. In fact, currently the list includes 10 spots in NYC, including our neighbors in Astoria (at 30-94 Steinway Street).

We’d like to have a few here in LIC, obviously…but rumor has it that there are already a few free WiFi hotspots here.

Is this true? Would anyone like to share?

Walk up to the door at Breadbox and look to your upper-right side…you’ll see it.

We love Breadbox Cafe. Some of the items on the menu are pretty good and it’s an easy lunch spot for many locals (and commuters). We also love the rolling pins that decorate the outside of the establishment. Each personalized pin is put up there when a donation is made to the NY Foundling who help children in need (seriously, please donate, they are an awesome foundation).

Breadbox’s initiative allows you to buy a rolling pin to be placed on their facade. It’s pretty cool, in fact I’ve purchased one myself. However if you walk to the entrance and look above to your right (above “Paper Enterprise Inc.”), you’ll notice something that just isn’t right. It’s either a joke, or the sad state of our education system.

What do you think?