LIC Spot

The other day at Rainbow Park I got a whiff of someone’s cigarette smoke and it made me wonder if smoking is banned at Gantry Park. It is.

Don’t get me wrong, I used to smoke and loved the outdoors while I puffed away on my death sticks. But it’s only fair that others (yeah, like the children at the parks) don’t have to suffer through it.

You heard is here folks, stop smoking at Gantry Park! It’s now the law:

Smoking will be forbidden at more New York State parks this summer.

The office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that residents should be able to enjoy the outdoors “free of pollution from secondhand smoke.”

The new rules vary from park to park, so the state has posted a list online of places where smoking is banned.

In the state parks in New York City, smoking is permitted only on sidewalks and certain parking lots. The New York City state parks include Riverbank State Park in Manhattan, East River State Park in Brooklyn, Bayswater and Gantry Plaza state parks in Queens, Roberto Clemente State Park in the Bronx, and Clay Pit Ponds Preserve on Staten Island.

 

via CBS News

A subway rider contacted the police about a horrifying attack he/she witnessed on the 7 train last week, and now cops are looking for the assailant.

According to police, the incident took place on a Queens bound train on Sunday, May 5 at about 1 a.m. In the video, an unidentified man punches a victim and then leaves the train at 69th Street.

The suspect is described as a M/W-H, approximately 5’9″, 180 lbs with brown eyes and long black hair with a pony tail. He was wearing a dark T-shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website atWWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

via Gothamist

The view of One World Trade Center from LIC

Today, workers installed the spire atop One World Trade Center, bringing the building to its full symbolic height of 1,776 feet. Provided the 408-foot addition is considered a spire rather than an antennae, this makes One World Trade Center the tallest building in the United States and the third-tallest in the world according to New York Daily News. The tower is currently scheduled to open for business in 2014. TODAY’s Matt Lauer covered the momentous construction event and shared the view from the top of the skyscraper in the following videos.

What it looked like a few days ago.

The new library isn’t up yet and we’re getting reports that the canvas drawings for the Hunters Point Library have been gashed over a dozen times.

As we reported last week, the library is scheduled to break ground sometime soon. Is this a sign of things to come?

Attention Long Island City residents!

As of right now you are able to recycle those hard plastic clamshells that have inundated your apartment since your roommate became addicted to delivery crab rangoon. Today’s announcement by Mayor Bloomberg that the Sanitation Department now accepts all hard plastics for recycling—including coathangers, coffee cups, toys, shampoo bottles, and all brittle plastic food containers—makes good on his promise in the State of the City address to widen the city’s recycling program that has lagged under his leadership.

Note: plastic bags are still not recyclable, and please do rinse the food out of your clamshells before tossing them in the recycling bin. In the coming weeks DSNY will send out mailers informing the changes to New Yorkers—enforcement won’t begin until July.

via Gothamist

Another viewer email was received today that we’re able to answer.

Andy asks:

We reached out to one of our inside sources and we’ve found out that “groundbreaking shall be in the summer…late summer”.

Our source also insisted that the “eyesore” isn’t as bad as Andy says. “Different parts of Hunters Point are an eyesore..but not there. All I can see here is a top LEEDS bldg. Whoever sees an eyesore should come and join the Friends of Queens Library at Hunters Point or find something constructive to do with their time…tell them to go feed the homeless or help at City Harvest. The storm had destroyed the painted wall but that will be replaced around the entire perimeter with decorative screen.”

So there you have it. If you have any other LIC questions please send it to contact@licspot.com

Les Deux Magots in Paris

As zoning restrictions are being lifted for sidewalk cafe’s in Long Island City, many restaurants are planing on offering outdoor seating throughout Vernon Blvd. as early as next month.

Once the CB2 vote goes through on April 30th, sidewalk cafe’s will be allowed to go up on Borden Ave, 2nd Street, Vernon Blvd, Jackson Ave., Court Square (north and south), 44^th Drive, 43^rd Ave, Crescent Street and Queens Plaza.

Having lived in Paris for many years, sidewalk cafe’s bring charm to a city. However seeing that Vernon is a busy car (and truck) road, how pleasurable will it be for diners to nibble on tea sandwiches with a side of exhaust?

It also brings up the issue of sidewalk real estate. Can pedestrians and sidewalk cafe’s co-exist?

Following explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, the NYC Light Brigade and The Illuminatorprojected supportive images like “Brooklyn loves Boston,” “Peace and Love,” and “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that,” on the side of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Peter Jay Sharp building.

Bad news for a group of indoor pot farmers right here in Long Island City as the DEA discovered over 1,000 pot plants in a warehouse on 44th Rd.

A massive drug operation went up in smoke Tuesday when law enforcement officials raided an indoor marijuana farm in Queens.

Authorities seized more than 1,000 pot plants – along with grow lights and other gear – from the 44th Rd. warehouse in Long Island City just after 3 p.m. , police sources said.

Officials from the NYPD, state police and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency also rounded up five suspects in the sweep.

Charges were pending late Tuesday night.

via The Daily News

A walk around the block stopped me in my tracks this morning as I saw this graffiti on Communitea’s wall on 47th Ave.

It’s sad to see Hunters Point being defaced.

Thoughts?