LIC Spot

photo by Karen Frantz

Ever since Fresh Direct announced that they’d be leaving Long Island City for a more spacious Bronx joint, local businesses are saddened to see them leave.

However LIC Spot spoke to a Fresh Direct employee that stated that they may actually not be leaving after all! In fact, they may be expanding to the Bronx, but because they have such a good thing going for them in LIC, they’ll stay here too.

Our source said: They don’t want to leave Long Island City because it’s so close to Manhattan. Also, because we are growing throughout the boroughs, the Bronx facility will make it easier to deliver to the Bronx and upper Manhattan. 

We’ve just been informed that the site dedication for the Queens Library at Hunters Point will be held on October 5th, 2012, at 10:30am.

If you’re as excited as we are…you’ll show up!

More info coming soon!

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?

Where’s the water? – Photo by {a href=”http://www.ten10studios.com/” target=”_blank”}Jesse Winter{/a}

An inside source has informed LIC Spot that the kid’s water pad at Gantry State Park will be opening on July 4th (of this year, we hope). This inside source, however, has been wrong about other rumors and is not all that sure about this one either. Our inside source is obviously unreliable.

But another inside source claims that they are indeed on track to open the water pad “this summer”. This inside source has also been wrong about certain stories but there is one fact that we can actually verify regarding the water pad. The inside source states that “the water pad has been nothing but a three-year cluster f***”.

Wow. We love our inside sources.

What's keeping you from LIC nirvana. - Photos by {a href="http://www.ten10studios.com/" target=”_blank”}Jesse Winter{/a}

A few months back we heard from a reliable source that the north part of Gantry State Park was “definitely” going to open by Memorial Day. Unfortunately our source never mentioned which year because if you take a stroll out there, the fence is still up. I think we can all agree that we are quite anxious to get access to the Pepsi Cola sign (kids, please don’t throw stuff at it!), but more importantly access to the enormous lawn and magnificent view of the Queensboro Bridge (sorry, we are still refusing to call it the Ed Koch Bridge).

As the building developers put their final touches to the buildings (apparently that’s why it’s not open yet) we hope we’ll get access to this new section before the end of June (of THIS year, please).

In the meantime, I say we take bets on when it’s opening up. Check out this week’s Quick Poll!

Photo by Mister LIC

An inside source has informed LIC Spot that yet another Asian restaurant will be opening off  Vernon Blvd. This time though, it will be a Vietnamese joint taking over what used to be Krypton Neon. The restaurant is by the same folks who brought you Tuk Tuk and will be located on 47th Ave, next door to the other culinary masterpiece establishment (Pete’s Burger).

Note: Originally we reported that it was going to be a Korean restaurant. We are now being told that it will be Vietnamese (yum!).

Not an actual LIC brothel.

According to our councilman, Jimmy Van Bramer, there are spas that are probably operating “illegal businesses” in the Dutch Kills area of Long Island City. Smile Dawa and Asian Body Work have been in trouble in the past but this time the councilman wants them gone for good. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for illegal businesses and crime in our neighborhood,” he said.

via Times Ledger 

As parents (and book worms) patiently wait for the lot on Center Blvd. to turn into modern reality, inside sources have informed LIC Spot that a dedication is planned next month for the long awaited Long Island City Library next month, followed by a ground breaking shortly afterwards. This is good news for those who have been to the current modestly-sized  library located in Court Square. The bad news, however, is that full completion of the site has now been pushed back to 2014.

According to a recent article by The Real Deal, Long Island City’s average real estate prices have sky rocketed this last year. As Douglas Elliman opens shop on Vernon Blvd. the question to ask is: Is there enough inventory in LIC for them to sell?