Gridskipper
Williamsburg and Dumbo are well past their heyday when it comes to a certain cool factor. And while Bushwick's still got some work to do, Red Hook may have missed its chance. So what's the next outer-borough hotspot neighborhood? Looks like it may just be Long Island City. Proponents of the area (meaning those who've gotten there early enough to benefit from a burst in LIC popularity) have been touting its coolness for some time, boasting of inexpensive apartments and proximity to cultural landmarks like PS.1. But LIC's It Factor has never looked so promising.
Deitch Projects' spectacled namesake Jeffrey Deitch thinks so. He's opened a sister space to his two Soho galleries, Deitch Studios, there last year. While there's not yet enough yuppiedom to warrant a Starbucks, the new 80,000 square foot City View and Racket Club that just opened and the upcoming completion of LIC's most-expensive apartment complex to date shows that there's plenty of potential.
Water Taxi Beach—a staple for post-PS.1 Saturday night dance parties during the summer anticipates larger crowds and is in turn increasing its ferry service. Looks like the MTA's plans to increase Queens-bound subway and bus services (with the terminations at the Courthouse Square station in Long Island City) this summer come at a good time. On the other hand, with Clay Aiken in talks to become a permanent LIC resident, is it all over before it began?
Comments
LiQcity is awesome, and so is that awesome photoshop job! I wonder what talented person did it...
[www.liqcity.com]
Umm... I live in LIC and am as big a booster as anyone, but LIC is not "cooler" than Williamsburg, or Bushwick, or Greenpoint. Yes, DUMBO is lame, and Williamsburg as a bunch of condos and yuppie crap now, but it it still the center of global culture at the moment... even if not everyone can still afford to actually live there, it's still where everyone hangs out. Water Taxi Beach is not "cool", it attracts mostly douchebags. LIC apartments aren't that cheap... they are few and far between, more than anything. If you want affordable apartments nearby, Astoria, Sunnyside, and Greenpoint have a far larger stock. And yes, Bushwick is where things are really starting to happen... seems like almost everyone lives there now, anyway. Racket clubs are not "cool", neither are luxury condos... Come on.
Actually, LIC was supposed to be cool about twenty years ago, artists in lofts and garages and all that. Today, the southern end has the same upended glass ice cube trays you can see all over Wburg and Greenpoint, ready to be filled with squares from Stamford and Litchfield who think they can buy hip while living the suburban lifestyle in the big city. The rest really _is_ industrial, and, as noted above, there aren't a lot of apartments or condos for sale. Astoria and Sunnyside have lots of affordable apartments, but they're aren't "cool".... Better go back to Brooklyn.
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