Ram23

Well, I would say it isn't massive or mountainous, but it is one of the prettiest, most well proportioned and aesthetically attractive skylines out there.. whether or not QCS was an addition to that or not is debatable though!

These look like the homes you can buy out of those stock floor plan books you can pick up for free in magazine racks. Attached garages aren't always a bad thing: This is more of a carport, but how else is one to show off their Bimmers, while keeping them out of the elements?

So Democrats think Republican ideas won’t work? There’s a reason Newsweek is fading into utter irrelevancy, and articles like that one are prime examples.

Is the EPA to blame for the bed bug ‘epidemic’? But why are bed bugs back? Though they’ve been sucking humans’ blood since at least ancient Greece, bed bugs became virtually extinct in America following the invention of pesticide DDT. There were almost no bed bugs in the United States between World War II and the mid-1990s. Around when bed bugs started their resurgence, Congress passed a major pesticides law in 1996 and the Clinton EPA banned several classes of chemicals that had been effective bed bug killers. ... The issue has led to a standoff between Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, and EPA chief Lisa Jackson, who shot down Strickland’s appeals over the issue in a tersely worded letter in June. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/30/is-the-epa-to-blame-for-the-bed-bug-%E2%80%98epidemic%E2%80%99/#ixzz0y7fVOAJ0

I wonder if they’re going to bring back the W when they make the Q turn up Second Ave. instead of going to Queens. Although I assume they’ll just cut back service to Queens even more, as it’s been in perpetual decline since I moved there 3 years ago.

You know your neighborhood is gentrified when the local bodega stops selling 40’s and crack pipes and starts selling fine wine and produce.

What they need to do is break down the block into individual plots and let them be developed naturally, like the rest of the historic neighborhood was. These mega-blocks like UPA (building across Calhoun), the McMillan Manor a few blocks east, and even the Banks are just whacky and out of scale. The model should be the block of McMillan/Calhoun between Clifton and E. Clifton. The love affair between urban planners and super-block developments needs to come to an end.

That is the view from Astoria. I live toward the southern end of the neighborhood, closer to LIC, on 30th Drive. I used to live here a few years ago and moved back for an internship.

^ I second Madison Square Park. I spend a few evenings per week there, I think it is the most aesthetically pleasing spot in the city! :)

Already making for excellent neighbors! Ground Zero mosque developers owe $224,000 in back property taxes The mosque developers are tax deadbeats. Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/mosque_big_owes_tax_rNN0l21LN43U6WhTmIawSP#ixzz0y1EUrBMC

I watch Colbert and laugh, Daily Show has just been downhill. The guy before Stewart was pretty good, though.

They should have just left the McDonald's.

You really think corporate interests are bribing people along party lines? What about unions? what about any number of financial companies 2 years ago?

When it's so easy, why can't he manage to be funny? He's been steadily downhill since Half Baked.

Thanks for posting an article about a game the Reds lost...really added a lot to the conversation. Would you like me to post the game recap of every Indians loss? I'm not sure UO has enough bandwidth for that!

Except that it has been on the drawing board since the mid to late 1980s, well before the Banks or the streetcar. I don't belittle at all what W&S put into this project and appreciate their investment, but Bronson's writing just sucks. Did he not read the sentence prior to John Barrett's quote about the City putting in $5.5.M before inserting a quote about government subsidization? He also doesn't mention the fact the Port Authority floated the bonds for this at a much lower rate than could have been realized elsewhere. I also agree that he had no need to bring The Banks or the streetcar into this at all. What's wrong with making that comparison? It's pretty commonly accepted that private development works at a much faster pace/schedule than most publicly funded projects, and QCS vs either The Banks and/or Streetcar is a fine example, in my opinion. Rally the only reason I can think of that he didn't need to mention it is because anyone reading it is going to have a reaction of "...well duh!" The "client" for a public project consists of dozens of organizations stitched together with a few dozen rolls of red tape, and it slows every decision to a snails pace. I've worked on a lot of public projects (although in NYC) the past few years, and a handful of private.

It could have been worse; at least it wasn’t for the “Cincinatti Streetcar.”

that's the heart of the East Village, @St. Mark's Place. That location was originally a small savings & loan type of place, or some such little known bank, back in the days when Chase wouldn't dream of having a branch in that neighborhood. It was better back then! (there's even another Chase two blocks north) Heh, I used the ATM there last night!

Rarely is anything from Jersey the best! I think this will actually improve the view from my place in Queens: .. er, on second thought I probably won't see it thanks to the gentrified condo tower elevator machine room.

Looks like it's pretty much going to happen: From ArchPaper: The battle for the soul of New York—or at least for its skyline—was over before it even really began. The City Council Land Use Committee just voted in favor of Vornado’s roughly 1,200-foot, Pelli Clarke Pelli-designed 15 Penn Plaza, apparently unswayed by complaints from the owner of the Empire State Building http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/8621 I never fully understood the people that complain about tall buildings in Midtown Manhattan. I can see why the ESB would be a bit pissed, but this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Look up Jean Nouvel's stalled tower at MOMA. People complained it would block views and sunlight, etc. Give me a break, if views and sunlight are on your list of priorities you are living in the wrong city.

Niehoff? I was in there (for architecture) Fall and Winter quarters last year. $1 coneys happened a few times per week. Just show your ID. They also have a few $5 value meals for students, I think, but I always just got 3 or 4 coneys. The guy who runs it is really nice.

What we could use are more Asian restaurants. Besides sushi and takeout Chinese everywhere, there's only a few Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean places.

I know what an urbanized area is, the article was alluding to something different.

^ The Gold Star a couple doors down has $1.00 Cheese Coneys for students. I don't care what "gourmet" toppings you put on a dog, Gold Star Chili and cheddar cheese can and will give it a run for its money! Especially when they have a cost ratio of 5:1. Mr. Fish next door has fried fish and chips for something like $3.00. It's quite a stretch of decent, cheap food.

Big boxes are a product of our current zoning regulations, zoning regulations brought forth by the previous generations because they thought it was the solution to all urban problems. In reality, all they did is create other problems. Now, with FBC, designers think they have solved all those problems with a newer system of codes. My opinion is that design solutions start with a concept, yet develop from the detail, and work their way up. FBC hinders this process, as it creates a preconceived notion of what a design should be. It takes unpredictability out of the equation (just as our current codes do, this is more of a critique of codes in general than just FBC), which is a shame because that is what has the potential to create a lively urban environment. To me, FBC's are heavily based upon a preconceived notion of what a perfect/ideal development is... and in my opinion, there is no such thing. Each and every lot has a different range of successful design solutions, and having to conform those solutions to specific codes takes away from them. I feel if you relax codes and allow for more (and more easily attainable) variances, you'll end up with development closer to whatever "ideal" is than through FBC. There's a value in the vernacular that just isn't attainable so long as a plethora of codes are dictating design and development.