In a story I wrote about on Thursday, you learned that a Queens Assemblywoman threatened to have a building landmarked so that it could not be converted to a strip joint. She sided with local business owners that building such an establishment would reverse progress in the area.
Let me be the first to say, I work one day a week in exactly that area. I know that area extremely well. There is nothing that could drag that neighborhood down more than it already is.
It’s not rundown, per se, but the people living in it simply don’t give a shit about it. Most of them are lowlife renters who deface their buildings and throw garbage in the street because “someone else” will clean it up. When there are private home owners in the area, they tend to let their buildings deteriorate and fall apart.
The building in question is located at the exit ramp of the 59th Street Bridge. On the other side of that exit ramp is Queensbridge Houses, a fine establishment of multi multi multi family projects where the quality of life is so high that the Police have a satellite precinct three blocks away and, at any given point, you can see a police car hovering around the projects.
Across the street from the projects are a a check cashing store, multiple private cab service mechanics, a 99 cent store that takes up almost the entire block, a deli, and a fried chicken place.
On 43rd Avenue, and most of the surrounding blocks of this proposed club, the neighborhood is industrial with a few residential buildings thrown in for good measure. It’s also desolate at night. In fact, if you’re in the neighborhood at night at all, you’ll probably enjoy checking out the hookers walking down by the entrance to the bridge, and the crackheads trying to buy some rock from you.
Oh, and did I mention the gang bangers robbing you? Yeah, they’re fun too.
Here’s the building, from Google Street View, that the owner wants to turn into a club.
That’s the building that must be landmarked because putting a club there would certainly drag down the overall quality of the neighborhood.
My question is this. Has Cathy Nolan ever been to that neighborhood?
Cathy, if your office is reading this and would like a tour, I’d be more than happy to provide one for you seeing as you obviously don’t visit very often. Maybe you should stop by, have your driver let you out of your car, and take a look around before you lecture everyone on the damage one club can do to a neighborhood that already has one foot squarely in the toilet.