Ravenswood-Dutch Kills top Queens in falling real estate prices

A RealtyHop analysis found that the Ravenswood-Dutch Kills area led Queens in falling median percentage real estate prices in June.

The area, identified as “Queensbridge-Ravenswood-Long Island City,” – the map shows Ravenswood, QB and Dutch Kills below 36th Ave over to Northern Boulevard – saw a median percentage price drop of 10.6% (-$133,475). What, no one wants to live here anymore?

Just behind us is East Elmhurst, followed by the Hammels-Arverne-Edgemere part of the Rockaways, followed by Jamaica, according to a closer read by Queens Courier.

We came in four citywide for top five highest median percentage price drops, sharing a category with four Bronx neighborhoods, and made the top five list for neighborhoods with highest median dollar price drops, at number two just behind SoHo-Tribeca-Civic Center-Little Italy. Yea, check us out.

H/T Queens Courier

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Big hip hop fest is happening at Melrose Ballroom

There were probably large posters for this pasted to lot wood-walls but I’m just noticing from the Corner inbox the World Underground music festival happening yesterday through tomorrow at Melrose Ballroom at 33rd Street near 36th Avenue. If you didn’t know, maybe you still have time to get tickets for Azealia Banks. 

H/T Brooklyn Vegan

Seven story mixed-use building slated for deep Dutch Kills

A two story, two family home built in 1915 is slated to be demolished in way of a seven story mixed-use building at 33-10 38th Avenue, down near Astoria Seafood and the Paper Factory Hotel.  The building will have 20, most likely rental apartments, and some sort of community facility, New York YIMBY reported recently. 

Music venue in Kaufman Arts District liquor license approved by CB1

 

A music venue billed as a concert hall, recording studio and youth educational-programming space on 35th Street in the Kaufman Arts District survived Community Board 1’s approval process for its liquor license last night. The space is called ARC, and is associated with music blog, DMNDR (somehow, apparently). Some construction has been done on the space at 36-35 35th Street between 36th and 37th avenues (also 36-30 36th Street) apparently in place since 2014* but a liquor license should really turn on the show in this quiet northeast section of Long Island City.

A few notes

• A funeral was held at Most Precious Blood Church for the baby that was found in a garbage can at Dutch Kills Playground. The baby was given the name, Dutch James Hope. 
• Flor de Azalea Cafe on 34th Avenue and 9th Street in Ravenswood is hosting an open mic on Saturday, April 28 from from 5-7pm.
• The Steinway Astoria Partnership is hosting the International Culture Fest on Steinway Street on Sunday, April 29 from 12-5pm.
• We Heart Astoria is throwing a party, which celebrates local businesses, with tickets starting at $45 on Thursday, April 26.
• Also April 26, from 7-9pm the Boundless Tales Reading Series is on at the Local NYC in Long Island City. It’s free.
• Suraj Patel gets a write-up in student paper, Washington Square News, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets featured in Salon.
• New York YIMBY has renderings for a residential project on 44th Drive in Hunters Point.
• There are free English language classes going on at the Jacob Riis Settlement. 

Participatory budgeting takes off in LIC & Astoria

Participatory budgeting, where council district constituents get to vote on how to spend a million bucks, starts today in districts 26 (Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside) and 22 (Astoria, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Woodside too).

In Astoria, items up for a vote include a hydroponic science lab at LIC High School, lighting upgrades at Astoria Houses Community Center, a tool shed at Two Coves Community Garden and road surfacing.

In LIC, items include bus countdown clocks, trees, a gym at Queensbridge Park, a soil science lab at Ravenswood Houses, tech upgrades at P.S. 112 in Dutch Kills and other schools and playground renovations at P.S. 111 in Ravenswood.

A few notes:

• That Ravenswood survey reported about here in Corner, will be online from April 4 through 30, Times Ledger reports.
• State Senator Aravella Simotas’ legislation on preserving rape kits made it into the 2019 state budget.
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is running against Rep. Joe Crowley in the Midterm primary, wants to end ICE.
• Nas’ chicken and waffles joint will open in Hunters Point Monday with a private back room for parties.
• A $33.3 million deal was made to put up a seven story, 200-unit, mixed-use building in Dutch Kills at 37-11 30th Street, Real Estate Weekly reports.
  

  “Dutch Kills, which sits just south of Astoria, has not seen the same level of investments as other sections of Long Island City, such as Hunters Point, Court Square and the area around Queensborough Plaza. Before Avenue and Slate bought the 37-11 30th Street, the only high-end housing project in the area was the Lightstone Group’s ARC complex, which is located two blocks to the south.”

• Rep. Carolyn Maloney spoke about the U.S. Census citizenship question, militarizing the border and gun legislation on Thirteen.
• Queensbridge is getting new roofs.
• LIC Reading Series will host its 3rd year anniversary event on April 10.
• Thrillist lists Petey’s Burger in the top 31 burger joints in America.
• A bunch of storefronts up by the Ditmars Boulevard station will be demolished to make way for a Target, Astoria Post reports.

Women’s Ride sets off from Queensbridge

Joelle, 17 (orange vest), one of the organizers of today’s Women’s Ride in Queens: “As a woman being a cyclist, there’s a lot of gender discrimination” in the form of mansplaining or street harassment, she says. “So we wanted to say women should feel strong & impowered to ride.” pic.twitter.com/3Ym5A6Gw0K

— Vincent Barone (@vinbarone) March 25, 2018

Women gathered on bikes at Queensbridge today ahead of a seven-mile ride to Borough Hall to highlight the gender gap in the cycling community and to call for more bike lanes in Queens.

A few notes:

• Seven year-old Astoria girl, Precise Tucker, who was put on life support after doing a prank and choking, died on Friday.
• Queensbridge-set film, Roxanne Roxanne debuted on Netflix this weekend and it is dope.
• City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer will be at LaGuardia Community College tomorrow for the opening reception of “The Lavender Line: Coming Out in Queens,” an exhibit on the last 25 years of LGBT activism in Queens. 
• Queens restaurants are getting priced out to Brooklyn due to high rents and “cheap eats” expectations, Katie Honan explains for Eater.

More notes after the jump

Simotas introduces bill to save businesses harmed by subway disruption

One day, I can almost make it out in the distance, the clouds will part, and the N/W stations at 36th and 30th Avenues will reopen and we won’t have to simply stay in our homes all day. But until then, small businesses near these stops say they are suffering. State Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas hears them. She has introduced a bill that would offer the business owners tax credits if they see a 25% loss due to a state or city project.

Of course this made me wonder about the Second Avenue Subway. Efforts were made to protect those businesses from the decade-long construction (longer than our eight months) but all I see is grant proposals that were specific to the area. Simotas’ bill in contrast is wide-reaching, applying to the whole state, presumably forever and would apply to “infrastructure” projects in general, according to Queens Chronicle.
The stations are expected to reopen in June, the month when the 39th Ave and Broadway stations are set to close.

H/T Queens Chronicle.