The Case For Adopting Long Island City As A Brooklyn Neighborhood
Just as the Corleone family adopted Tom Hagan, Brooklyn should adopt Long Island City. This isn’t about charity. It’s simply becoming clearer and clearer that the neighborhood, a hop and a skip from Greenpoint, belongs with us. Here’s why:
LIC Deals With The G Train, Too
There’s nothing we could say about the G train that hasn’t already been said. It’s a pain in the ass. Just yesterday DNAinfo shared the news that the brand new signs telling subway patrons exactly where the four-car–FOUR-CAR–train will stop have not made much of a difference. People are still running like maniacs to catch the train. With two G train stops, 21st St./Jackson Ave. and Court Square, LIC residents understand two twenty-firsts of our pain. That’s enough for us.
LIC-ers Are More Than Familiar With Construction Encroachments
LIC sits just north of Hunter’s Point, which also happens to be the site of massive high rise apartments and a few expensive bars and restaurants. It’s also the reason that LIC residents have to walk to the docks to catch a glimpse of the Manhattan skyline these days. On top of all that, the neighborhood is home to the tallest eyesore outside Manhattan: the Citigroup building.
LIC’s Art’s Community Is Thriving
The neighborhood is a major hub of contemporary art. It’s home to major venues like MoMA PS1, the Noguchi Museum, The Museum of the Moving Image and The Sculpture Center and smaller spots including the Dorsky Gallery, the Socrates Sculpture Park and the Museum for African Art. And finally, let’s never forget that LIC housed the late, great 5Pointz. R.I.P.
Newtown Creek
The fact that the Gowanus Canal is an official Superfund site is both a running joke and sad truth for Brooklynites. LIC can relate. The neighborhood sits directly above the Newtown Creek, which became a superfund site the same year our sweet, grimy canal did. Here’s how bad it is: There is a 15-foot-thick layer of sludge sitting on the creek bed.
All The Great Things Are Conveniently-Located
Most Brooklynites understand that one of the most frustrating things about the borough is how spread out it is and how mediocre the transportation situation is. That’s why one of the most beautiful things about Long Island City is how small it is and yet filled to the brim with almost everything you could need without feeling jam-packed. The area along Vernon Boulevard is chockfull of cheap and pricey restaurants, dive-y and classy bars and a really nice dog park with sections for small and large dogs. Throughout the neighborhood there’s Vietnamese, Venezuelan, Italian, Mexican, Thai, Turkish. The list goes on and on. And they’re all walking distance from one another. Very few of them are “tucked away,” which is just code for “hard to get to.”
In general, Long Island City is a nice place to go. It’s a relatively quiet neighborhood filled with plenty of things to see, hear, eat, drink and, more generally, enjoy. Brooklyn can always use more of that.
Follow Nikita Richardson on Twitter @nikitarbk