express purpose
Scenes from a short walk across a long Borough.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There is a notion afoot, amongst the Real Estate crowd and the urban planners, that Western Queens is somehow “under utilized” and needs to become more urban. This ideation was obviously formed by those who sit in air conditioned Manhattan office buildings who have never actually visited Queens for any reason other than to go to the airport or have only driven through it on their way to the Hamptons.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When all the transportation infrastructure was rammed through Queens in the first half of the 20th century, this was largely an agricultural area. That’s why it was so easy to site the bridges and elevated subways and tunnel out here in the first place. Large lots of land which were easily purchased from a single buyer is a developers dream. Once all the steel and cement was in place, however, Queens grew exponentially. No kid from Astoria or Woodside will tell you he or she grew up in “the country.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, someone asked me what I thought of the current notion of turning Western Queens into some sort of Silicon Valley style digital hub and business incubator.
The idea is compelling, given the massive floor space and stout construction which the former factory buildings that distinguish the area, but I asked “what will these companies be connecting to?”. Astoria in particular is a hodge podge of wires carelessly maintained, with electrical and data cables spanning the streets. The utility poles which these wires are hung on are notoriously and precipitously overloaded, causing the them to bend and bow.
Does this look like the infrastructure that will draw a google or apple data center to the neighborhood, or does it remind you of some third world shithole in which one or two favored companies were granted a permanent franchise?
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek – Saturday, August 24, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 
Focusing on a relatively few or one type of industry such as real estate developement, putting all one’s eggs in one basket so to speak, is a weak economic strategy. Build, build, build mostly residential is bound to fail at some point due to either nowhere left to build or an overload of the local infrastructure and crowding cause an unacceptably poor quality of life which will lead to a drop in demand/price for real estate. At this point, the thin veneer of a chic “luxury product city” will be torn away and this city will stand revealed as another Detroit.
Cav
August 14, 2013 at 11:53 am
You seem to misunderstand Detroit. The exodus from the core city to the suburbs were caused by a multitude of factors. The city was quite prosperous at one point and at that point everyone lived within the city limits. Therefore, there had to be a large housing stock. It wasn’t until factories had to grow that industry moved out of the city because of the lake of horizontal space. Of course this is just one factor. Another factor was and continues to be the anatagonizing behaviour between the city and the suburbs. Due to a racial legacy culminating in riots in the late 60s, the regional governments of the suburbs and the city never trusted one another. Ask any suburbanite about the city government and you will get tirades for hours because of the perceived incompetence from Detroit government. The same holds true for city residents; they feel that the suburbs try to rob and pillage the city for their own interests. Thrown into the mix the aforementioned legacy of the ’67 riots, busing, the antagazoing language from mayors such as Coleman Young and county executives, graft and corruption from multiple administrations, and the effects of globalization on unions. As you can see it is unfair to pin one reason to the decline of Detroit. Detroit has unique problems. Of course New York can suffer from decline as well but it would be unfair to compare this fair city with Detroit as the historical backdrop is completely different.
-one of those damn suburbanites so the aforementioned might be skewed a little.
Ps- I love this blog.
Robert Stevens
August 19, 2013 at 2:08 pm