Out: Grimy Auto Repair Shops, Dingy Industrial Buildings And Dilapidated Private Houses; In: Glistening Office Buildings, Putting Greens And Super Bowl Parties

Bruce Ratner should have set his sights on Long Island City in Queens, where apparently they’ll build anything:

Changes are a-comin’ to the Long Island City skyline in the form of development that will transform neighborhoods once cluttered with grimy auto repair shops and underutilized industrial buildings into streets lined with towering residential units and glistening office buildings.

. . .

Dingy industrial buildings are being demolished or gutted to make way for glistening new condos or sprawling residential lofts, and recent groundbreaking ceremonies paved the way for construction of the $200 million, 15-story Citigroup Office Tower at Court Square Two, which will house the national headquarters for Citibank’s credit card division and branch banking business.

Some of the exciting new things planned include:

• “A 20-story tower with 120 condos, a running track and a swimming pool with a retractable dome at 45-56 Pearson St. on a site that housed the former Sternberger Warehouse parking lot and several dilapidated private houses.”
• “Four stories are being added to a century-old factory and former power plant at 50-09 Second Ave. which will boast 175 condos, a fitness center, a kids’ playroom and a screening room for Super Bowl parties and other affairs.”
• “A 17-story development dubbed the ‘Crescent Club,’ will rise at 41-17 Crescent St. just north of the Queensboro Bridge The development will feature 110 condos, a lap pool, a putting green and a landscaped back yard.”
• “Real estate mogul Jerry Speyer is coming to Queens. The city chose the owner of Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building to build a mammoth tower of at least a million square feet on a site where the Queens Plaza Municipal Garage now stands.”

All this change and yet still no laundromat within short walking distance.

Uniform Color Code Honors Alice Walker With The Color Purple

The Queens Gazette decodes asphalt graffiti:

Most native New Yorkers know the scrawls mean their streets or sidewalks are about to be torn up by some municipal agency or by the cable company, but few know which agency the colors represent.

Before the first shovel goes into the ground in any repair or development project, city homeowners, architects and developers are required to perform a survey to determine the location of “underground facilities.”

The surveys are performed by workers dubbed “locaters”, who measure and mark the distance of water, gas, electric and cable lines that lie precariously close to projects requiring excavation, a representative of the City Department of Design and Construction said.

A red mark denotes an electric project dealing with power lines, cables, conduit and lighting cables, Tony DeRoma, a manager at NY 1 Underground, a private firm hired by the city to provide project markings using New York’s Uniform Color Code, said. Yellow refers to gas, natural gas, oil and steam utilities. Orange markings refer to alarm and cable systems. Blue markings mean the job is related to water mains and other potable water systems. Pink paint is used to mark for temporary surveys-a “preliminary mark”, DeRoma said.

Markings in green paint mean a street is in line for new sewers or a new drainage system, and white paint indicates an “imminent excavation” near the marking.

Interesting, but what’s new here? In short, purple:

The city recently added a new color to the spectrum of its Uniform Color Code, DeRoma said. Purple markings refer to reclaimed water systems, irrigation and slurry lines, which could mean that work is about to begin on lines connected to a nearby car wash.

The color purple indicates water rated a degree below drinkable, but usable by a private business through a “holding tank.” The water, though “non-drinkable,” can be used in irrigation systems or in a filtered system that takes out suds, making it perfect for use by a car wash, DeRoma said. Such systems must be drained and maintained on a scheduled basis-a process that requires excavation.

The Iraq War As A Distraction . . . From The Battle Of Brooklyn

Perhaps I dismissed too hastily the power of Jack Murtha’s endorsement. I had no idea that the main issue for voters in the 11th Congressional District is the war in Iraq*. And the candidates are now tripping over themselves to prove that they’re more antiwar than the competition:

For the four Democrats running for Congress in central Brooklyn, there may be differing views on a host of subjects. But on one topic there is strong agreement: They all contend that the United States’ military involvement in Iraq is a bad thing and that the troops should be pulled out as soon as possible.

All the candidates contend that the war is an issue that could energize voters to support them. But with their unanimous opposition to the war, the candidates find themselves trying to outdo each other in fashioning themselves as the antiwar candidate in what has become the city’s most fiercely contested, unpredictable primary battle.

One candidate, Chris Owens, has recorded an antiwar song that he is trying to get radio stations to play. Another, City Councilwoman Yvette D. Clarke, trotted out an icon of the antiwar movement, Representative John P. Murtha, to appeal for votes in brownstone Brooklyn yesterday.

The 11th Congressional District includes neighborhoods like Park Slope and Prospect Heights, hotbeds of antagonism toward the Bush administration. And the candidates say these are areas where voter turnout is expected to be higher than in the rest of the district, and where the issue of Iraq looms large.

So each of the candidates has been looking for attention-worthy methods of playing the Iraq card. Those methods range from the traditional to the highly unconventional.

. . .

For his part, the younger Mr. Owens is not content to confine his outspoken opposition to the war to position papers on the Internet or mailings to voters. The song he composed and recorded, “Love Is the Way,” was originally written as a protest tune during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. But Mr. Owens has refashioned the tune in a fusion of Middle Eastern and reggae styles with lyrics demanding that President Bush withdraw the troops from Iraq.

Mr. Owens said that he was trying to get the song played “in stations that focus on young people,” adding that it could motivate younger voters to go to the polls for the Sept. 12 Democratic primary (the song opens with Mr. Owens, the lead vocalist on the recording, identifying himself).

. . .

For Mr. Yassky, the issue has been the centerpiece of three of his many mailings to voters. One piece states: “The best way to honor our troops is to bring them home.” “I have strong feeling about this war,” Mr. Yassky said yesterday. “But I must say, I haven’t recorded a song yet.”

You can download Chris Owens’ “Love Is The Way” by visiting his website.

*By the way, is there anyone in the country who wants more war in Iraq? And wouldn’t this have been a more substantive issue in, say, 2002?

Everything So Unexpected — The Way You Right And Left It*

Bloomberg acknowledges that he has nothing to gain by endorsing candidates this election cycle. But then he had to go and do this:

Mayor Bloomberg has made his feelings known about a top musical race, but he is staying out of the state races for governor and Senate, saying that his neutrality is what’s best for the city.

“I think because I’m the mayor, and I will have to work with whoever is elected,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters yesterday, “it would be in the city’s interest if I just stay neutral.”

The mayor did make one major endorsement yesterday, throwing his considerable musical muscle behind Shakira in her bid for Video of the Year at tomorrow’s MTV Video Music Awards, which are being held at Radio City Music Hall. The Colombian pop star is up for the award for her hit single, “Hips Don’t Lie.” The other nominees are Madonna, Panic! At the Disco, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Christina Aguilera.

“I think I’m going to have to go with Shakira — those hips don’t lie,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a taped segment that aired yesterday on MTV’s popular video countdown show, “Total Request Live.”

. . .

Mr. Bloomberg is a registered Republican, but he has distanced himself from the party during his mayoralty, and Mr. Faso and the GOP candidates for Senate, John Spencer and Kathleen Troia “K.T.” McFarland, are well behind Mr. Spitzer and Mrs. Clinton in the polls. The mayor is seen as being close to Mr. Spitzer, the gubernatorial frontrunner.

Mr. Bloomberg’s flirtation with a presidential run also may have factored into his calculation, an Albany political analyst, Alan Chartock, said. “Clearly, he has a good relationship with Eliot Spitzer, but if he endorses him, he potentially damages his bona fides with Republicans, which he may need in case he runs for president on the Republican ticket,” Mr. Chartock said

*At least I refrained from the real cheap shot: “She Makes A Man Want To Speak Spanish.”

Peter Cooper Village And Stuyvesant Town To Replace Park Place And Broadway As Most Sought-After Real Estate Pieces

Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town could be yours . . . for five billion dollars:

Metropolitan Life is putting Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village — a stretch of 110 apartment buildings along the East River — on the auction block.

With a target price of nearly $5 billion, the sale would be the biggest deal for a single American property in modern times. It would undoubtedly transform what has been an affordable, leafy redoubt for generations of Manhattan’s middle class: teachers and nurses, firefighters and police officers, office clerks and construction workers.

MetLife, one of the largest life insurers in North America, said in July that it might sell the two complexes, which it built nearly 60 years ago with government help. It has hired a broker, who started registering bidders last week for the 80-acre property along First Avenue between 14th and 23rd Streets.

Behind the scenes, the sale has already drawn interest from dozens of prospective buyers, including New York’s top real estate families, pension funds, international investment banks and investors from Dubai, according to real estate executives, even though the marketing book will not be released to bidders until next week.

. . .

Already there are signs that bidding will be feverish. As one executive involved in the sale put it, “This is the ego dream of the world: 80 acres, 110 buildings, 11,000 apartments, covering 10 city blocks in Manhattan.”

According to several bidders, the list of buyers who have signed up includes the most active developer in New York City, the Related Companies; one of the largest landlords, Glenwood Management; Tishman Speyer, which controls Rockefeller Center; two publicly traded real estate companies, Archstone and Vornado; the international bank UBS; and the Blackstone investment firm, as well as the Rudin, Durst and LeFrak real estate families.

Given the size of the deal, buyers are expected to team up. “You’ll see some interesting people stepping up to the plate for this one,” said William Rudin, whose family owns about 2,000 apartments in New York.