The Way The Q54 Strays, Now That Atlas Park Is Down The Way . . .

Some claim that overdevelopment is threatening the cultural heritage of old Queens:

Those transit meatheads caused gushers of trouble.

Such is the sentiment in Archie Bunker’s old neighborhood — known outside of the TV world as Glendale — where residents believe a recent water main break was caused by a bus re-routing that put too much stress on the street.

“It’s absolutely the bus routes — it can’t be anything else,” said Dorie Figliola, a member of Community Board 5. “It just can’t withstand [the pressure]. Our old pipes are just going.”

The Q54 bus was re-routed in July so it could stop at the Shops at Atlas Park, a retail complex that opened last year at 80th St. and Cooper Ave.

Atlas Park management hoped the move would attract more customers, and it wants the Q23 and Q45 re-routed so that they also pass by the mall.

But the new route raised concerns about noise, pollution and traffic in a residential area that includes the Cooper Ave. home featured in the opening credits of the hit 1970s sitcom “All in the Family.”

Location Scout: Archie Bunker’s House.

At Least They Can’t Blame Robert Moses For The Subways . . .

Free association: With the dollar what it is, and foreclosures what they are, maybe it’s time to put the Irish back in Irishtown:

On Sunday, a little more than 200 people gathered in the Knights of Columbus hall on Beach 90th Street in the Rockaways to dance, have a drink and travel back in time to Irish Town, a cluster of bars and bungalows that served as a summer refuge for Irish New Yorkers until it was razed 50 years ago to make way for high-rise apartments.

To hear the recollections, one would think Irish Town was a piece of heaven in Queens that had dropped out of the sky and nestled along the boardwalk from Beach 116th Street to Rockaways Playland. (Not to be confused with the Irishtown in Woodside, Queens.)

. . .

Like many visitors to Irish Town, George Lang, 67, lived in a railroad apartment on the West Side of Manhattan — his family paid $38 a month — and worked on the waterfront. Mr. Lang, whose father was a tugboat captain, became a longshoreman.

“My relatives were sea people from County Wicklow, and in New York they gravitated to the piers, the waterfront,” he said. “All my friends met their wives down in Irish Town. Back then, all the families seemed to know each other. The mothers would tell each other, ‘If my kid needs a smack, you give it to him.’ You don’t have that today.”

Beers were a nickel, he said, and since the bars, like the Dublin House, Flynn & McLoughlin’s, Gildeas, Leitrim Castle, the Shamrock, O’Gara’s and O’Donnell’s, stocked the same-size glasses, customers could roam from one bar to another to buy discounted refills.

At another table at the Knights of Columbus on Sunday, Patrick McGrath, 80, told of how he grew up, one of 12 children, on a farm in the County Mayo town of Cong, where the movie “The Quiet Man” was filmed. He came to New York as a teenager, and he met his wife, Margaret, in Irish Town.

“If you got arrested for fighting, we had a police captain who was very religious,” Mr. McGrath explained. “He’d take you to Mass the next morning and then let you go without a ticket.”

The Rockaways, which was known as the Irish Riviera, “was a paradise for the Irish,” he said, “but the subway ruined that.”

Sister Peggy Tully and her identical twin, Mary Kelly, both 64, emphasized that Irish Town was not all about drinking. “It was good, clean fun,” she said. “I would see people on the boardwalk saying the rosary.”

Location Scout: The Rockaways.

You’ve Got To Moo Your Way To Freedom

And here you thought you no longer needed those lasso skills now that you moved to the city:

A frightened white-and-brown bovine led a small army of cops and firefighters on a merry chase until they finally corralled it in a Briarwood yard about 11 p.m.

Just where “Queenie” came from was unclear, but neighborhood residents said there are a number of halal butchers in the area who keep animals for slaughter according to Islamic law.

Police said 911 calls began coming in shortly before 10 p.m. from people who spotted the animal hoofing it on Union Turnpike and later at a number of other locations.

Dimitri Mitropoulous, 45, almost came hood to head with the critter.

He was driving past Queens Hospital Center, near the parking lot, when “the darn thing just came out of nowhere. There must have been a little bit of grass in the lot and he was feeding.”

Mitropoulous called 911 and got an operator who thought he was a prankster. “She asked me what color the cow was and I said, ‘Are you joking? It’s a cow in New York City.'”

When it was finally determined there really was a four-legged fugitive — from somewhere — on the loose, cops began tracking Mitropoulous with a Global Positioning System device as he followed the cow.

“We must have gone about 2 miles,” Mitropoulous said, “and it was running at a good pace for a while. I had to do 20 [mph] to keep up with it. I was driving right alongside. If I had a rope I would have grabbed him.”

The chase ended when the cow turned into a yard next to a three-story building at 85-22 144th St., where it was trapped by more than a dozen radio cars and Fire Department vehicles.

Scores of rubberneckers mounted light poles, and climbed on trucks and garden walls to watch as the pursuers closed in with lassos.

But the cow was not cowed. Queenie bucked, kicked and mooed loudly as she was wrestled toward a waiting NYPD horse trailer.

The tug-of-war clearly tickled a number of onlookers, who began chanting “Attica, Attica” — a reference to the violent suppression of a riot at the upstate prison — while others laughed.

(Too soon to tell whether the if-you-can-pull-it-off-you-earned-it rule is in effect.)

Exercise Is Like A Drug . . . Sometimes More Than You Realize

Get in shape and more at the local gym

A window sign at Powerhouse Gym in Auburndale says “Three little words to live by: Look good naked.”

Some of its members and employees may soon add three more words: “While in jail.”

The gym, located at 34-09 Francis Lewis Blvd., was one of two shut down and deemed a public nuisance Friday at the culmination of an 18-month undercover police investigation that authorities contended discovered extensive drug activity.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the Auburndale Powerhouse franchise, along with Envy Us Gym at 126-19 20th Ave. in College Point, were “turned into drug supermarkets by many of the defendants, who openly and illegally sold performance drugs wanted by bodybuilders, as well as a cornucopia of highly addictive and potentially dangerous prescription painkillers and street drugs.”

Twenty-four people, including a store manager, a former police officer and a highly-ranked female lightweight boxer, were charged on various counts of criminal sales of controlled substances.

. . .

Outside Powerhouse Gym Friday afternoon, young men arrived with membership cards in hand only to find dimmed lights and shuttered doors.

Many expressed shock and dismay, but few would identify themselves by name.

“This is news to me. I lost a lot of weight at this gym,” said one young man sporting a tank top. Like others, he was frustrated and concerned that his $375 membership fee may now be wasted. “That’s money down the drain,” he complained.

. . .

Max Vetrano and Vincent Avallone, two Bayside teenagers, nonetheless said they were stunned by the charges.

“I wouldn’t think that this type of thing was going on here,” said Avallone. “I mean this is a pretty nice neighborhood.”

Vetrano added: “I could tell that some people who came in used (enhancement drugs), but I didn’t know they were actually taking them right here.”

Ken Weiss, another gym member, said he and his wife were more concerned about their own health.

“I don’t see why they have to close this place down,” he said, noting that Powerhouse is the only reasonably priced gym in the area. “They’re jeopardizing the health of a lot of other people who need to exercise by doing this.”

The Last “Nail” In The Coffin For Many Property And Business Owners In Jamaica . . .

Then again, Dan Doctoroff’s big reshape-the-untamed-city-like-Robert-Moses moment was always really more about getting rid of those pesky downmarket nail salons*:

The City Council overwhelmingly passed the largest rezoning in New York City’s history Monday, voting to radically reshape Jamaica in eastern Queens.

The 368-block plan, which spans across four councilmembers’ districts, allows for hotels and office towers in downtown Jamaica, permits six-story buildings along Hillside Avenue and restricts development in some residential areas.

“To have the biggest rezoning in the history of the city not be in Manhattan but be in Queens sends an important message,” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a major backer, along with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, of the new rules.

. . .

Supporters of the rezoning hope to transform Jamaica into a transportation and retail hub, taking advantage of its close proximity to the AirTrain and the Long Island Rail Road.

The neighborhood was once the city’s fourth largest shopping district, but has been transformed during the past three decades into vacant strip malls, discount stores, and nail salons.

*Or are nail salons not entrepreneurial enough for you?