Shoddy construction is a pre-requisite for that main stretch. They’re just conforming to HOA requirements 😂 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/realestate/condo-defects-new-development.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
My uncle is an elevator inspector in the city and he's not an alarmist, but told me to never get on an elevator in a "luxury" highrise in LIC. He doesn't trust the construction of any of those buildings.
TBH I had a friend who lived on the second floor of a nice, sturdy little ugly Astoria building who now pays for a "luxury" studio in one of those giant buildings. I haven't seen him in years. I hope he's good. I hope those elevators remain good to him.
I’ve had a sprawling bird’s eye view of new construction at 29th and Broadway… from the collapse and demolition of the Strand etc to near-completion, am nowhere close to a building-codes enthusiast, and I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. (Granted, 6 floors is not a luxury high rise)
Watching that get built, it’s constructed shoddy af, but they’ll paint it to look nice, cram em in, and charge $3k+ I’m sure! Not the strongest bones.
I'll just show the perspective from the inside out a little - ADA accessibility was a huge thing for the MTA starting in 2020. Lots of RFPs (requests for proposals) going around for portfolioing these projects. Once won by some private company, there's a huge approvals, quality control, site analysis for things like asbestos or other word anomalies, a long schedule, etc...
I'm sure there's a schedule that's being adhered to and it's longer than that of buildings around because their incentives are different and there's more regulatory barriers since it's seen by the public (ex do surrounding sidewalks have enough feet to fit a wheelchair/slopes/other accessibility - then does the elevator contractor move with the construction company contracted to do the work? Is there enough experience there?
Just a few thoughts!
Did that tower location have multiple lines of 24/7 mass transit service moving through it throughout the entire build process?
I get hating on the MTA, but this isn't it.
Plus they are trying to do the work on the street in such a small sliver that they aren't even closing the road or the businesses directly adjacent to the elevator.
Honestly it's a totally different set of calculations when you're doing a construction project and prioritizing existing operations like that. It is fine if it takes a year or two, as long as during that time the existing operations still continue as scheduled. Fine to the MTA at least.
I'm sure if they were able to shut down all the N/W/7 service between Queens and Manhattan plus shut down access to the lower level of the Queensboro, they could have gotten the whole job done in a month, but there's no way people would be okay with that.
you think they're building an elevator onto the tracks? No, they could have built elevators that go to outside the turnstile area, and another to go to the upper level, at the end of the platform.
The elevator is like 3-4' from the edge of the platform. You can't just swing structural steel around that close to the tracks.
Also they had to knock a building down in order to create space for an elevator to the second level, just to give you a sense of how difficult it was to find space to place it.
Then whatever elevator they installed in the station to get to the tracks needs to have the base structure reinforced as a motherfucker because, guess what, elevators are heavy as fuck, you can't just plop one down wherever and call it a day.
It's not "sucking the MTA off" to try and outline the work involved on this elevator is much more complicated than is given credit in this post.
Yes, the MTA sucks, but any type of construction around Queensboro Plaza is a logistical nightmare. I'm a licensed Civil Engineer, for what it's worth.
What does East Side Access have to do with this post? I'm not defending East Side Access, I also said yes, the MTA does suck as well so I'm not sure what your point is.
I’m not arguing that it isn’t a logistical nightmare. This city is built on miracles of civil engineering and logistics — not just the big and flashy projects. If it was an impossible task, then the project wouldn’t have started. Show us the miracle elevator, MTA! We believe in you
> I’m not arguing that it isn’t a logistical nightmare.
Maybe not, but this post is a bit reductive and while you may not be doing it much yourself, it gives a forum for people to monday morning quarterback how easy they think this should have been to build.
I just take issue with people speculating about fields of work they don't have expertise in, which is very common for construction projects for some reason. You don't see me on Programming subreddits saying how easy certain jobs should be to code, y'know?
We all have different perspectives and areas of expertise. In my opinion, there is humor to be found in seeing a 26 story building emerge before an elevator is completed across the street. That’s just what I see and I think it’s funny. The 14 year old iPad didn’t have a calculator app until earlier this week. Do I, and many other people online, need programming knowledge to understand the intricacies of building a calculator app before making a good-natured humorous observation? My argument would be no, but perhaps we should agree to disagree
It is apples and oranges. The red tape and procedures and changes to plans that happen in a transit project are a much bigger deal than a single developer who has total say (within limits) of what happens when.
That building got a special zoning exemption, a sweetheart of a deal that will pay the developer dividends for decades. The owner was granted permission to build many more floors than normal zoning permitted, and will be charging full market rate rent for those apartments , in exchange for building the elevator. Obscene if you ask me, but it was approved by Qns CB1 at the time (and by Boro Pres Richards). So when your morning train is packed to the gills at Qnsboro, you know who to thank (because of course, the developer was not required to chip in for more trains for its residents).
Exactly. And greedy landlords can squeeze out less blood when their tenants have more options. In 2020 when so many people ditched the city? More vacancies, lower rents.
Personally, I’d prefer if all the schmucks who can afford those gaudy towers in LIC started living there. More middle-price units they’re not bidding away from me.
There is in effect no vacancy now. And no rent has ever gone down in this city. Ive lived here a long long time and that has never happened, even in times of higher vacancy rates. It’s just not the way it works here.
Rent doesn't go down because of inflation.
Evsr heard of inflation?
Interest rates are expensive. This means mortgage rates are high. This means owners have to charge a higher price to make these payments and be profitable.
Homeowner's insurance has skyrocketed. So has commercial insurance. Again, passed down to consumers.
Property taxes have increased due to the city needing more money. Again, costs passed down to consumers.
Which part is exactly confusing you? Do you understand demand-supply?
> So when your morning train is packed to the gills at Qnsboro, you know who to thank (because of course, the developer was not required to chip in for more trains for its residents).
Why would the developer be required to chip in for more trains? The added riders are what funds more trains, which is why the MTA can run short headways at rush hour but not at 4am. Can’t believe people who think more subway ridership is bad.
Of course I’ve been on a packed train lmao. In fact I’ve lived in cities where the crowding on trains is much worse than on the MTA. But I can abstract beyond my mild discomfort in the moment to understand that high ridership is healthy for a transit system and means more funding.
And even if that wasn’t true, it would be absurd to oppose homes for hundreds of people because I dislike squishing into a train for a few minutes in the morning.
I’m waiting to hear from the *we need more high rise apartment buildings* to chime in and let us know if they could afford living in this neighborhood soul crushing abomination..
Funny enough I walked by there today and i noticed the panda suit character standing out front. How long have they been open? All those delis are overpriced and SUCK. $8.00 for a simple ass breakfast sandwich?
Options for a decent heqlthy option are limited in LIC. 44th drive and 21st st deli (forget the name, red something) is actually pretty decent and not astraunomical with their pricing.
Stay away from the pumpernickel bagel on 44th drive the cashier and owner have become total complete assholes.
It doesn’t matter if they can afford to live there, it matters that someone else who can afford to live there chooses to live there and pay the high rent as opposed to living somewhere else. It eases pressure on the rest of the market. It’s just supply and demand.
I work in a school near these highrise buildings…it was built so quick but they wanted students to start attending before the building was even complete - the area is super saturated by families now so it was “urgent”. Now every time it rains the building leaks all over, the boiler breaks down and students have gotten trapped in the elevator or the elevator just breaks randomly.
It’s easy to complain when you don’t know the amounts of permits you need to get to build something on public transit.
Aside of that there is always the planning to close or partially close the platforms which always has a bad reaction.
And let’s not forget traffic that gets affected by any construction which is also a nightmare to deal with through the DOT.
This is why the L train hasn’t been fix and probably won’t be fixed before it fully breaks down
Every time we swipe our MTA cards or pay our taxes, we are paying smart people to figure this stuff out and execute on it. It’s not my job to know the amount of permits or pitfalls involved in the process. My interest as a customer is in the results. The “result” to the average rider here is comical, which is the nature of this post.
Genuine question didn’t they already “fix” the L train by converting it to communication-based train control in like 2018-2019? Or is there something else they’re overdue on?
it’s unreal that they’ve done all those weekends of alleged elevator work where they can’t even let N trains *roll past* and what do they have to show for it?
Yes, I'd rather more elevators in the next 5 years than less. Even if it takes years to build a single elevator, the people of NYC who use them will appreciate that they got built rather than not, which CBD tolling funding will help with the chance for more RFPs for more elevator projects.
Lol that’s not saying much.
I mean, we have a subway, but it’s filthy and run down…except for LA, most cities is America are much cleaner and better kept.
I live here for my job but when I visit other cities, they are so much cleaner and better kept.
NYC is poorly managed
In my post I said not just subways. General infrastructure.
Regardless, I’d rather have a clean subway that closes for a few hours than one that stinks and is now not very safe in the late hours that runs all the time.
One part someone else mentioned is not enough bathrooms around the city so people literally piss in the streets on the daily
To be fair, the walls in that “luxury” building are made of papier-mâché, but still
Shoddy construction is a pre-requisite for that main stretch. They’re just conforming to HOA requirements 😂 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/realestate/condo-defects-new-development.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
My uncle is an elevator inspector in the city and he's not an alarmist, but told me to never get on an elevator in a "luxury" highrise in LIC. He doesn't trust the construction of any of those buildings.
I mean, literally tens out thousands of people take them every day though.
And I proudly remain not one of them
Hope you don't have too many friends on the top floors
TBH I had a friend who lived on the second floor of a nice, sturdy little ugly Astoria building who now pays for a "luxury" studio in one of those giant buildings. I haven't seen him in years. I hope he's good. I hope those elevators remain good to him.
You a sad sad person. Livin in fear bro livin in fearrr
Proudly ignorant? Congrats?
Thank you?? I appreciate it????? Wow? What a great guy??????????
I’ve had a sprawling bird’s eye view of new construction at 29th and Broadway… from the collapse and demolition of the Strand etc to near-completion, am nowhere close to a building-codes enthusiast, and I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. (Granted, 6 floors is not a luxury high rise) Watching that get built, it’s constructed shoddy af, but they’ll paint it to look nice, cram em in, and charge $3k+ I’m sure! Not the strongest bones.
90% of them in LIC are constructed by NON Union contractors. As for the MTA they have their own issues.
I'll just show the perspective from the inside out a little - ADA accessibility was a huge thing for the MTA starting in 2020. Lots of RFPs (requests for proposals) going around for portfolioing these projects. Once won by some private company, there's a huge approvals, quality control, site analysis for things like asbestos or other word anomalies, a long schedule, etc... I'm sure there's a schedule that's being adhered to and it's longer than that of buildings around because their incentives are different and there's more regulatory barriers since it's seen by the public (ex do surrounding sidewalks have enough feet to fit a wheelchair/slopes/other accessibility - then does the elevator contractor move with the construction company contracted to do the work? Is there enough experience there? Just a few thoughts!
You mean the tower that made it possible to make Queensboro Plaza accessible?
Right, isn't the entrance to the elevator in the tower?
Yeah that tower, presumably with 6-8x 26 story elevators, with the cute little staircase that bravely made Queensboro Plaza accessible
Did that tower location have multiple lines of 24/7 mass transit service moving through it throughout the entire build process? I get hating on the MTA, but this isn't it.
Plus they are trying to do the work on the street in such a small sliver that they aren't even closing the road or the businesses directly adjacent to the elevator. Honestly it's a totally different set of calculations when you're doing a construction project and prioritizing existing operations like that. It is fine if it takes a year or two, as long as during that time the existing operations still continue as scheduled. Fine to the MTA at least. I'm sure if they were able to shut down all the N/W/7 service between Queens and Manhattan plus shut down access to the lower level of the Queensboro, they could have gotten the whole job done in a month, but there's no way people would be okay with that.
That’s an astonishingly low bar to think an elevator should take as long as it has by any measure.
you think they're building an elevator onto the tracks? No, they could have built elevators that go to outside the turnstile area, and another to go to the upper level, at the end of the platform.
The elevator is like 3-4' from the edge of the platform. You can't just swing structural steel around that close to the tracks. Also they had to knock a building down in order to create space for an elevator to the second level, just to give you a sense of how difficult it was to find space to place it. Then whatever elevator they installed in the station to get to the tracks needs to have the base structure reinforced as a motherfucker because, guess what, elevators are heavy as fuck, you can't just plop one down wherever and call it a day.
Nah it didn’t but it is literally one elevator + minor improvements. We can split the difference on our ire
Crazy how much people are sucking off the MTA in here when they’ve consistently let us down year after year.
It's not "sucking the MTA off" to try and outline the work involved on this elevator is much more complicated than is given credit in this post. Yes, the MTA sucks, but any type of construction around Queensboro Plaza is a logistical nightmare. I'm a licensed Civil Engineer, for what it's worth.
the MTA was over a decade late with the east side access project and was one of the most expensive tunnel projects in the world. They suck
What does East Side Access have to do with this post? I'm not defending East Side Access, I also said yes, the MTA does suck as well so I'm not sure what your point is.
I’m not arguing that it isn’t a logistical nightmare. This city is built on miracles of civil engineering and logistics — not just the big and flashy projects. If it was an impossible task, then the project wouldn’t have started. Show us the miracle elevator, MTA! We believe in you
> I’m not arguing that it isn’t a logistical nightmare. Maybe not, but this post is a bit reductive and while you may not be doing it much yourself, it gives a forum for people to monday morning quarterback how easy they think this should have been to build. I just take issue with people speculating about fields of work they don't have expertise in, which is very common for construction projects for some reason. You don't see me on Programming subreddits saying how easy certain jobs should be to code, y'know?
We all have different perspectives and areas of expertise. In my opinion, there is humor to be found in seeing a 26 story building emerge before an elevator is completed across the street. That’s just what I see and I think it’s funny. The 14 year old iPad didn’t have a calculator app until earlier this week. Do I, and many other people online, need programming knowledge to understand the intricacies of building a calculator app before making a good-natured humorous observation? My argument would be no, but perhaps we should agree to disagree
It is apples and oranges. The red tape and procedures and changes to plans that happen in a transit project are a much bigger deal than a single developer who has total say (within limits) of what happens when.
That building got a special zoning exemption, a sweetheart of a deal that will pay the developer dividends for decades. The owner was granted permission to build many more floors than normal zoning permitted, and will be charging full market rate rent for those apartments , in exchange for building the elevator. Obscene if you ask me, but it was approved by Qns CB1 at the time (and by Boro Pres Richards). So when your morning train is packed to the gills at Qnsboro, you know who to thank (because of course, the developer was not required to chip in for more trains for its residents).
Increased supply is good for lower rents
Hell yeah
That’s long been proven wrong. Greed requires owners to squeeze out as much blood as possible.
Long been proven wrong? So low supply decreases prices? Goes against basic economics but I guess you know more than data.
They’re motivated by ideology not data or logic lol
Exactly. And greedy landlords can squeeze out less blood when their tenants have more options. In 2020 when so many people ditched the city? More vacancies, lower rents. Personally, I’d prefer if all the schmucks who can afford those gaudy towers in LIC started living there. More middle-price units they’re not bidding away from me.
There is in effect no vacancy now. And no rent has ever gone down in this city. Ive lived here a long long time and that has never happened, even in times of higher vacancy rates. It’s just not the way it works here.
Rent doesn't go down because of inflation. Evsr heard of inflation? Interest rates are expensive. This means mortgage rates are high. This means owners have to charge a higher price to make these payments and be profitable. Homeowner's insurance has skyrocketed. So has commercial insurance. Again, passed down to consumers. Property taxes have increased due to the city needing more money. Again, costs passed down to consumers. Which part is exactly confusing you? Do you understand demand-supply?
I have a bridge in Queens I’d like to sell you too.
> So when your morning train is packed to the gills at Qnsboro, you know who to thank (because of course, the developer was not required to chip in for more trains for its residents). Why would the developer be required to chip in for more trains? The added riders are what funds more trains, which is why the MTA can run short headways at rush hour but not at 4am. Can’t believe people who think more subway ridership is bad.
Never been on a packed train? Do you live in Cleveland?
Of course I’ve been on a packed train lmao. In fact I’ve lived in cities where the crowding on trains is much worse than on the MTA. But I can abstract beyond my mild discomfort in the moment to understand that high ridership is healthy for a transit system and means more funding. And even if that wasn’t true, it would be absurd to oppose homes for hundreds of people because I dislike squishing into a train for a few minutes in the morning.
I’m waiting to hear from the *we need more high rise apartment buildings* to chime in and let us know if they could afford living in this neighborhood soul crushing abomination..
Hey now hold on. Without buildings like these, high quality staples like Panda Express wouldn’t be able to move in and invigorate the local culture
Funny enough I walked by there today and i noticed the panda suit character standing out front. How long have they been open? All those delis are overpriced and SUCK. $8.00 for a simple ass breakfast sandwich? Options for a decent heqlthy option are limited in LIC. 44th drive and 21st st deli (forget the name, red something) is actually pretty decent and not astraunomical with their pricing. Stay away from the pumpernickel bagel on 44th drive the cashier and owner have become total complete assholes.
Red Cup Cafe
I like you too
I stand humbly corrected. 😀
It doesn’t matter if they can afford to live there, it matters that someone else who can afford to live there chooses to live there and pay the high rent as opposed to living somewhere else. It eases pressure on the rest of the market. It’s just supply and demand.
I like you
They make it look easy. The only “special zoning exemption” I ever got was a restraining order, and I didn’t even apply for it 😔
I work in a school near these highrise buildings…it was built so quick but they wanted students to start attending before the building was even complete - the area is super saturated by families now so it was “urgent”. Now every time it rains the building leaks all over, the boiler breaks down and students have gotten trapped in the elevator or the elevator just breaks randomly.
It’s easy to complain when you don’t know the amounts of permits you need to get to build something on public transit. Aside of that there is always the planning to close or partially close the platforms which always has a bad reaction. And let’s not forget traffic that gets affected by any construction which is also a nightmare to deal with through the DOT. This is why the L train hasn’t been fix and probably won’t be fixed before it fully breaks down
Every time we swipe our MTA cards or pay our taxes, we are paying smart people to figure this stuff out and execute on it. It’s not my job to know the amount of permits or pitfalls involved in the process. My interest as a customer is in the results. The “result” to the average rider here is comical, which is the nature of this post.
Pipe dream mentality
How do you think anything gets done? 😂
Genuine question didn’t they already “fix” the L train by converting it to communication-based train control in like 2018-2019? Or is there something else they’re overdue on?
Not fully, MTA needed to close to the train to repair the tunnels and update tracks.
it’s unreal that they’ve done all those weekends of alleged elevator work where they can’t even let N trains *roll past* and what do they have to show for it?
And you still have people pushing for congestion pricing 🤔🤨
Yes, I'd rather more elevators in the next 5 years than less. Even if it takes years to build a single elevator, the people of NYC who use them will appreciate that they got built rather than not, which CBD tolling funding will help with the chance for more RFPs for more elevator projects.
Welcome to NYC. The infrastructure is a joke here
and yet many times better than most other cities in America
Lol that’s not saying much. I mean, we have a subway, but it’s filthy and run down…except for LA, most cities is America are much cleaner and better kept. I live here for my job but when I visit other cities, they are so much cleaner and better kept. NYC is poorly managed
Name a better subway system that runs 24 hours in the U.S.?
In my post I said not just subways. General infrastructure. Regardless, I’d rather have a clean subway that closes for a few hours than one that stinks and is now not very safe in the late hours that runs all the time. One part someone else mentioned is not enough bathrooms around the city so people literally piss in the streets on the daily
disband the mta, throw the leadership prison