Category: Astoria

Biking in Astoria

Astoria is Ugly

But that doesn’t mean we don’t love it! Check out this new tumbler blog.

“…Cause that’s where I’m from!”

Representing my home borough (even though I’m not from here… and the line I’m quoting is actually talking about Brooklyn). Click through to read the text. The real reason Astoria might be so great is that, as I just found out, the best food cart in NYC may be here… and I haven’t even tried…
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Do Not Recycle!

Not that we want to be, but you know we’ll never be like Brooklyn when you see signs like this.And it’s my beloved Tradefair on 30th Ave. I wonder if they’ll bust me when I sneak a bag in the store. It could get exciting! Maybe their wall of shame is filled with hipster eco…
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East Good Bread! (please)

Astorians, allow me to be blunt: you have shitty taste in bread. Or maybe you have good taste, but bread in Astoria sucks. There was a great french bakery on Broadway. It closed because people complained it was more expensive than the bad bakeries. Duh… because they take time to make bread right and use…
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Astoria Bike’s Guide to Queens’ Streets

“In Queens, to find locations best…” [Sound of needle dropping and record scratching. Replaced with proper Queens beat.] Roads, drives, streets and lanes.Most have numbers,But some have names! Queens is manic, And the grid’s no good.So you gotta not panic,To find our hood. Streets and avenues run opposite ’hattan,And the ave’s go up as you…
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Still lost?

In the Times, J. David Goodman says I quote E.P. Butler’s rhyming verse affectionately. I mention this only in order to quote an article in the Times that quotes me quoting an article in the Times. Meta reference in the house! Now if they reference this, I promise to reference that, and which point The…
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Get lost?

Don’t forget this ditty from the Dec 3, 1926 New York Times:Verse Affords Means to Get About Queens — E. P. Butler’s Rhyming System Guides All Folks When Street Plans Twist ‘Em. I want to get this framed in needlepoint. I don’t why; I just do. In Queens, to find locations bestAvenues, roads and drives…
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Jersey Farm Stand in Astoria

On that least rural and worst of streets to bike down, there’s a Jersey farm stand in Astoria! He’s there Saturday and Monday. It’s on 21st Street, west side, between 30th Road and 30th Drive (next block from the post office).   Good stuff. Good produce. Give him business.

Why I should leave the house more

Of all the places for heaven on earth, people rarely think of Queens. I was just about to get to work when a friend called and said to meet him in the park for a picnic. So off we went to meet him and his son. My friend, a Steinway-Street restaurant owner, is a well…
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Bike Lanes Update

The DOT has confirmed that there will be no bike lanes above 29thStreet on Hoyt/Astoria Blvd. The proposed bike lanes in the AstoriaTriangle Redesign were eliminated due to CB1 opposition. However, given this change, the DOT has decided to widen the parking laneswhere the bike lanes were supposed to be, so as to give cyclists…
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