Pedestrian plazas and more in the QNYC Evening Edition for Wednesday Sept 12, 2012

Pedestrian plaza in Astoria voted down by CB1

Pedestrian plazas are on a lot of people’s minds lately. One might come to Ridgewood. Same goes for Glendale. Corona has a big one up and running. Astoria was possibly on track for one, too, but the Community Board 1 voted it down last night 25 to 7, which was disheartening to a lot in the room, judging by the response. The opposition to the plaza rejoiced. Everyone had their reasons to support or reject the idea. One thing is certain – the intersection that is so dangerous will have curb extensions (AKA bulb outs) put in place to make the area safer. This plan has been approved by the Community Board. One last detail – the curb extensions will cost $400,000 whereas the pedestrian plaza would cost $75,000.

This week HGTV Home By Novogratz came to LIC and transformed an apartment living room

Here’s what happened.

“HGTV Home By Novogratz visited Long Island City to maximize the living room space in a two-bedroom Queens apartment. The Koch family wanted to turn their squared off living room into a multi-purpose area. Cortney and Bob Novogratz managed to turn the space into a living room, dining room, playroom and home office.”

Sounds like they did a good job and the Kochs were pretty happy. Some of the changes included covering the a/c unit, painting the orange walls grey, putting in some white shelving, adding art to the walls, and adding new furniture (including a vintage blue chair). It all worked. Apartment Therapy has some pictures of the transformation.

Help out street trees in your neighborhood by becoming a citizen pruner

Did you know that you can become a citizen pruner and help take care of street trees in NYC? Register for the Citizen Pruner Tree Care Course, run by TreesNY (an environmental and urban forestry nonprofit organization). The course teaches ordinary New Yorkers tree care, biology, identification and pruning of trees.

The course schedule has been posted and there are courses in all five boroughs. In Queens, the course takes place at 47-40 21st Street in Long Island City on the following dates: Thursday, September 27, 6-8pm; Thursday, October 4, 6-8pm; Thursday, October 11, 6-8pm; Saturday, October 13, 10am-2pm; Thursday, October 18, 6-8pm. It’s $100 for the 5 classes. You can register here.

Astoria, get ready for Australian-inspired food on Ditmars

The old Spiced location (it was an Indian Chinese spot that was spotty at best) at 35-12 Ditmars Blvd (GMAP) is becoming Thirsty Koala, which will serve Australian-inspired food. Astoria hasn’t seen anything having to do with Australian food before, and we’re looking forward to checking it out. And we wonder if vegemite will make it on the menu. Look for them in November 2012.

Only 7 units left at The Contour in Rego Park

Checking in on the availability of apartments in The Contour, looks like there’s only 7 left, most of them penthouses. This rental building seems to be doing very well, from the looks of the remaining inventory.