Saturday In Flushing Queens New York - Chartered Territory

One of the most overlooked boroughs in the city of New York, next to Staten Island, has to be the Borough of Queens. There is much that Queens has to offer including a great quality of life, bedroom communities and a sense of neighbors and neighborhoods.

The focus of this post is my short weekend travel to Flushing Queens and its bustling community, including it's own Chinatown. Yes, Chinatown, which rivals the Chinatown we all know as being in Manhattan at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. That community and neighborhood is for another day.

I took the 7 train to the last stop, Main Street and just did a little footwork and walked down to Northern Boulevard and walked back to Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street. Along the way, I took some photos of the neighborhood, to show the Chinese flavor of the neighborhood, with its jewelry stores, banks, restaurants and trading stores. This was old stomping grounds as we used to play touch football in a league across from Flushing High School on 149th Street and 25th Avenue.


Pedestrian Traffic on Main Street


I dined at the La Coral Cafe - It was very good Chinese cuisine. I had Duck Wonton Soup.


Just another restaurant showing the diversity of the cuisine in Flushing Chinatown.




A view from Main Street of a Trading Store



Long Island Rail Road Flushing - Main Street Station


A fresh fish, vegetable and fruit stand on Kissena Boulevard

My mission for the day was not to go and take pictures of Chinatown-Flushing. My mission was to go and purchase a mountain bike. When we used to play football in Queens, we won the semi-finals for our league and came within a game of winning the league championship. Of course, we won a substantial amount of money, so we went to a Mets game (this was in April), froze and before going home, we asked around the Flushing neighborhood, where a bicycle shop could be found.

We were directed to Kissena Boulevard and we walked about 6 blocks and found the bike shop of our dreams. Cannondale, Schwinn, Mongoose, Raleigh - this store had it all and the prices were not Manhattan-esque. The prices are reasonable, the service is fantastic and we have been going to this bike shop for the past 10 years.


Its called the Kissena Bicycle Center located at 45-70 Kissena Boulevard, 718-358-0986


My Bicycle - Mongoose 27- Speed Mountain Bike

Tomorrows post will be about my visit to Shea Stadium and the new Shea Stadium in the rain

A View To A Kill

While waiting for my train on the Jamaica station platform of the LIRR, I happened to glance around and noticed the proximity of Club Kalua to both the LIRR tracks, station and the AirTrain station, which had an errant shot come its way. Nothing really to make of it but the view was interesting.

Here are two pictures of Club Kalua, scene of the Sean Bell shooting and killing.



Note the Air Train columns in the foreground



and a closer view of Club Kalua

New Blog of New York-Centric Things

While I spend most of my time blogging about topics related to various subjects, most of these topics are created in my off time and while traveling around the City of New York. I don't have a special love for New York though but it does have a whole host of topics that I can get creative with and with my trusty camera in hand, I have created a new blog which will have all topics generated in my off time. Stay tuned for this as I have 35 topics with their associated pictures and videos of some pretty unique places in and around New York City, including restaurants and cruise ship terminals. The blog address is:

http://newyorktristate.blogspot.com/. The posts will start coming fast in furious in a day or so. Let's see how powerful this blog, backed by a few English and French community forums, can be in promoting and demoting consumer causes and questionable business concerns. This will be the first post tomorrow.

There Ought To Be A Law - The Newtown Creek Travesty

I had been planning on taking a walking tour of the area in and around Newtown Creek in Brooklyn, which has been a part of the federal Superfund cleanup program for as long as I can remember. This being in the center of one of the largest cities in the world and in a robust residential area makes this slow cleanup and continued contamination almost criminal...well, criminal. In Greenpoint where most of this spill is centered, the residents complain of high incidences of cancer, birth defects and other afflictions. I went down to the beginning of the Newtown Creek and followed it at different points and took the following pictures. As a child, we used to go down to what we referred to as "the freight yard" and played tag along the rail road tracks and the rail bridge and no, no one ever fell in. The last person who probably swam in the Newtown Creek, were probably members of George Washington's army during the revolution as that was probably the last time the Newtown Creek was clean enough for it.



This is an old building, still in operation, at the beginning of the freight rail yard that leads to the railroad bridge over the Newtown Creek. Note the 1858.



Here is a look at the rail corrider to the entrance of the rail bridge over the Newtown Creek




Here is a look at the beginning of the Newtown Creek. Note the ducks and geese in this putrid liquidway (can't call it water)




Here is another look at the beginning of the Newtown_Creek. Note the geese.



Here is the first picture of Newtown Creek on our little stroll upstream. Note the containment boom. I'm not a marine biologist or an environmental expert but isn't a containment boom supposed to either contain something or keep something from getting in or out? Guess what business this containment boom was deployed next to? See the next photo:




and the next:



You may be able to see the containment boom along the shoreline with a two feet gap to contain whatever it is that it's meant to contain. "Black gold, Texas tea, well the first thing you know...Sorry, I was humming a few lines from the Beverly Hillbillies.



Had to quickly circle back. This is under the railroad bridge at the beginning of the Newtown Creek.



A fish-less liquidway



Upstream on Newtown Creek. Eerily lifeless

New York SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) Inaugural Meetup

For the past month, in my office, we have been gearing up for the inaugural New York SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) meetup. Initially, Sara Holoubek (saraholoubek.com), free agent consultant, columnist and SEMPO board member had space booked at Double Clicks offices with space for up to 100 people but because of the overwhelming, positive response for the meetup, it was moved to Yahoo's Offices, which had room for over 100 people, which allowed this writer to attend. (See Photos):



Much thanks go to the sponsors of this event, namely, Yahoo and Clickable. The space and the refreshments were very much appreciated and set the theme for this very unique Search Engine Marketing users group. See Photos:



All succulent appetizers and beverages provided by Clickable and Yahoo




Items in this picture appear closer than they actually are



A Place to go to wash everything down




The 2nd Place to wash everything down

After arriving and sampling the food, the meeting was called to order by David Fall, VP, Product Management - Search Technology for Double Click and SEMPO Board Member who presented an eloquent introduction about SEMPO, it's purpose and goals and how the New York SEMPO meetup factors in. (See Photo of David below)



Followed by David, was Sara Holoubek, who was born to lead the New York SEMPO meetups. She skillfully illicited key future discussion points, stayed on message and gave both sponsors (Yahoo, Clickable) their due. She allowed this writer, an SEO Specialist for Martindale-Hubbell, to compile this little pictorial and she gave floor time to Maia Benson of Martindale-Hubbell to speak about the SEO initiatives underway at Martindale for all of its clients. (See Photo of Sara holoubek below)



As we moved from discussion to "liquid refreshments", this writer knows that the stewardship of the New York SEMPO meetups are in good hands with the likes of David Fall and Sara Holoubek. For more information on membership in SEMPO, visit the SEMPO website

New York Pennylvania Station Announcer is An Institution

I was waiting for my train in Penn Station this morning and I took out my camera just to record the audio of the New York Pennsylvania station announcer who is female and has been doing this for over 30 years. I can remember when I was going to a gym out in Iselin NJ in 1986 and this same announcer, announcing the train departures and arrivals for both Amtrak and New Jersey transit. Of course, New York Penn Station is the hub for the Long Island Rail Road, New York City subway and of course, Madison Square Garden. As New York Penn Station serves 4.2 million passengers a week, this woman's voice is an institution.



New York Pennsylvania Station and Amtrak Train Schedules

Updated on May 29, 2008:

Here is a story that the New York Times ran about the Penn Station Announcer which my blog post featured:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/nyregion/11amtrak.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=amtrak%20announcer&st=cse&oref=slogin

'Twas a New Jersey Car Accident or Personal Injury Waiting To Happen

I was on my way to work this morning at 7:08am and I was on 78 near Union New Jersey when I heard a pop and the engine started smoking. Being the cool guy that I am, I checked that I was clear on my right hand side and eased the vehicle into the "distress lane". I remembered that I left my cell phone home, so it was sit there and wait for a New Jersey state trooper to come to my aid. Well, a New Jersey state trooper never came but an older gentlemen did pull up, in an emergency vehicle. let me use his cell phone and called a tow truck. He said the tow truck may come in 15 minutes or it may come in an hour.

The tow truck came: See photo:



This is what pissed me off: This is my brothers "vehicle". He was going to Florida and needed me to take him to the airport at 4am Sunday nite/Monday morning. So that he did not have to pay for a cab ($45 to LaGuardia) he asked me to drive and told me to use his car to drive to work. Now, I was just fine taking the train althought it was 110 - 120 minutes each way but it was stable. If you tell me to use your vehicle, wouldn't it have been nice to let me know if there were existing problems with this vehicle?

See photo:



I was looking at the vehicles zip by me at 70 - 100mph and noticed that some of them were a little bit too close, so I got a "America's Craziest Vehicle Crashes While Waiting on 78 For A Rescue Vehicle" video flashback, so I moved over to the passenger seat and invented brand new, never before heard curse words about my brother. I could have been in a car or auto accident in New Jersey. Wait, there were more tractor trailers coming too close to me, so I would have been in a truck accident in New Jersey and where I did move to the passenger side, I would have suffered some sort of personal injury on this New Jersey highway and it made me think about what safety measures to take when a. your brother gives you a vehicle to drive to work in, that was Nissans first ever test vehicle made and b. where could I find such safety information on the web.

It does not go without saying that my brother is like the Collyer Brothers with his vehicle. Enough already! Let's throw this car away and get a new one! There was one thing I have always said I will never borrow: someones underwear. Now there are two: any of my brothers' vehicles.