TRIP TO VENICE Birthday Parties and Family Events Let us host your child’s next birthday party or other private occasion! My Treehouse can create specially tailored programs and work shops for your next family- friendly event. MY TREEHOUSE Early Development Center 46-07 Vernon Blvd., LIC • 718-734-8862 WWW.MYTREEHOUSELIC.COM ■REAL ESTATE I have just returned from an off-season touring of Italy. You can definitely say it’s a whole different world when it comes to real estate - buildings, squares and portions of water systems dating back thousands of years. There are storefronts, parks and canals built hundreds of years ago, before our city, New Amsterdam, was even a dream. The older infrastructure brings many challenges. If you think NYC’s always aging and degrading subway tunnels or pre-war apartment buildings are difficult to maintain and keep safe, just imagine the ancient ruins on top of which much of Rome sits, not to mention old Venice’s entire population living, studying and working atop an ever-sinking original foundation. Venice’s condition of buildings is the stuff of Department of Building’s (DOB) nightmares. A According to Wikipedia “The buildings of Venice are constructed on closely spaced wooden piles. Most of these piles are still intact after centuries of submersion. The foundations rest on plates by david dynak of Istrian limestone placed on top of the piles, and buildings of brick or stone sit above these footings. The piles penetrate a softer layer of sand and mud until they reach a much harder layer of compressed clay. Submerged by water, in oxygen-poor conditions, COMING SOON My Treehouse Early Development Center Childcare and creative learning for infants, toddlers, pre-k and school-age children We provide a safe environment and a nurturing staff so children can explore and learn through art, music, reading, movement, and dramatic play. Programs at the Treehouse H Full-day infant and toddler care H After-school classes, summer camps, and summer bridge programs H Weekday and weekend classes, including ballet, yoga, music, and reading H Private tutoring available Call from the LIC Magazine for Special Prices! wood does not decay as rapidly as on the surface.” Although only 60,000 people live in the historic part of the Floating City, you can bet the majority of our modern construction codes are not met. The stone stairs to my hotel in Venice were at a 20 degree angle and elevators in some residential buildings and hotels in Rome and Florence would not fit a stroller, never mind qualify as handicap-accessible (ADA compliant). Sprinklers? I did not notice any in all of Venice, including restaurants and stores. Some streets would not even meet NYC building codes for an interior hallway, as they were narrower than 3 feet. Observing how building materials have to be delivered for any renovation project, I realized how easy we have it here. Bath tubs rolled on dollies over numerous bridges (none of which have ramps, stairs only, by the way) manually; sheetrock delivered by small boat via canals in increments of 10 sheets; a demolition boat the size of a large van is all you get to pick up your debris. It explains why costs of renovating and any repairs in Venice must be astronomical, never mind politics and logistics of any new construction. I was told, however, by an Italian landlord who owns one of our listings on the Upper East Side, that obtaining permits and submitting building plans in modern cities like Milan, is actually much quicker and less bureaucratic than getting anything done in NYC (he is adding 11 stories on top of his building in New York). He has extensive experience in both worlds so I do trust his opinion. So much for much-ridiculed Italian bureaucracy! NYC DOB is much worse, apparently. Venice’s history of population and commerce itself, however, has a lot in common with New York. It was famous for its wealth and influence on the entire Western and Eastern world for over 400 years, as it was Europe’s most prosperous city and a naval and trade power by the 13th century. Despite being a starting point to many Crusades to the Middle East, it’s been known for its diverse population and freedom of religion even when the rest of Europe was under the Pope’s tight grip. It was a melting pot of peoples due to its water trade influence, and controlled cities as far as Crete and Cyprus, and even played a major role in conquering Byzantium. It has reinvented itself a number of times, from fishing and ship building, to international trade, followed by plunder of other nations, then by industry and art, and even became the earliest printing capital of the world by the late 1400s. Today, it’s mostly tourism but apparently ship building industry is still significant. Although our city’s constant construction and expansion has allowed us to evolve and much of the old and unsafe structures have been knocked down or upgraded, unlike Venice’s, my musings about the City of Water share many traits with NYC, albeit on a different scale today. It’s not much of a real estate column, I realize, but I am proud to call the city home that today - based on its real estate alone, never mind art, commerce and diversity - could easily hold the designation of La Dominante to itself, bar none! David Dynak is a real estate broker at First Pioneer Properties and an LIC resident. He’s lived in Western Queens since 1993.
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