WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JANUARY 10, 2019 13
MAKING
MEANINGFUL
RESOLUTIONS
It’s January 2019, and another year
of resolutions where many will fail or
to be forgotten as the year goes on.
Some will make resolutions to lose
weight, get healthy habits, exercise
and even generate a positive nature.
But instead, let’s do things that we can
all do and accomplish and that will
take little eff ort.
Let’s do things for others by giving
to our local charities, food kitchens,
food pantries, and even giving the
gift of life by donating blood if we can.
Here are some other things we can do
and that is wherever we go like a store,
business or apartment please open a
door for a neighbor or stranger. When
we get on a bus, train or subway please
give up a seat for a handicapped or elderly
person and in general show acts
of kindness for those in need, if only
just a kind word.
All these things I feel are things we
all can do for others and make our
communities a better place to live and
that is a good New Year’s resolution in
my book.
Frederick R. Bedell, Glen Oaks Village
KEEPING THE
VOICE STRONG
Back at you to all my friends at The
Queens Courier (“Don’t Forget To
Write,” Editorial, Jan. 3). I’m grateful
that you have aff orded me the opportunity
to express my views via your
letters to the editor section along with
others who may have diff erent opinions
on the issues of the day. Thanks
to you, an ordinary citizen like myself
has the freedom to comment on the
actions and legislation of elected
offi cials.
Public offi cials use taxpayers dollars
to promote their views, via mass
mailings of newsletters, news releases,
letters to the editor and guest opinion
page columns. In many cases, they
are produced or written by campaign
or offi ce staff ers who are paid for by
taxpayers.
The rest of us have limited time to
submit a letter. Let us thank those few
brave souls who are willing to take
on the establishment and powerful
special interest groups in the pages of
your letters to the editor section. They
fi ll a valuable niche in the information
highway.
Patronize their advertisers; they
provide the revenues necessary to
keep them in business. Let them know
you saw their ad. This is what helps
keep our neighbors employed, the
local economy growing and provide
space on a weekly basis for your favorite
or not-so-favorite letter writers.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
Email your letters to editorial@qns.
com (Subject: Letter to the Editor) or
leave a comment to any of our stories
at QNS.com. You can also send a letter
by regular mail to Letters to the Editor,
38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All
letters are subject to editing. Names will
be withheld upon request, but anonymous
letters will not be considered for
publication. The views expressed in all
letters and comments are not necessarily
those of this newspaper or its staff .
LETTERS AND COMMENTS
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Amazon ties in with LIC’s history
BY JACK EICHENBAUM
Lost in the discussions,
speeches and protests
on Amazon’s imminent
arrival in Long Island City has
been the important historical
context.
While some are concerned
about the fi nancial incentives
off ered, and others are worried
about infrastructure and
access to jobs, we would be wise
to bear in mind that the arrival
of a major new employer in this
western Queens neighborhood
could be a positive step toward
returning Long Island City to
its long-held status as a bustling
hub for jobs.
In the early nineteenth
century, industrial activity
in NYC was confi ned to the
South Street Seaport area
of lower Manhattan. But by
1854, investors built a rail
connection from Flushing to
the Queens waterfront in the
area we now call Long Island
City. This proved to be an
advantageous — and unchallenged
— area for industrial
transshipment and the Long
Island Rail Road soon built a
competitive line from Jamaica
to the same waterfront.
Nearly 150 years ago, before
Queens became a part of NYC,
a consortium of railroad and
industrial magnates came
together to incorporate a new
municipality — Long Island
City. Nearly 30 years later, the
area had already become bustling
with factories and jobs.
One of the proponents of
this eff ort was the industrialist
Henry S. Anable, for whom
Anable Basin — the inlet on
the waterfront, and the future
home of Amazon’s future
northeast headquarters — is
named. But the city of LIC
was poorly managed and in
debt. Consolidation into the
Greater NYC erased that debt
but ended self-determination
for the municipality.
Long Island City of the late
1800s through the 1950s was a
busy hive of activity, the industrial
heart of the metropolis.
Factories produced staplers
and chewing gum, oil and sugar
refi neries sprawled across
the area, and freight and passenger
rail brought goods and
people by the carload.
Thousands of workers
— many of them recent immigrants
— went to work daily
in this bustling jobs mecca.
Workforce housing at Queensbridge,
Sunnyside, Astoria and
beyond housed these workers,
and their jobs were a quick
walk or transit ride away.
Beginning in the 1960s
and accelerating through
the 1980s, Long Island City’s
industrial landscape shifted,
as many jobs went to lower
cost environments out-of-state
and overseas. The population
of the entire borough contracted,
and the working class
struggled mightily. Long Island
City became known for crime,
prostitution and abandoned
buildings.
Now, with Amazon’s arrival,
we are arguably at the
precipice of a new era for Long
Island City.
With tens of thousands
of jobs on offer, this new
headquarters may house the
second-largest private employer
in the entire city, and the
largest in the history of Queens.
A well-designed campus at Anable
Basin has the potential to
build upon the recent successes
of reclamation and remediation
of the entire Long Island
City waterfront for public use
— a process that started with the
Queens West development in
the early 1980s and continues
with Hunters Point South today.
Certainly, there are voices
raising legitimate concerns
about the project, but I cautiously
view Amazon’s arrival
in Long Island City as a positive
development in the context of
the area’s long history.
The next chapter in Long
Island City will be about its reemergence
within New York
City and around the world as
a place that drives innovation
and employs New Yorkers.
Dr. Jack Eichenbaum has
served as Queens Borough Historian
since 2010, has a doctorate
from the University of Michigan
in Urban Geography, and
is a lifelong observer of NYC.
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