This is just a reminder that the Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee (TAQC)  will be holding its monthly meeting this evening at 6:30 PM at the Greater Astoria Historical Society, 35-20 Broadway, on the 4th floor of the Thomas M. Quinn & Sons Memorials and Funeral Home. Easy to get to from both the Steinway Street stop on the R, V lines and the Broadway stop on the N, W lines.

If you’re interested in bicycling around our great borough, and representin’ central Queens, this is the committe for you.

Thanks to comrade blogger, Forest Hills 72, for inquiring about the TA Queens Committee’s mission. Read the comments page to learn more about the inner workings and goals of the TAQC, and read my Forest Hills-Park Slope round-trip biking route.

There will be a packed agenda and lots to discuss, and lots of ways to get involved.  I also look forward to getting everyone’s opinion on a variety of topics. 

Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee advocates on behalf of cyclists, pedestrians, and mass transit users, in Queens.  They meet the 2nd Monday each month (unless otherwise noted) at the Greater Astoria Historical Society from 6:30p-8p.  All are welcome to join.

I spent this evening at the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden in Astoria — shockingly, the first time I’d ever been there. The place was hopping, as, I’m told, it usually is. Great atmosphere, good Czech food, one of the only beers I’ll drink (Hoegaarden) on tap. Crowd was hip, but not too hip — perhaps not coincidentally, much like Astoria itself. And, as usual, I used the occasion to philosophize about what makes a neighborhood fashionable.

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As we all know, Austin Street’s shiny new Martha’s Country Bakery is an outpost of a popular Astoria joint, but I only recently learned that the four-week-old Latin Cabana Express — which I had thought was oddly named; why “Express”? — is actually from the people behind Astoria’s Latin Cabana. ‘Sfar as Manhattan-alternative Queens neighborhoods go, consensus says that Astoria has us beat on the food front, so for the record, I’m all for Astorian entrepreneurs heading east in droves. Let’s hope these two places are just the beginning of a larger trend. The early returns seem to be pointing to success for both, so if you’re smart, Astoria restaurateurs, you’ll know what to do.

Can I make an entire blogging career out of recycling the same idea? Sure looks like it! At OuterB, Astorian harpsichordist Meg Cotner contributes an op-ed about my “hipsters don’t like nice neighborhoods” theory, which I salvaged the other day from the scrap heap of January. Her contention is that hipsters — she claims to be too old to be one, but come on, she’s a harpsichordist – like Astoria, and Astoria is nice. Ah, but Astoria is a big place, much bigger than Forest Hills, and I would suggest it has its grungy parts. Walking around there just a couple of weeks ago, I certainly ran into a few, just blocks away from some of the more ritzy parts of town. Don’t get me wrong — by “grungy,” I don’t necessarily mean dangerous and gross, I just mean a little ramshackle and chock-a-block with industrial architecture.

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