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.

Wow, I am shocked, shocked that this is being allowed to happen!

OK, enough sarcasm. The New York Times has an article about Bukharans building McMansions in the Cord Meyer area. Thank you to Sarah on our forum for posting the link.

In typical New York Times fashion, by the time the story is covered, it is usually about 3 years too late, the issue is usually over, not trendy anymore or there’s nothing that can be done about it.

Thanks to Maspeth activist-about-town Christina Wilkinson for this one: After a night of drinking, someone ended up dead on the kitchen floor of a federal Customs agent’s Forest Hills home. The circumstances are hazy, but you can add that to the seemingly growing file of bizarre local deaths.

I’ve got a sudden flood of Things You Should Know About, so why not share them all right here? And heck, why not drag out the ol’ bulleted list?

• The always-underutilized West Side Tennis Club is playing host to not one but two events. This weekend the American Cancer Society will hold a “Relay for Life,” where people will be perpetually moving around a track and candles will be lit to honor cancer victims and survivors. They also promise “entertainment all night,” and try finding that somewhere else in Forest Hills. Registration is at 5 p.m. this Saturday.
• But first! Today (Tuesday, that is) my one-time tennis fave, Jim Courier, will be at the Club to host a clinic for kids. That’s at 3:45. There’ll be “skills, drills and Q&A,” plus free strawberries and cream to honor Jimmy’s Wimbledon success. I was informed in somewhat unclear language that this event might not be open to the public, so I’m not sure whether you, the common folk, may go. But I don’t know, call and find out! What, they’re going to turn away your tennis-loving kid? He or she could be a member one day!
• I thought Tierra Sana, the West FoHi health-food destination, was already open and had been for some time. But no, it seems they’re holding a Grand Opening event this Thursday! Dinner is at 7:30. It looks like there’ve been a few changes since I last visited, so it might be worth checking out.

Returning NYC ex-pat Michael Jaye sure hopes so!

In about a week, he is opening NY Diamond Boutique, a new fine jewelry store on Austin Street - which happens to be diagonally across the street from Chateau Jewelers! Wow, talk about having big rocks!

While window-shopping on the strip this Sunday, I came across preparations already in progress at his new store. I had a short chat with Mr. Jaye about his store and business on Austin Street. He’s been in the fine jewelry business for 20 years and returned to NYC after business was flagging at his store in the tony Buckhead area of Atlanta, GA — “Where old money lives, new money parties.”

So, nu? Why Austin Street, when other small retailers are closing? Why put up with the high rents? Why so near other jewelry stores like Chateau, Stoa, GemStory?

Mr. Jaye was very relaxed and confident about competing with the other jewelry stores in the area. He told me that, after extensive research, he found Forest Hills to have the best demographic and parameters for his store: lots of pedestrian and street traffic, “buyers, not browsers,” and, in general, shoppers with “Manhattan tastes” who come to Austin Street from all over as a “shopping destination.”

Obviously, we had never met before. [RIMSHOT]

In the name of full-disclosure, I showed Mr. Jaye my engagement ring, which was indeed purchased at Chateau, and it garnered a moment of respectful admiration.

Mr. Jaye expects to open his store around July 1, and you’ll get a free gift that he promises to be “much better than a refrigerator magnet” just for stopping in.

Good luck to NY Diamond Boutique!
P.S. By the way, if anyone else was out shopping on Sunday and was lucky enough to enjoy the sunshine - despite typhoon-like rain predicted - who was that guy next to Giorgio’s who seemed to be selling something, talking up anything that moved? He was a tall, white, brown-haired, middle-aged guy, and his product was a bunch of flat rectangles that looked like packages of lox. He seemed to have a “posse” of 3 or 4 guys hanging on the stoop assisting him (mostly by sitting on the stoop and watching him.) My investigative journalistic energy having been spent, I didn’t take the time to inquire. As our eyes and ears, gentle readers, it’s up to you to gimme the scoop!

So much for the news flash and purple bunting. AJ’s Pizza was open for business tonight, at 9:15 PM. Same signage, same menu, and a few customers waiting on line. (Sorry I didn’t have my camera-phone charged up.)

Hey, did you catch that rain last night? Pretty brutal, huh? Turns out it was more brutal than you thought–here’s a FoHi-centric report from CBS.

Suddenly, it seems like a lot is going on–or, more accurately, not going on–’Round These Parts™:

• That McDonald Park-adjacent Italian restaurant most recently known as Positano is changing hands. Again. The new name, purportedly, will be “Casa Positano.” Creative! The “casa” really adds extra homeyness, don’t you think? I ate at this restaurant the day I looked at my very first Forest Hills rental apartment, back when it was called–oh, who knows. The strange thing is that the owners change but the restaurant never does, and from the table settings I saw when I walked by there today, we might be in for more of the same. But maybe we’ll luck out! I’ll try it anyway, even though I don’t think I ever tried the last two incarnations. Oh, also, the new owners “will not be serving alcohol,” reports Splitting Hairs. Huh?
• Legendary Austin Street pizzeria AJ’s is closed, forever. AJ’s was your ultimate neighborhood polarizer. Some thought it was an embarrassing eyesore, others swore the pizza was great. I have no opinion–I don’t eat pizza (I know, I know) and have never even been inside. And now I never will be. The replacement? Inside sources say a Chinese restaurant. Given the high-rent location, there’s a slight chance that might be creative and interesting, but oh my, I certainly wouldn’t wager money on it.
• Forest Hills 72’s usual intrepid reporting reveals that the Staubachplex may never happen. But is it true? I could go either way on this. On the one hand, the sign advertising it is still up on the roof and I don’t see a major national real-estate company like Staubach just canceling this out of nowhere. But on the other, it’s supposed to open in January 2009 and I sure don’t see that happening what with no demolition having started yet, plus all of FH72’s evidence. The Staubachplex was no architectural gem, but this is somehow still kind of depressing.

So Queens libraries are in for a $7 million budget cut, and that’s kind of disgraceful considering the Queens library system is already sorta embarrassing. Just think of how it’ll be when it has even less money. Y’know, when I moved to Forest Hills, the library on 71st was terrible, but then it closed for a major renovation. When it reopened–yep, still terrible. Seems to me like the kids’ offerings aren’t bad, but libraries aren’t just for kids. Can’t we piggyback on the NYPL like the Bronx and Staten Island do?

Anyway, like at least one other local blogger, I was asked to post a link to an online petition to stop the bleeding, and because I think libraries are a vital community resource, I’ve already done so, right there, earlier in this sentence.

Hey! I’ve been gone forever, but what better event to bring me back (besides an extended Mickie T. vacation) than the always-fun Forest Hills Festival of the Artsкомпютри? I was on the scene, and despite being the World’s Worst Photographer™, I took loads of photos. Did you see me awkwardly fumbling around with my hand-me-down Elph?

The FHFotA is one of the events that makes me proud to live ’round these parts. It seems classier than your average New York street fair, with its discount socks and stand after stand after stand after stand selling mozzarepas. (I only counted two at ours!) What I liked most about this year’s FHFotA was its distinct local character, with many local businesses and organizations represented–more, I’d venture a guess, than in previous years. After the jump, a sweaty photo journey down Austin on a humid-as-all-get-out 96-degree day.