Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004) was the best bad comic of all time. Born Jacob Cohen on Long Island, when he was 10, he moved to an apartment above the current location of Austin’s Ale House on Austin Street in Kew Gardens and stayed through high school. After a journeyman career, he did something incredible: In the 1980s, just as stand-up comedy was in transition from Henny Youngman-style setup/punchline gags to a more free-flowing, cerebral form, Rodney experienced a career renaissance by taking the same old, dying style every other comic was rejecting and running with it. It’s hard to imagine anyone else pulling this off, but Rodney could because his hacky jokes were brilliantly crafted and delivered. Many people don’t know that in addition to being a beloved performer, Rodney was also a sort of patron saint of the New York comedy scene, developing many successful comics at his Upper East Side club, Dangerfield’s, which he opened in 1969. It’s still there.

In the interest of originality, I will not even mention Rodney’s most famous line and instead tell you that I always preferred his frequent interjections of, “I tell ya!”

I’ve long been simultaneously amused and infuriated by the shameless, horrible reviews of restaurants in the various Queens weeklies. If you’ve never read any of these reviews, oh, I highly recommend it. Their writers — who either have no standards whatsoever, are on the take from the restaurant ownership, or are under strict instructions from their publishers not to veer from the most unflinching community boosterism possible, and maybe all three — can barely contain their excitement as they stain their pages with endless purple prose about mediocre-to-terrible restaurants. These hacks must be held up to public ridicule. That’s why I’m starting a new occasional feature here at the QC: The Queens Restaurant Review Review.

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Did you know there’s a site that will tell you whether your property values are doomed? It’s true! ZIP code by ZIP code, PropertyShark’s handy Bubble Trouble map lets you know whether you’re still breaking even or should probably go ahead and start selling off pieces of your home as lumber.

The verdict for Central Queens? You’ll be pleased to know that Forest Hills, Kew Gardens and Briarwood are all doing great. Rego Park, however, is in “Triple Bubble Trouble,” the site’s most heinous designation, with drops in number of sales and value of sales plus increased foreclosures. I find this odd considering that Rego Park might be the neigborhood I’d least expect to be in Triple Bubble Trouble. It is, after all, right next to prestigious Forest Hills while being significantly cheaper, and the home to a fairly wide selection of shopping, restaurants and services. It’s got a subway stop and a big community of one of the more affluent immigrant groups out there. If it’s overvalued — and I’m not saying it isn’t — all neighborhoods are overvalued. So what’s the problem? I could understand a drop if the surrounding areas were also affected, but PropertyShark says they’re not.

I’m personally a fan of Rego Park and think the neighborhood has great potential — I would and do recommend it to anybody who’s budget-conscious but still wants a safe, busy and diverse place to live. But it looks like that sentiment is all too rare these days. Three frowny faces don’t lie. Of course, all this gloom only applies to current residents. If you’re looking for a deal and don’t mind taking a little gamble, the market’s loss is your gain.

This week’s Times Ledger has a report on the progress of what promises to be a massive development project on the current site of the Borough Hall garage, where Kew Gardens meets Briarwood and a brief jaunt from Forest Hills, too. Sounds like it’ll be mainly offices, but there’s more, lots more: Stores! “Affordable and market rate [read: expensive]” housing! And yes, yet another high school! Parking issues are holding things up and there’s no developer signed on yet, but construction is still scheduled to start in around a year.

This could be just the ticket for a somewhat-grungy strip that’s currently home to a lot of unattractive courthouse-related commerce — bail bondsmen, cheap lawyers, fast food — but just a stone’s throw from tons of public transportation and some truly beautiful low- and high-density housing, not to mention the charming Lefferts Boulevard shopping district.