…gets broadcast on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq_tzS4sIPw

Warning: this is NOT the most FAMILY-FRIENDLY.

I usually don’t post items like this, but the fact that Kew Gardens and the E train is the backdrop cracks me up.

Just a quick note about COOLING CENTERS in the QC area. A cooling center is “a facility, such as a senior center or community center, where people may go to enjoy air-conditioned comfort during a heat emergency”, according to the NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM). During heat emergencies, the City may open cooling centers. If cooling centers are open, call 311 (TTY: 212-504-4115).

• Selfhelp Austin Street Senior Center, 106-06 Queens Blvd
• Young Israel Forest Hills Senior League, 68-07 Burns St.
• Forest Hills Senior Center, 108-25 62nd Dr.
• Young Israel Queens Valley Senior Center, 141-55 77th Ave.
• Rego Park Senior Center, 93-29 Queens Blvd.
• Pomonok Senior Center, 67-09 Kissena Blvd.

I also know that hospitals, such as North Shore (the old “LaGuardia Hospital”) on 102nd Street and 66th Road, let’s folks sit inside there on hot days, and provides beverages.

You can find more cooling centers around NYC by using the search page on the OEM website.

Check up on your neighbors you think might be in danger from the heat (elderly, folks with small children, pets left in no a/c all day…) to make sure they are doing okay in the heat!! Be cool!

I bet you’re all a-tingle to find out about the inner workings of that super-secret, anti-pedestrian, anti-car, anti-dog-and-cat group, the Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee. Luckily, your humble and intrepid blogger was able to pose as an avid recreational bicyclist and infiltrate the group to bring you these de-coded secret messages of bicycle world domination!

OK, kidding aside, it was a very interesting meeting with lots of friendly people, plus free water bottles and snacks! I am happy to report there was more acknowledgment of Central and Eastern Queens this time. Notice they dropped the “W” from their name (for “Western Queens”)?

They know they’re heavy in their Western Queens emphasis, but frankly, they simply don’t know much about nabes east of Woodside. Fear not! They are very willing to learn! I think there will be more activity and attention paid to the rest of the borough in the near future.

Like I’ve written before, me and the DW love riding our bikes around town, and we have discovered so many great areas of Queens that we would never otherwise know about. I’ve lived my whole life in Queens and Brooklyn, and I’ve seen and learned more about Queens by bike in the 3 years I’ve been back than in all my years growing up here. It took us about four seasons to build up our skill and confidence as urban riders, and the newer and clearer bike lanes make us better bicyclists. What a difference we saw during a recent ride through Sunnyside, Jackson Heights and Corona, using the improved 43rd Avenue and 37th Avenue bike lanes - cars gave us more room, drivers nodded and smiled at us, and I noticed I made fewer “dumb moves.” We also stopped to look at our maps less frequently.

Central Queens would definitely benefit from better bike lanes and traffic calming. For example, I’d love to see better traffic control, pedestrian safety and some bike lanes at Trader Joe’s! That intersection is a nightmare.

Last weekend, I took a lovely ride from FoHi to St. John’s University and back (6 miles each way), using the Jewel Avenue and 73rd Avenue bike lanes. The improved pedestrian and biking markings and signage made a big difference. Cars and bikes shared the roads very well, and I felt much more relaxed than on unmarked streets. Now, if someone could only straighten out those hills….

Anyway, let’s move on to the recap. Here are a few of the major topics discussed:

Bike Lane on Queens Boulevard

Lizi Rahman came to the group and spoke about her son Asif’s death, and her commitment to fight for increased bicycle safety - and, ultimately, getting a bike lane painted on Queens Boulevard. Asif, 22, was run over by a truck while riding his bicycle on Queens Boulevard near Grand Avenue in February. Mrs. Rahman, a school teacher, was calm and focused, and spoke very movingly about her son’s love for life, poetry, people and bicycling. His death should not be in vain, she said, and so many lives can be saved by installing a bike lane on QB.

This is probably the hottest bike-shaped potato for Queens since congestion pricing. Don’t panic, and stop pulling your hair out. It’s not like this is going to happen next week. In fact, it might even take years. TAQC will be starting some preliminary outreach on the project.

I think it would be an awesome ride, from Briarwood all the way to The Bridge by bike, not too mention save lives. I know that residents are going to worry about the potential impact on parking, small businesses and buses. The TAQC is very interested in reaching out to community groups, newspapers, small business owners and residents in each neighborhood along QB for input and support.

Feeder rides from Queens to “Summer Streets”

You may have heard that Park Avenue in Manhattan will be closed to traffic for 4 hours on each of 3 Saturdays in August. This is part of the PlaNYC program to encourage green-tourism, exercise, creative use of public spaces, and experiment with car-free streets on a limited basis. The TAQC will organize group rides from Queens to the Summer Streets. Let’s hear it for the suggestion from guess who to start a ride from the Unisphere (or maybe even The Queeens Courthouse!)

The deets: August 9th, 16th and 23rd, from 7 AM to 1 PM, Park Avenue-Fourth Avenue will be closed to car traffic from 72nd Street down to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Let’s play Skully!

TAQC is interested in planning a “Play Street” - kinda like a block party, but focusing on street games like stickball, skully (skelzy, skelzies, skelly, etc.), saloogie, “running bases” or bocce. There’s one in Jackson Heights every Sunday morning (through Thanksgiving) for this safe, community-building and video-game-free activity. How about one in FoHi? Any suggestions?

Traffic-calming project for Astoria Boulevard

Trucks and cars often use Astoria Boulevard as a “back road” to escape Triborough Bridge traffic. The result is increased peril for pedestrians. According to the TAQC, 11,000 people use the subway station there every day, but the intersection of Astoria Boulevard and 31st Street is hazardous and designed poorly. The Traffic Calming Committee will be counting pedestrians and bicyclists at the intersection, and is looking for volunteers. Join up!

Try-athlon in Astoria Park!

Show how all your hard work at Quest or the NYSC has paid off, but at the same time, don’t kill yourself or do anything crazy! You might get a heart attack or a stroke or something! Instead of busting a vessel overexerting yourself, like running 26 miles, try the “Try-athlon” , August 23. Sign up for an un-timed, non-competitive half-mile swim, 12-mile bike ride and 3-mile run in an around Astoria. Hurry! Registration limited to 200 jocks!

Other items and projects:

• Sunnyside Block Party, August 10th
• Socrates Park Film Festival and valet bike parking
• Checking the hazards on NY Century Bike Route
• Speak up about the Willets Point Development Project, August 13, City Planning Commission hearing at NYU

Saw these signs taped around the neighborhood, and I figured I’d post it here, too, for those who haven’t seen it.

Besides, QueensCrapper has been posting a some hot “found dog” stories - even a lost dog from Queens found in GA alive and well years later - and I’m feeling the peer pressure.

Our friendly, neighborhood AT&T Wireless Store on Continental Avenue ran out of iPhones about 5 pm on Friday, July 11, the first day they were made available to the general public. From eye-witness accounts (my DW and the security guard at the store) , the lines stretched all the way to Queens Boulevard at one point. Honestly, that did not impress me. I thought they’d go longer, at least around the corner to the Midway Theater. Sheesh!

At any rate, you can still go there and sign up for one. The store will call you when you can come and pick it up, approximately in a week or less.

And remember, the batteries STILL can not be changed or removed! Apple continues its suport of the environment via planned obsolescence.

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.

I’m not writing this because the California Supreme Court ruled that the state must grant legal marriage to same-sex couples.

I’m not writing this because Governor David Paterson made public his directive to state agencies to grant comity and parity to same-sex couples legally married outside the State of New York.

I’m not writing this because, by the time you read this, we’ll be at the Queens Gay Pride celebration in Jackson Heights.

And, lastly, I’m not writing this because of the heated debates on the quality of steakhouses and restaurants on this forum.

I’m writing this because my parents took me and my wife out to Buenos Aires Tango for our 3rd wedding anniversary on Friday, we had a great time and we thought it was delicious!

My parents, who still live in the same place where I grew up in Rego Park, continue to amaze me with their support and enthusiasm for us as a couple. It wasn’t an easy road, so I’m still not used to it. When they called last week and insisted they had to treat us and give us a proper anniversary dinner, I almost cried.

My dad loves this place, and always jumps at the chance to go for any celebratory occasion. On Friday and Saturday nights, they have tango dancing, and a duo who sing Latin American songs. When my folks told us they wanted to take us there, honestly it wasn’t our first choice. I thought, “Oy, how cheezy! How tacky! How Queens! I’m writing for a blog! I’m supposed to go to places that are cool and show disdain for those that are deemed uncool !” But, as I said to my parents, “Since it’s our anniversary, we’ll do whatever makes you two happy.”

We were nearly the only non-Latino people in the place, so we took that as a good sign. Since my dad and I are pretty proficient in Spanish, we practiced with the waitstaff, and I think both sides enjoyed that. The service was very good, almost fawning. The dancing was lovely and the singers were also good. The red sangria was fruity, potent and yummy. And the steak…Oh, the steak…the steak….mmmmm. ¡Que sabor!

We were both very impressed with the quality, taste and price point of the beef at Tango. It was great! My wife is nearly 100% carnivore, and she loved it! Sure, we’ve been to some of the “legendary” steak places in NYC, pero oye, m’ijo: just say no to steak status snobbery!

The DW and I shared a shell steak with mushroom sauce and a strip steak, both cooked to precisely medium rare. Both were very tasty, but the shell steak was exceptionally tender. Wow, that’s a piece of meat! The red potatoes and scallions, and the cubed potatoes with sauteed spinach that accompanied them were also fine. (I regret not taking photos! Sorry, I was too hungry! )

The kicker was the bilingual “felicidades” (celebratory announcements) by Sylvia. In addition to announcing two confirmations and two birthdays, we got a rousing “Happy Anniversary” announcement, a song, a round of applause, and a “Whisky ice cream sundae” with a candle on top!

Look, I know that NYC is one of the easiest places to live - if not the easiest - for a gay person. I know that everyone here has seen it all, neighbors don’t care what you do, as long as you’re quiet and don’t smell, and that New Yorkers raise being blasé to an art form.

However, despite amazing advances and improvements for LGBT people all over which I never thought I’d live to see, you can’t take things for granted in this world. Queens has its reputation of parochialism, provincialism and small-town NIMBY attitudes, and the Latino community is not known for rolling out the red carpet for “queers”. Most notably, Queens has been the home of:

• The murders of Julio Rivera (1990) and Edgar Garzon (2001)
• Mary Cummins and District 24’s battle against the Children of the Rainbow Curriculum (1992)
• The recent homophobic letters against City Council candidate Charles Ober.

Not to mention that, when we were making our will, our attorney told us that Queens courts had the worst track record in NYC for probate and legal challenges against same-sex couples.

That’s why I appreciate experiences like the one at Buenos Aires Tango. These are not small or insignificant gestures in my view, and I do not take them for granted.

Our dinner at Buenos Aires Tango warmed our hearts and stomachs, and we would recommend it to anyone.

If you’re interested in bicycling, or bringing more fame to central Queens nabes, or both, I highly recommend checking out the Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee. It’s been around for about a year, and I just went to my first meeting earlier this month.

The TAQC meets the 2nd Monday from 6:30p-8p each month (unless otherwise noted) at the Greater Astoria Historical Society located at 35-20 Broadway, 4th floor - the Quinn Funeral Home building. The next TAQC meeting is April 14th.

The committee is full of very nice people working on some great projects, most notably the very first Tour de Queens! There are already bicycling events in two other outer-bees: Tour de Brooklyn (which I did last year) and a Tour de Bronx.

The Tour de Queens is scheduled for Sunday, June 8, 2008, and is still in the planning stages, so volunteers are welcome. You can register for it, too! The next planning meeting is March 26th at the location above. The route is approx 20 miles, beginning and ending at the Queens Museum, in front of the Unisphere in Flushing Meadow Park.

One area ripe for improvement in the TAQC, though, is its narrow focus on Western Queens. In fact, its original name was the Transportation Alternatives Western Queens Committee. The group is a lovely bunch of folk, but they need a little education about Queens east of Steinway Street.

For example, when, in the course of a discussion, I mentioned “the Union Turnpike station,” the general response was “where’s that?”

“Um, it’s at Union Turnpike at Queens Boulevard.”

Someone was helpful enough to “correct” me and add, “I believe that’s actually called the Kew Gardens station.”

Yeah, whatever. The point is that these Queenzies don’t know their 73rd Street from their 73rd Avenue. So, if you’re into bicycling, come to a meeting or two and make sure central Queens is on the map!

On the other hand, the Five Borough Bike Club offers lovely rides throughout Queens on a regular basis. Again, a nice bunch of people and their rides range from “smiley face” easy to “up with the roosters” competitive. Not to mention that most of their rides involve riding to FOOD! Our kind of people!

We rode with them alongside the abandoned Rockaway Branch Conrail Extension tracks from Rego Park to Ozone Park, which is ripe for a “rail-to-trail” conversion to a greenway, like the Highline in Manhattan. A fascinating ride.

You don’t have to be a member to join the rides, but membership allows you to get the newsletter, website access and other perqs.

By the way, I highly recommend bicycling around town! As you may know from reading my forum posts, my spouse and I enjoy bicycling around the city. We’re total amateurs, not the types with giant calves and bikes made out of aluminum foil. After 3 or 4 years of casual biking, we crossed a threshold in our confidence and endurance last summer, did 35 miles of the NY Century Ride, and spent many weekends biking to and from our place in FH through Queens into Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Queens presents a lot of challenges for the casual weekend cyclist, but we have found that so much of Queens opens up to you on the bike. Riding over the Queensborough Bridge or the Pulaski Bridge provide great views and new perspectives. And it’s much less crowded and cheaper than the gym!