How To Ensure Long Lines

     Recently, Lewis and I brought a group of friends to the Midnight Food Festival in Flushing Meadows Parks (6pm-midnight, from now until August).  From that experience, I saw that the best way to ensure unpleasant long lines:

-Bring a bunch of "Mom & Pop" small businesses to a place where they're not used to the speed of rapidly-placed orders.
-Don't coach them on "best practices", like helping them decide which menu items to serve (some take too long).  
-Don't recommend that they bring knowledgeable staff, instead of nieces and aunts and cousins who don't know how to work a register/count cash/take orders.
-Don't help them create "order placing stations" and "pick-up stations".
-Let them fumble around, trying to cook recipes that aren't designed for long lines of back-to-back customers.
-Don't suggest that they bring "signature dishes" that are easy to serve.  e.g.: soup (which can be scooped/served quickly).
-Don't discourage the idea of wasting even more time hand-applying frivolous garnishes (that don't really enhance the experience).  It's something you forgo when you have a long line of waiting clients amidst 49 other competing food stalls.

Never Learning Because It's Inconvenient

     One of the many Chelsea Boys who flitter into the city, this young man opted for the "path of least resistance".  Avoiding the demands of a career or any real relationship, he picked a job as a pole-dancer in a typical gay bar (further reinforcing the peculiar need to have thong-wearing go-go boys at all gay bars).

Relying on his looks--and willingness to act like a whore/dancer from the Wild West Saloons--he chose to associate with the "lowest common denominator".   

His choices reinforce the unsupportable "body shaming" and hyper-snooty-discrimation that goes on in urban gay circles.  His own friend, Tyler, commented that he can't deal with "being gay" in NYC, where most gay men are intolerable to be around.  A third friend remarked, "Don't worry.  One day, you might be less attractive, and then they'll just ignore you."  That summarizes urban gay behavior--especially in NYC.

The young man chose to reinforce "gay stereotypes": flouncy, flighty, unreliable, uber-promiscuous, sex-crazed, unsafe, drug-using, drama-infatuated, snarky, focused only on veneers, air-headed twink with disheveled Life priorities.

His online posts usually involve hangovers, losing his wallet/phone, hating people, blocking people, trysts with strangers, sexual conquests, paid-travel (in exchange for "favors"), carefree daytimes, carefree "job duties" during nighttimes, immature rants about songs & TV shows, and living out his fantasies (while mocking folks who study/work)

     Look at the example he sets.  Why would someone want to study/work hard, when they see how irresponsibly (but fortunately) he lives--enjoying fantasies without repercussion.  Many boys mimic him for years of selfish bliss.

Thus, when some of his relatives moved nearby, he desired to see his niece (after his long deliberate absence from family events).  His own family refused the request.  The spoiled young man ranted online that they denied his chance to kiss his youngster niece.  Perhaps, they were wary of where his adventurous mouth had been.

The family relented, the young man visited, but during his visit, he bailed on them to accept a random sexual hookup that he received online from a total stranger.  The youngster wasn't a priority, after all.  (What a shame that gay society actually encourages such behavior and lifestyle).

The family vented frustration and indignation.

As typical, the young man ignored them, without apology.  Therefore, the family removed him from their Facebook list.

With a "double-standard", he tweeted--in the slang of dark-skin Americans (because that's what gay guys like to do):

     He resumed his chosen path of hedonism... a lifestyle that is showcased/celebrated more in gay life than straight life.  He continued to be fawned over by salivating boys and men.  He only focused on the next summer of bliss on Fire Island.

*Click here to learn about the "scene" at Fire Island: 

https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-allure-of-fire-island-but-beware.html

     Commenting about his lost chance with his niece, he posted:

Interesting that he didn't understand when his relatives avoided HIS negativity, to preserve THEIR happiness.  Such ignorance.  Thus, what can we learn from him?

     Maybe modern society should value other types of people.  Definitely, gay society shouldn't celebrate pole-dancers so much... or hyper-promiscuity... or irrationally-quick snubs (as if to say "swipe left" or "swipe right").  I'm certain that only in shallow-minded urban gay culture would a guy like this be exalted so high, without reason or merit.  Everywhere else, he'd be considered a rude failure... which speaks volumes about the gay society that loves his type.  

NOT

HELPING

OUR

CAUSE

!!!

Saliva Has Two Indications

Did anyone ever wonder about this galactic-big difference?

French kissing is the swapping of spit, and it's considered an intimate moment--a compliment of affection.  Nobody minds if the other person's saliva gets on them.

However, spitting on someone is a tremendous insult, and it's the same saliva.

Go figure.

Long Island City Development Grows Because It Lives in Corrupt Footprints - Another Blight of Uncaring

     I can't speak for all countries, but ours has the least amount of civic caring or moral concern.  Sure, they don't actually shoot us, but they could care less if our citizenry was food poisoned, ingested cancer-causing crop insecticide, ingested chemicals via cosmetics, died of cigarette-causing cancer, inhaled fumes, failed standardized tests, failed to be globally aware, or dealt with daily stressors (that could easily be removed, if somebody in power actually cared): inefficient trains, airports, highways, tax systems, public education, law enforcement, libraries, higher education, garbage disposal, electricity, automobiles, appliances, medical support, retirement, or just vacation time.  
     Using "imminent domain", our government and industries uncaringly builds over, crisscrosses, and undermines communities.  Nobody cares about how it affects the "little people".  When "big business" sees a profit-bearing advantage, they rip up an area or dig into it.  

     They figure that the human race is like ants who will soon re-populate on whatever fiasco is left behind.  And they're right.  

     NYC is famous for slap-dash construction and unfinished projects (when schemes ran out of money).  Look at the city's most prestigious art museum, the Metropolitan Museum, built in 1894...

or St. John the Divine (the world's 4th largest church) built in 1892...

     What remained?  Pollution.  Thanks to local industries, the Newtown Creek and East River are the foulest waterways in America.  Look at the sludge, below!

     Much of Queens County shoreline is occupied by ConEd power plants or Water Treatment facilities.  

     Below, you can tell how much acreage is used for the power plant (almost half the area)... for an outdated polluting system (of profit).  Where are Tesla's inventions to save us?

    Because we're a city living in the footprint of Industrial-era robber-barons--who made their fortune on coal/oil and Thomas Edison / General Electric electricity, our city is powered inefficiently by dirty methods.  Air and water power are equally possible but are continually disregarded.

     The islands around Queens were commandeered as prisons, jails or asylums.  When burial grounds were finally made illegal, for health reasons, churches and corporations gobbled up tracts of land to make cemeteries in Queens, to sell back to people.  When Gilded-Age railroad robber-barons desired profits from customers who were "stuck on an island", they carelessly crisscrossed the congested area with sooty machinery... then abandoned it.  Their stingy mentality still permeates NYC train travel.  That's why the MTA-owned LIRR still uses outdated coaches from the 1960s (while charging pricey modern-day fares).

     Or why subway stations still aren't air conditioned (nor do they have fans to circulate air).

And it explains why trains and stations are as dirty as they were in the 1970s.

Or why MTA Police booths are unattended (and security cameras in most stations don't actually work)!

Yet, overpaid (often absent) MTA cops have plenty of money for new "toys":

(Not everything turned out as pretty as the High Line Park). 

     In fact, the above pictures represent what much of Long Island City looks like, in addition to taxi cab parking lots, and the Amtrak train yard.  LIC represents the anti-thesis of tree-lined, culturally-minded, garden-community of Astoria.
     During my 6 years as a resident in trendy Astoria, I watched the LIC neighborhood, to the south, explode with uncaring construction growth... like weeds out of control.  Previously when riding on the elevated subway, you were able to see a nice view, with only the Citibank tower in the way.

     Now, a "border" of buildings literally blocks off the area, giving a feeling of being closed-in/"fenced in".  More are sprouting up, each month.

The view of the skyline is totally obliterated by rows of high-rise apartment buildings--all clustered around each other... the way weeds grow.

   Look at the building on the right (below).  Those residents--paying for balconies--are now enclosed on two sides by a new building that's rapidly going up.  Due to a lack of zoning, it's allowed to rise up practically next to those balconies!  There's no care for how "boxed in" the crowded buildings are.

     They've already developed all the land, right up to the waterfront.  Stupidly and uncaringly, they left no room for parks!

    $45 million of city funds merely gave the area a sliver of a park, encompassed by the loud and never-ending traffic going to the bridge.

Will that slice be enough for the huge new population growth?

     After low-level criminals were used to construct that park, City Councilman Eric Gioia said, "We’re sweeping the stoop, shaking out the welcome mat and hanging a sign on the front door of Queens that says we’re open for business!  This is good news for Long Island City.”  Is it really?  No.

     While those imbeciles are busily building unneeded skyscrapers, is anybody enlarging the sewers to accommodate hundreds of thousands of new people?  Consolidated Edison is rarely able to keep the electricity on during summertime, so is it strengthening its capacity to handle the influx of residents?  The subways that pass LIC are already crowded.  Is the Metropolitan Transit Authority buying more trains or increasing frequency?  Those are all critical assets, yet the answer is No to all of them.  Historically, NYC acts like Ebenezer Scrooge and merely wants to lure tenants for money (by enticing others to construct things), but it avoids investing in its own infrastructure.  It treats its whole cityscape as a disgustingly-crammed tenement house (from the era of the Industrial Revolution). 

     Who do they expect will fill all those empty rooms?  There is speculation that if NYC merely continues to boast that it's the "best in the world", that will be enough to entice a conglomerate like Amazon to put one of its headquarters there.  As long as NYC makes companies exist in it, it forces millions of people to be there, too... and it can do nothing while pocketing revenue.  I doubt that intelligent companies will continue to overpay for the "privilege" of occupying the crappiest city in America.  Yet, city agencies are happily waiting to take/pocket the fees, bribes, building permits, and taxes.  Personally, I foresee technology allowing "remote work" and "working from home" to alleviate the insane costs, commutes, and pressure from NYC dwellers and release them to live in nicer places--that cost a lot less.

     Meanwhile, the city's authorities claim that they lack funding to restore parks, schools, or public pools in the area.  

     When you understand that NYC's government has always merely strong-armed and squandered its money, then you shan't be surprised.  In fact, when LIC was its own city in the 1880's, its mayors and "political ring" were notoriously corrupt.  Even when arrested, an embezzling mayor asked to use city bonds as his bail.  But that's no surprise when you consider that when NYC was Dutch-owned in 1653, its governor said, "I derive my authority from God and THE COMPANY, not from a few ignorant subjects" (as in "royal subjects").

     In 1870 LIC incorporated itself, separated from the Town of Newtown, and took the Village of Astoria.  That independence was short-lived.  Always hungry for revenue, New York City annexed Queens County in 1897.  On January 1, 1899, half of the county refused to belong to NYC and seceded to become Nassau County.  Meanwhile, NYC's corrupt politicians dissolved all of the local governments within Queens.  NYC's corporations were ready to dissect it.  If you read my blog entry about Corporations, you know that they can behave like psychopaths.  

     Immediately, revenue went to immensely-corrupt Tamany Hall, which controlled NYC politics.  Following consolidation, vast tracts of land in LIC were converted for industry.  In revenge against the mansion owners who fought the corruption, waterfront land near the estates was taken for Consolidated Edison Electricity (powered by a NYC "kingpin" financier).  In 1903, ConEd filled in a creek in eastern Astoria and established ConEd Gas Company.  

     Despite slick realtor slogans, home-hunters dislike LIC's deliberate lack of "quality of life".  No restaurants.  No diners.  No cafés.  Not one supermarket.  No green spaces.  The persistence of several strip-clubs.  The filth.  The "wind canyons" caused by the skyscrapers.  The ceaseless honking from the never-improved bridge traffic.  

(A problem with NYC is its habit of uncaringly building atop outdated roads, bridges, and ferry slips instead of building new ones.  In fact, this bridge began in 1881 but wasn't completed until 1909!--thanks to corruption that syphoned funds... just like the Brooklyn Bridge).
     Nobody is concerned how all those people are going to occupy such a small space.  Or how the sun will be blotted out of the sky by the "fence" of high-rise buildings.  Or how few are affordable to the average citizen.  Are they preparing extra street parking?  Are they going to run more trains on the nearby subway lines?  

(If you see how long they allowed the 6-line to remain the country's most-over crowded route, you'll know the answer).

     Already, the lazy MTA suffers from turn-around delays when trains reach the terminus in Astoria.  Engineers are rarely ready to swap places, so trains sit idle way longer than they should.  (While they're idle, nobody is cleaning either).  Thus, trains sometimes shoot past the first few Astoria stops, in order to get back on schedule.  That uncaringly forces already-late riders to wait longer (in whatever weather) for the next train.  

     Meanwhile, the Astoria-bound trains get delayed and wait in a line--delaying THOSE passengers--as they wait to get to the terminus.  After several years, the MTA has done nothing to improve that.  During that time they've merely elongated the inconvenient "track work" that disrupts subway use (and gives lots of overtime to overpaid workers).

     If tens of thousands of people converge on the already-crowded Queensboro Plaza subway station (built in 1917--as you can see by its rivets--and never upgraded since), how will it affect commutes?  

     In 1981, the MTA listed the station as among the 69 most deteriorated in the subway system.  Does it look like they applied funds to improving it, since then?

     Nearly daily, the vehicular traffic approaching the Queensboro Bridge is a traffic jam... 

...that plagues all streets in the vicinity (because city planners carelessly funneled all traffic to one place... and haven't added support to it since 1890).  Nobody cares about the drivers' frustrations or lateness.  The city merely continues to accept tolls for inferior infrastructure.  People keep paying.

     The corruptly ineffective MTA--historically famous for filthy trains and station, daily signal failures, daily delays, unprofessional employees (often caught napping), 

and uncaring to public outcry--sold air rights for $52 million.  Looking to make a "quick buck" (for doing nothing), they've allowed the construction of a huge missile-like skyscraper.  

     It will practically be on the doorstep of Queensboro Plaza, in the worst congestion point.  But, nobody cares about that.  A two-lane road nearby will have to suffice for the "luxury residents".  

     Naturally, the greedy developers are racing to begin construction before summer, so they can qualify for mayoral tax breaks without having to include affordable housing.  Who makes these laws (and loopholes)?!  It will cast shade upon all the low-rise buildings north of it (which are thankfully kept small by zoning requirements).
     Residents who previously enjoyed vistas and breezes like this...

might have to live like this... 

     That's why I applaud Astoria, which lies north of LIC.  It's a slice of heaven!  Astorians see the "bright side" under the Industrial-era refuse.

     Thanks to its cohesive sense of community pride--pressuring its local politicians, it's maintained a Paris-like zoning for low-rise buildings.  I applaud my neighborhood's civic pride to upkeep its parks and pleasures.  

No walls against diversity: acceptance abounds to savor what makes each creed unique.  People "pitch in" voluntarily to reclaim an d maintain our beauty.  

Below, Welling Court Mural Project gets rave reviews.

     There are many farm-to-table restaurants in Astoria, as well as volunteers who sustain the Queens branch of Brooklyn Grange Farms.

    We shall see how civic pride and sense of individuality... 

....perseveres against a tax-paid government's "self prostitution" to real estate developers and power brokers.  

Please also read: http://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2016/04/luxury-apartment-rental-buildings-and.html

     "In our lifetime, we are put on Earth to do more than just make ourselves happy.  Be bold.  Do something to help others.  Now is the time for us to invest in future generations".