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The LIE has just passed over
Queens and Junction Blvds. To the left are a couple of Lefrak
City's buildings and to the right, those of Park City. The illuminated
overhead sign is a relatively recent addition to the city's highways
and sports a dreaded "Delays ahead" message. The long
truss-armed poles to the right, went up with the addition of
the new right lanes several years ago. The funny, single eliptical armed pole in the center, moved in to replace a knocked down SLECO bigloop twinlamper. The city had a nasty, cheapskate habit for years, following the mid '70's resession, of replacing twinlamp casualties with single arm poles. This style eliptical arm is mostly seen in such circumstances on the highways, rarely on side streets. The little noticed Sheridan Expwy in the Bronx has alot of them, as if it needed something, anything, to distinguish it. Those familiar with White Plains, in Westchester County, will see definite resemblance to that city's primary utility pole eliptical mast. Lefrak City is in a kind of limbo area that I'm sure confuses many who live around it. Is it part of Rego Park or part of Corona? To this day I still don't know for sure. It has also not been without more than its fair share of headaches. A few years ago, a horrible fire swept an upper floor apartment there, serving as a foster home for troubled kids. One local paper had vivid color photos of the flames shooting out the windows. Many residents were trapped on their terraces, the "fireproof" highrisers being devoid of exterior fire escapes. The fire was a fatal one, but I don't recall the body count. I honestly don't know if these Lefrak buildings (and there's alot of them and they are very big) still suffer from the ills that plagued them throughout the 1970's and 80's. Meanwhile, on the other side of the LIE, Park City and it's appendage Park City Estates, although much uglier aesthetics-wise, never fell to the depths of disrepair that the Lefrak development descended into, although the last time I was in a few of them, while looking for a new apartment in 1996, they were looking seedy. At present, they house a mix of renters and co-operators. Their biggest drawback would seem to be the weird hallway design, where many apartments open to an exterior terrace-like hallway, motel style. That must be a pain in cold winter months, especially on the upper floors. |
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Still, the Park Cities provide residents
with a short walk to the subway, a major shopping center around
the corner, every kind of ethnic food you'd ever want within
a short walk and nearby Flushing Meadow Park, not to mention
the LIE itself. I could rattle off many of these amenities for Lefrak too, but Lefrakers wanting to venture towards Park City's neck of the hood have to pass under the ever wider and crumbling expanse of the LIE on Junction Blvd, praying neither muggers, falling concrete nor pigeons roosting in the overpass rafters, get them, then past a long block surrounded by desolate, little used parking lots. |
© 1998, Jeff Saltzman. All rights reserved.
