Rant: Please Stop Renaming Queens' Bridges, Mayor Bloomberg!

The 101-year old iconic Queensborough Bridge is now "The Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge". What?! Why?!

The City Council voted to rename the Queensborough/59th Street Bridge after former NYC Mayor Ed Koch last Wednesday. Mayor Bloomberg first announced plans to rename the bridge in honor of Koch's 86th birthday last December, but no one thought it would actually happen... until it did. 

Borough representatives and residents have since expressed their outrage and disapproval of the new name. Regardless of one's feelings about Koch's 1978-1989 terms as Mayor, Queens supporters and the majority of New Yorkers (according to several polls) believe the change is inappropriate and disrespectful to a borough that is already too often overlooked and forgotten.

Although the bridge connects millions of New Yorkers from Long Island City to 59th Street in Manhattan and back everyday, no one would ever dare think about renaming the Brooklyn Bridge or the Manhattan Bridge. So, why the exception for the Queensborough Bridge? For absolutely no reason at all, except for the fact that Mayor Bloomberg would like to give Ed Koch a nice gift for his 86th birthday.

We've already lost the fittingly named Triborough Bridge (which connects Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan) to the name "The Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Bridge" in 2008, although no one actually calls it by the new name anyway. In this case, the aesthetic change came with an economic one, as the city had to spend $4 million to rename it and added a hiked up toll fare. Who knows how much Ed Koch's signs will cost us? At least his name is a bit shorter.

What did Ed Koch and Robert F. Kennedy do specifically for Queens, anyway? The borough saw no improvements or enhancements from their direct actions, so why should their names be tacked on to our arches? Why should inanimate structures be named after human beings at all? It simply takes too long to say... in the fastest city in the world.

Mayor Bloomberg, please don't mind the 3 million people that live in Queens who won't care at all that their tax dollars keep going toward millions spent on reprinting maps and road signs and not towards improving the quality of life in their surroundings. It doesn't matter at all. The people don't matter at all. Please change our entire borough name while you're at it. Just for kicks, you know?

A Healthier Burger at Bare Burger

Finally, the time has come to write my first blog post about the quintessential American fast food fare... the modern hamburger.

Since there are way too many blogs, reviews, and even television programs out there aiming to find the best burger in America, I'm not going to even attempt to do that. I would simply like to share with you a fairly new boutique burger spot in Astoria, Queens.

Enter Bare Burger, a local spot that serves up a great-tasting burger with the bite but not the grease. Bare Burger offers a new twist on the traditional hamburger joint: all of their ingredients are organic and the space is environmentally friendly (it was built using sustainable, reclaimed, and recycled materials).

At Bare Burger, you can even "build your own burger" by choosing from their selection of "meat" and "bun" options. The meat options include beef, turkey, lamb, veggie, portabella mushroom, elk, bison, and ostrich, which can all be sandwiched by either a Brioche bun, 7-Grain bun, wheat flour wrap, or iceberg lettuce.

I scarfed down the "Big Blue Bacon Burger" (see below) topped with danish blue cheese, sauteed mushrooms, grilled onions, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, and peppercorn steak sauce.

"The Bare Burger Supreme"

colby jack, gourmet battered onion rings, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, chopped french fries, and bareburger special sauce

"Basket of Fresh Cut French Fries"

 with spicy chipotle mayo, curry ketchup, chipotle ketchup, and Bare Burger's special dipping sauce

The Last Bite: When it comes to burgers, the greasier and messier they are, the more I want to eat them. But I have to admit that I usually feel incredibly guilty and literally STUFFED after eating a big burger and fries. It feels like a hangover and no matter how silly it sounds, I really feel "drunk" off of food. I'm happy to say that those days are over. I've finally found a cure at Bare Burger: an insanely delicious meal without the bloated and lethargic side effects! Here's to burger rehab!

"5 Pointz," LIC's Landmark Aerosol Art Center in Danger

When I read this news article about a large-scale development project in the works that would potentially replace the iconic 5Pointz graffiti-covered factory building in Long Island City with two high-rise residential towers and a shopping mall, I immediately experienced feelings of surprise, confusion, and disapproval.

Long Island City, a Queens neighborhood previously associated solely with drab factories and mundane manufacturing plants, has undergone several massive construction projects within the last couple of years. It is arguably one of the fastest growing areas in the borough and a popular living destination that young professionals flock to when they can't afford rent in Manhattan. Lying just a couple of subway stops from Midtown, LIC's new skyscraper apartments boast floor-to-ceiling windows that offer gorgeous views of the city from across the river.

While the renovations and city's efforts to clean the area up are definitely overdue and beneficial to the community, this particular development project is a bulldozer of a move that would not only infuriate graffiti artists in NYC and around the world, but it would destroy one of the only establishing relics that is truly indicative of LIC's old industrial neighborhood.

5 Pointz Aerosol Art Center is an outdoor art exhibit space that was created to signify a place where the five New York City boroughs could converge, in collective hopes of carrying out the mission, collaboration, admiration, and expression of graffiti or aerosol art. Breakdancers, Hip Hop and R&B musicians, and world-renowned painters have all visited 5 Pointz, establishing it as a cultural mecca.

Ever since graffiti became synonymous with vandalism, the value and technicality of the art form has decreased. The writers of today are perceived more like criminals than artists, as the graffiti bans have lead them to focus more on throwing up short "tags" that they can paint quickly before the police reprimands them. Larger works, murals, and other wall pieces have drastically declined, but 5 Pointz has welcomed intricate and technical portraits on its property. It is one of the only remaining canvases displaying urban art in the city.

The potential destruction of 5 Pointz strikes a strong chord with me for personal and aesthetic reasons as well. I have taken the N/Q/7 subway lines for years and have always loved the segments of the tracks that exist above ground. The colorful, panoramic views of urban art are impossible to miss when I look outside of the train car and across at 5 Pointz. I can't count how many times the brilliant collage of works has transformed before my eyes like kaleidoscopic images as the subway rumbled on along the tracks.

If this landmark image that I have seen daily for years was extracted from my view forever, I would definitely feel a sense of loss and disorientation... a feeling of being very far away from home.