(post by Dee) Just the other day, May 31^st, the borough of Queens celebrated 100^th anniversary of the opening of Queensborough Bridge. I know what you are thinking…. Why in the world would anyone celebrate or even want to bring any attention to a place like Queens Plaza. Well, it hasn’t been too long ago when that huge swat of land divided by multi-lane roads, surrounded by a combination of city government and strip joints/fried chicken stores, and shadowed by the clinging subway tracks above was an eyesore everyone avoided. It was just a place you passed through, and the faster the better (especially at night, unless you were a “customer” of one of the street hookers). Well, fast forward to 2009 and we have a development boom there, despite the recession. Gotham Center is going up. Hotels are going up in Queens Plaza South. And suddenly, just as all the pundits laughed at the condos like the Cresent Club or the View, the city threw the Queensborough Bridge Centennial Celebration party. Time Out NY magazine even had a special pullout section! Yes, the same magazine that you buy to find out who’s playing at BB King’s or which celebrity chef has an after-party for the opening of his new restaurant in Meatpacking is now spotlighting the good ole rusty 59^th Street Bridge.

We caught up with the celebrants on a rooftop of one of the buildings in Queens West, and admired the 100^th anniversary fireworks. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s good to see some sort of real estate progress even in these trying times. Macy’s robbed the Queens and Brooklyn boroughs of the 4^th of July Fireworks, instead giving the best of views to New Jersey in 2009 so the folks on the east side of Manhattan and in LIC and Astoria watched the sky light up a little early this year.

We caught up with some LIC folk watching the fireworks above Queens Plaza.