LICNYCAll about Long Island City arts, culture, restaurants, real estate, and lifeCulture town hall focuses on real estate forcing out LIC artistsBy amol on March 27, 2015 By Bill ParryTimesLedger NewspapersSubscribeGet our stories in your inbox, free.Like TimesLedger on Facebook.The first ever Long Island City Cultural Town Hall Meeting was expected to be a forum on the “Sunbather” sculpture, a controversial piece of publicly funded art that has roiled Community Board 2 in recent months. Instead, the eight-foot-long pink statue, and its impending installation on Jackson Avenue, were barely mentioned.The several hundred people in the standing-room-only crowd at MoMA PS1 March 18 were more worried about affordable housing and studio space for artists. Speaker after speaker addressed City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside), who hosted the event, and his guest Tom Finkelpearl, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs, with their concerns about the art community being forced out of the neighborhood by the real estate boom.“Rockrose is eating up the neighborhood and hundreds are being pushed out,” Zoe Morsette, aArticle source: http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2015/13/culturetownhall_tl_2015_03_27_q.htmlPosted in Wires | Tagged wires | Leave a responseQ103 bus service now permanent in Astoria and Long Island CityBy amol on March 27, 2015 By Bill ParryTimesLedger NewspapersSubscribeGet our stories in your inbox, free.Like TimesLedger on Facebook.Riders and elected officials in western Queens are applauding the long-awaited permanent expansion of the Q103 bus line, which connects Astoria and Long Island City along Vernon Boulevard. The MTA approved the plan that would make weekend and expanded weeknight service permanent,  linking numerous cultural institutions and waterfront parks in the two waterfront communities.“Western Queens has long needed better bus service, so it is gratifying that the MTA responded to our concerns,” state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) said. “There is so much happening throughout western Queens that our need for better methods of traveling between our neighborhoods has never been more pressing. This service expansion is a hard-fought victory, but I will never stop fighting for improved transit service in our community.”The MTA began a pilot program in June 2014 with the Q103 running past neighborhoodsArticle source: http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2015/13/q103bus_tl_2015_03_27_q.htmlPosted in Wires | Tagged wires | Leave a responseSubways gets $56 million from Long Island City dealBy amol on March 27, 2015The Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved the $56 million sale of air rights and parcels of land in Long Island City, Queens, to developers who want to build a new tower in the area, according to the Daily News. Crain’s first reported the deal last week.The MTA will transfer 42,800 square feet of air rights that will allow Property Markets Group and Hakim Organization to buil