I think if we got more big retailers, it would draw more people to the area, who in turn would patronize the smaller businesses. Right now, the small businesses here are dying because the only people to shop at them are from Astoria - - we need to expand the pool of people

Exactly - it already costs $1,000,000 to buy a broken down house in Astoria, and those apartments in LIC - if you don't have $500,000 forget it. That's why 60% of them are not sold. Those things don't benefit Astoria - they benefit people from elsewhere who come here and they say they are from Astoria.

National retailers. A bookstore. An outdoor theatre - at Astoria Park - for the summer. It's really a shame that the plans for the amphitheatre at Astoria Park were scrapped and instead a skate park was created, filling in that beautiful, historic old pool with concrete. A real museum dedicated to the early days of Astoria, LIC and maybe Queens in general. It could be small. GREEN Markets in the summer.

No

Public art installations and exhibits

Support for our businesses & cultural institutions

Steinway St between 30th Ave and 35th Ave is just not catching on as a shopping district, even before Covid. I've written to big retailers to try to get them interested, but no response. All that ever opens there is another cheap bargain store, a restaurant that closes before it even opens, or some highly niche establishment that is never going to have enough customers to support itself. Building this new retail strip will almost certainly put the final nail in the coffin of Steinway St. If customers can go to the shiny new landscaped place, why would they shop on Steinway St. Someone MUST reach out to national retailers to house on Steinway - if they were there - people would come!