The lawn at Hunter’s Point South Park has been transformed into a one-of-a-kind movie theater for a special series of summer screenings.
Titled CinemaLIC and organized by the Hunter’s Point Park Conservancy, the movie series will allow audiences to enjoy films on a 30-foot screen in front of incredible views of the Manhattan skyline from the Queens waterfront.
This past Sunday, the series kicked off with a screening of the 2019 live-action Lion King remake. Upcoming screenings will feature classic summer blockbusters, including Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark on August 26 and Jaws on September 12.
All screenings begin shortly after sundown (weather permitting) and admission is always free. Food and beverages are also available for purchase.
Now in its seventh year, the CinemaLIC series has become a favorite summertime activity for locals and visitors alike. Rob Basch, president of Hunters Point Parks Conservancy, is excited to invite audiences back into the park.
“It has been a challenging year-and-a-half, but nothing says summer in Long Island City better than an outdoor movie on the waterfront,” Basch said. “We look forward to seeing everyone’s smiling faces and our community coming together to enjoy some beautiful evenings.”
Founded in 1998, the Hunter’s Point Park Conservancy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and improving the LIC waterfront. The organization hosts free events throughout the year, including yoga classes, concerts, and children’s programming.

For more information on the screenings or the conservancy’s work, visit cinemalic.com or hunterspointparks.org.

The dramatic saga of the North Brooklyn Pipeline continued this past week with the filing of a lawsuit against National Grid, the energy provider overseeing the proposed project.
The lawsuit comes after two years of negotiations between National Grid and the state Department of Public Service, as well as regular protests against the project.
The North Brooklyn Pipeline project is a new gas pipeline underneath parts of Brownsville, Greenpoint, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Williamsburg. Detractors argue that the pipeline would pollute the ground and water of multiple communities of color and low-income communities.
Despite the criticism, National Grid contests the new pipeline will allow for safer, more reliable, and more efficient gas supply in North Brooklyn.
The Cooper Park Resident Council (CPRC), which represents over 700 families in Williamsburg’s Cooper Park Houses, and the grassroots organization Sane Energy Project jointly filed the lawsuit.
“This is something that must be stopped and must be stopped immediately,” said CPRC vice president Elisha Fye. “I’ve been living in this community since 1953. We’re already impacted in this community with the oil spill that happened. A pandemic of asthma flooded this community, illnesses, deformities in pregnancies, not to mention the soil is still contaminated to this day.”
The suit alleges the city and state failed to undergo the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process required for any project that relates to the use of liquefied natural gas.
The lawsuit has already resulted in the issue of a temporary restraining order against National Grid, halting construction for the time being.
The University Network for Human Rights and the Pace Environmental clinic are representing the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit is just the latest in a long line of actions to attempt to halt the project. Beginning July 1, over 200 Greenpointers agreed to withhold $66 from their monthly gas bill as form or protest to the project.
In addition to the environmental impact of the pipeline, National Grid customers are concerned about the increased cost to the monthly bill to pay for the project. National Grid’s agreement with the state Department of Public Service allows for average raise of $5.56 per month in 2021 and $4.89 per month in 2022.
“Right now we don’t have a lot of faith that the Public Service Commission is going to do the right thing and reject this rate hike,” said Lee Ziesche, a community engagement coordinator with the Sane Energy Project. “That’s why the No North Brooklyn Pipeline coalition came together and decided on the gas bill strike as a tactic.”
“The state and the city really haven’t stood up to National Grid, it’s really only ever been the community,” Ziesche added. “After almost a year of confidential settlement negotiations that didn’t really involve community members, the plan that National Grid and the state came up with and filed in May just really ignored all the community’s concerns.”

A new climate change-themed mini-golf course is now open on the Williamsburg waterfront at North 1st and River Street.
Dubbed PUTTING GREEN, the attraction is operated by Two Trees Management. It is located at North 1st and River streets where the company hopes to build River Ring, a mixed-use development that would include two 710- and 560-foot towers.
The 18-hole course is meant to educate visitors on sustainability, resiliency and the effects of climate change as they go from hole to hole.
Admission is $5 for kids and $10 for adults and all proceeds will benefit local organizations, including the Newtown Creek Alliance. The course itself is made from 100 percent recycled materials.
“This mini-golf course is an opportunity to start a conversation with players of all ages about climate change and its impacts,” said Two Trees managing director David Lombino. “By repurposing this construction space, we were able to partner with local organizations and environmental groups to collectively create a space that the entire community can enjoy.”
However, the larger plans for the site continue to face community backlash.
The grassroots organization Sustainable Williamsburg argues the River Ring development is out of character with the surrounding neighborhood, and will only intesify gentrification and displacement, as well as overburden the area’s transit and other community services.
“We are at the heart of a neighborhood in the past decade that has seen more development and construction than any across America,” member Matthew Emmi said in a previous interview with this paper. “We as neighbors are asked to stomach another development before we are able to fully digest and comprehend the impacts of 7,500-plus new residents to the waterfront that are currently underway.”

A proposed rezoning in Brooklyn is pitting towers vs. trees.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) staff joined local residents last week to oppose the rezoning of 960 Franklin Avenue to allow for the construction of two 34-story towers just 150 feet away from the Garden’s entrance.
The “Fight for Sunlight” rally addressed the detrimental effects of the rezoning, chief among them blocking direct sunlight for portions of BBG.
“The proposed luxury development with towers rising up to 400 feet tall would permanently damage the garden and surrounding neighborhood,” explained BBG president and CEO Adrian Benepe. “If we had been here at 7:30 this morning with the towers built, there would have been no sunshine in the greenhouses or in this plaza. It’s an existential threat, we wouldn’t exist anymore.”
Benepe added the buildings would also block sunlight in many other locations throughout Prospect Heights and Crown Heights, including nearby Jackie Robinson Playground, Jackie Robinson School (M.S. 375), and the campus of Medgar Evers College.
Ahead of last week’s event, almost 60,000 people had already signed a petition opposing the rezoning.
“You know that song ‘Big Yellow’ Taxi by Joni Mithcell, ‘they paved paradise and put up a parking lot?’” asked Benepe. “Once you take away the sunlight it’s gone, and it’s not coming back.”
Supporters of the rezoning cite the affordable housing units included in the project.
“The so-called affordable units in the buildings are priced for families with incomes as high as $122,880,” countered Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the Municipal Art Society. “I don’t need to tell any of you that $122,000 a year is nowhere near the median income of Crown Heights. It’s closer to $70,000.
“Indeed, fully 80 percent of the units at 960 Franklin would be out of reach for all but the richest people in this neighborhood,” she continued. “Any suggestion by the developer that this project would address the city’s affordability crisis is as ludicrous as it is cynical.”
Another argument in favor of the project is that it will create good-paying union jobs.
“We’ve been hearing a lot about union workers on the other side, but we also have union workers here,” explained BBG gardener Lenny Paul.
BBG was closed to in-person visitors for much of last year due to the pandemic, but staff members such as Paul continued to organize virtual programming. Paul also discussed the work it took to grow plants on site before sending them to nearby schools, a process facilitated by the direct sunlight available to the garden.
Kierstan, a longtime resident of Park Slope and a public school teacher in Bedford-Stuyvesant, explained how the garden was a nice change for students in cramped classrooms.
“It was always one of the students’ favorite places to go,” she said. “It is also one of my favorite places.”
Students from nearby public schools were also present at the rally, including members of the band Control the Sound. The group performed an original song written specifically for BBG, appropriately named “Fight for Sunlight.”
“We’ve been coming here since we were little kids,” explained Elijah Frechtman, the band’s frontman and guitarist. “We just want to preserve and protect this area because it is historic and it means something to us.”
The proposed rezoning of 960 Franklin Avenue must undergo theland use review process, including several hearings before a final vote by the City Council. Community Board 9 has already stated its opposition, releasing a statement in June asking that the land use review process be halted entirely.
“It’s ridiculous that they even contemplate building this monstrosity,” said Marvin, a self-described neighborhood old-timer who attended the rally. “The city invests millions of dollars into the garden, but now they want to destroy it. It makes no sense.”