From industrial waterfront to high-rise neighborhood
Long Island City (LIC) was industrial and largely low-rise until the 2000s and 2010s, when a wave of high-rise residential development transformed its waterfront into one of the fastest-growing skylines in the country. It's a genuinely different kind of neighborhood story than Brooklyn's warehouse-conversion path — newer construction, more towers, less historic-preservation character.
Gantry Plaza State Park
A waterfront park built around restored industrial gantries (the giant iron structures once used to load rail cars onto barges), with what might be the single closest, most direct Manhattan skyline view available anywhere in the city — you're looking almost straight across a narrow stretch of the East River.
Getting there
The 7, E, M, G, and N/W trains all serve LIC, and the NYC Ferry connects it directly to Manhattan's East Side in a scenic 10-minute ride.
What's around
MoMA PS1, MoMA's contemporary art outpost, is a genuine destination in its own right, not just an overflow space — particularly its summer Warm Up music and art series. The neighborhood's food scene is newer and less internationally famous than Astoria's next door, but growing fast alongside the residential boom.
MoMA PS1
MoMA's contemporary art satellite, housed in a converted Queens public school building, is one of the best contemporary art venues in the city — arguably better for ambitious, experimental work than MoMA's main Fifth Avenue location, which tends toward established canonical modernism. The summer Warm Up series (outdoor DJ performances in the courtyard every Saturday, July through September) draws large crowds and has been an institution since 1997. MoMA membership gets you free admission to both; PS1 alone is $10.
The hotel scene as a Manhattan alternative
Because LIC is one to two subway stops from Midtown Manhattan, it's developed a solid hotel scene offering lower prices than equivalent Midtown properties — often 20–30% less for the same star rating. The trade-off is that you're in a neighbourhood without much independent restaurant or bar infrastructure compared to Brooklyn or Manhattan, but that gap is narrowing as the residential population grows. For business travellers or for trips where Manhattan proximity matters more than the neighbourhood itself, LIC is a genuinely good value proposition.
Eating in LIC
The food scene is growing but still patchy — concentrated mainly around the Court Square and Dutch Kills areas. Jackson Heights, immediately to the east, is one of the most culinarily diverse neighbourhoods in the city (South Asian, Latin American, Tibetan, East African), reachable on the 7 train in two stops, and is worth combining with any LIC visit rather than eating in the hotel zone.