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In order to separate from the confusion of being mistaken with Long Island, officials and business leaders are looking to change the name of Long Island City to the “hip” abbreviation “LIC.”
After meeting with travel agents from around the world to introduce them to New York, Rob MacKay of the Queens Tourism Council, frequently finds out travelers get thrown off by the city name when searching websites of Long Island City hotels.
“It’s a nightmare! I actually have to show them how close we are to the city,” said MacKay. “The name apparently affects the real estate world and the tourism industry.”
With changing the name, MacKay hopes to distinguish Long Island City, emphasizing its unique businesses and thriving community, being only two subway stops away from Manhattan.
“I’ve been frustrated with this for a while now. A lot of people call us daily and they’re confused because they have a misconception of Long Island City,” said Eric Benaim, owner of real estate firm Modern Spaces.
The change in name does not seem too drastic, as Long Island City is already being referred to as LIC by residents and businesses.
“People here already call it LIC and businesses use it in their names. We always say LIC, we’re trying to get people used to it,” said Benaim.
According to MacKay, the process of changing the name does not follow any legal or financial steps but instead just takes the dedication of the community to begin calling itself “LIC.”
Yet, not everyone agrees with the name change.
“Leave it as Long Island City!” said Manducatis Rustica owner, Gianna Cerbone-Teoli. “People do get confused about it but it’s so great when you have to explain.”
Instead of changing the name, residents believe the community should help others understand the differences and unique qualities of Long Island City.
“I think it’s unnecessary to change it for people that are not well informed,” said Esteban Varas, 23. “I mean we are all on Long Island.”
If these guys want to do something useful, they’d make people aware of the history of Long Island City, that it was at one time a separate municipality, just like Brooklyn. They’d figure that into the massive redevelopment plans being undertaken. Changing would take away from the history of the area. It’s just stupid.
Mailing addresses in Brooklyn were Brooklyn, LI, New York well into the 20th century. . My address in Queens well into the 1950′s was Bayside, LI, NY (until postal “zones” were established.) The Brooklyn Historical Society was the Long Island Historical Society for most of its history. The Gertz department store in Flushing had a restaurant called “The Long Island Room” when it opened in the 1950′s. Those that left the city to live on “Lawn Guyland” enable the geographic faux pas
What a tempest in a teapot! What about West New York, NJ? Or East New York, Brooklyn? Or all the neighborhoods with Hills or Forest in their names that are not on hills or located in forests? Shouldn’t that confuse tourists, too? Are they illiterates? If they want to be world travelers, they should do some research on where they’re headed, first. This is really all about the hotel and tourism industry in NYC not up to doing their jobs. I wish I dealt with “nightmares” like this all day at work. Really.
We have been in Long Island City over 30 years and no one has a problem finding us or figuring out who we are or where we are…however, the way things work today, LIC would become known as ‘Lick’…a monicker we can all live without!
There is no confusion. Long Island City is a long established Queens neighborhood and a part of New York City, (governmentally speaking), as well as being on the western end of Long Island, (geographically speaking), with all the other Queens neighborhoods. Prior to 1898 it was its own city. So is Brooklyn on Long Island for that matter. Just start an ad campaign calling Brooklyn and Long Island City “The Other End” as a take off on the popularized Montauk version.
The displaced Manhattanites in LIC do not wish to be remided that Long Island City is, in fact, on Long Island.
Why not just call it Manhattan Manquée, and be done with it? Descriptive of its residents, in any case.
seems the businesses need to reconsider their names.
Seems like the only one ‘confused’ is the macKay character.