I wrote a column for last week's Leader-Observer voicing concerns about the proposed QueensWay in which I voiced concerns over the cost and how it would impact the maintenance of the existing park land. I wrote:
"Take a brief walk between the Bandshell and Oak Ridge and you will find sidewalks that are crumbled and in many spots, completely gone; roadways and paths that are eroded and have long been in need of maintenance."The existing GreenWay, that runs through Forest Park and intersects the land proposed for the QueensWay, is poorly lit and in many locations, a poorly maintained mess. We took a walk along one stretch today to take some pictures -- this sidewalk is right around the corner from Oak Ridge, not far from the Bandshell and the landmarked Forest Park Carousel. Signs identifying the road as the GreenWay can be seen throughout.
It's one long mess -- and we'd love to see an expensive feasibility study on how the existing park land could be maintained better before spending millions and millions to create more of the same. This GreenWay right here should serve as their "experiment in a bottle" -- fix up this GreenWay and keep it lit -- and then maybe we can look at expanding it.
The pictures and video above represent the reality that exists on the GreenWay in Queens today. It's a far cry from the fantastical renderings released a few weeks back --
18 comments:
Waste of money to light up a park that closes at dusk just so the druggies that use that park can see their needles without a flashlight.
forest park could use some rediscovery from these lapdogs of building developers.It's insulting that they installed greenway poles there already on a sidewalk that needs new pavement.
this project is unrealistic and will easily cost more than projected,probably billions,and will take decades to remove all the trash,vines and trees.
zero fucking vision.just greedy speculation.
Very nice example of advanced Photoshop skills - lol!
But the existing Greenway has been in disrepair for years. Why hasnt there been a grassroots effort to address it ?
The envisioned Queensway was formed to address a 50 year old abandoned tract of land that the city has neglected and forgotten about. If you want action , form a group to address the problem . Queensway has several thousand supporters already with a commendable vision.
OK. I object to this: "50 year old abandoned tract of land that the city has neglected and forgotten about." There have to be at least several thousand people who now live in homes adjacent to the proposed Queensway. We haven't forgotten it's there!!! We see end enjoy it every day. Is that not OK with you? Yes, there's some trash which is unfortunate, but the dense trees and the birds and squirrels and butterflies in there are lovely.
What Mr. Crappy says about it is 100% true. The costs to build this boondoggle would be enormous. You have a narrow closed in strip of land which is an earth-berm or embankment, with steeply sloped sides, both sides, that terminate at people's back fences. What kind of equipment can be moved in there to cut and remove the old growth trees (tragic!) and pave over the top of the earth-berm (stupid!) so that someone named Peter can go biking to Trader Joe's without fear of traffic? Meanwhile, the lives of people all along the ROW are up-ended. We would face all kinds of security and quality of life issues whioch no one is willing to address-- probably because they can't be addressed. They would just BE problems for the people living along it which the Queensway supporters don't care about because not one of them live there. They do not share the risks but claim a right to do this terrible thing.
Thank god is there is no way in hell they will be able to pay for this. And can you see the city stepping in to pay for it? I can't, with so many other Parks in need of repair, as Mr. Crappy points out.
I've said repeatedly to these knuckleheads that everything they say they want already exists in Forest Park and it they can't be bothered to go to Forest Park then they won't be coming to "Queensway" either and will have just F'd it up for no reason.
The idea of "reactivating" the rail line is even more stupid if that is possible, since it NO LONGER EXISTS IN ANY FORM. Again, the costs of building a modern rail line in that closed-in space would be enormous. Has the city shown any interest in investing that kind of money for Far Rockaway people's benefit? And by the way, the "rail" people like to say, didn't you know you were moving next door to an old rail line? To them I say, didn't you know you were moving to FAR Rock-AWAY? It is not Rego Park's problem that you have found Far Rockaway to be inconvenient.
OK, that's enough for now.
Uhmmm...
" The idea of "reactivating" the rail line is even more stupid if that is possible, since it NO LONGER EXISTS IN ANY FORM. Again, the costs of building a modern rail line in that closed-in space would be enormous. Has the city shown any interest in investing that kind of money for Far Rockaway people's benefit? And by the way, the "rail" people like to say, didn't you know you were moving next door to an old rail line? To them I say, didn't you know you were moving to FAR Rock-AWAY? It is not Rego Park's problem that you have found Far Rockaway to be inconvenient."
This is a good point - if you choose to live in rockaway, you know what you're getting into.
However.
These tracks need to be reopened. Queens and Brooklyn are choking on the fumes of hundreds of thousands of taxis and buses clogging our highways going to JFK.
A one seat ride from penn or GCT to JFK is an absolute requirement for anything to get even slightly better in terms of traffic in NYC.
Also- that photoshop work is really great.
Ed Wendell: your camera missed the mugger and sex pervert hiding behind the trees.
"These tracks need to be reopened. Queens and Brooklyn are choking on the fumes of hundreds of thousands of taxis and buses clogging our highways going to JFK.
A one seat ride from penn or GCT to JFK is an absolute requirement for anything to get even slightly better in terms of traffic in NYC."
OH MY GOD! Go look at them. Those "tracks" cannot be re-opened, only rebuilt from the ground up.
When that line was built it was 1880, the year 1880. And it probably cut through countryside and farmland. I urge you to go take a look at the ROW that remains. It is ALL BUILT UP. There is not even access between blocks and blocks of private lots with houses on them. How the hell are you going to get the machinery in there to BUILD a rail line.
Also, how would rebuilding this line lead to a one-seat ride from JFK to Rockaway? I live in Rego Park close to Queens Blvd and I have a THREE-seat ride to JFK. Is a "one-seat ride" to the airport some kind of new human right that I'm not aware of? And how many Rockaway residents are frequent overseas flyers anyway? Get a grip.
Better idea: rapid surface transit on Woodhaven.
If they renovate Forest Park AND promise to throw in the My Little Ponies, I'll change my vote for Queensway. If not, I'll stick with a mass-transit option.
Rebuilding the former RBB of the LIRR to carry IND subway cars for the benefit it produces won't be nearly as expensive as any other potential rail project in the city. Constructing a rail line on this narrow corridor wont't be nearly as challenging as constructing a rail line through bedrock. Your concerns there are overblown. QB local tracks have spare capacity they can't use today because of constraints at the terminal (71st). The QB line was constructed with bell mouths to connect to the former RBB, requiring little tunneling to complete the connection. It will increase frequency at all but two QB local stops, and bring a subway to an area that needs better transit access. It doesn't have to go to the rockaways and may very well not. Send it to JFK instead.
For the one who suggested rapid surface transit on woodhaven - how fast is rapid? If a bus or tram is waiting at a light or stuck in traffic, it won't be rapid. So you have to take lanes away from cars to make it work, and rebuild the lights to give priority to the tram or bus, at least to let it hold a green light if it's about to miss it. If you go with a bus lane, it won't have anywhere near the capacity of rail, even if limited to 7-8 trains per hour. If you go with trams (LRT/streetcar) you're giving the MTA a new type of vehicle to maintain, there are efficiencies that come with scale, so either these vehicles will be a huge drain on the budget, of you're building multiple lines to run the same type of vehicles on. And if you go with trams, where are you storing and servicing them? Either way, what do you do with the surface line? Run it down QB? LIE? Do you take lanes from them too? If not this won't be very rapid. Even if you do it will be slower than the subway with it's own grade separated right of way. Just dump the riders onto the already overcrowded subway?
A couple of friends went to play golf at the park last year and had hoodlums try to sell them pot and cocaine before they could get their clubs out of the trunk.
I completely understand the objections of the people who live in the vicinity of the abandoned tracks. However they need to come to reality. Open land in New York city is next to impossible to find now. One of three things will eventually happen with that land.
1. A new train line, as is proposed.
2. A park (even though we all know it will be neglected).
3. Some developer will somehow get his hands on it and build "affordable" mini crap box housing on it.
The city seems like it can't tolerate open land anymore, so the days of leaving it the way it is are likely coming to an end.
Who cares? Bike lanes are a waste of space anyway. However, this is the kind of shit you should expect from the people who brought NYC the blatantly racist citibike.
I see a silver coat of paint was put on the sides of the trestle on Metropolitan ave,directly over the rust. That will make it structurally sound. A rail line is nor feasible, economically. A greenway without adding in funds for dedicated police patrols would be devastating. The police department will never grow from its current level of manpower. I have to think that all the folks wanting this greenway did not live in the city or were too young to realize what crime was like 25 years ago . It will be back,although it will tick up incrementally over 10 year period.
People in FAR Rockaway who need to get to JFK can take the A train to the Howard Beach Station and connect to the Air Train. Don't gimme that crap about needing to ruin my peace so you can get to JFK in one seat-- which would STILL not happen with a rebuilt Rockaway line.
As to this being open land, ripe for SOMETHING/ANYTHING--
Go. Look. At. It.
I'm so tired of saying this. The ROW is mostly extremely narrow and LOCKED IN, inaccessible. Most of it is a high narrow earth berm. The rest is a deep gully with steep sides. Is is not buildable land. This is absurd. It is already being put to its best highest use as wild forest. Have you ever heard of forest? It's a lovely thing.
Go look and stop opining about things you know obviously nothing about.
More cops? Are you crazy? The city already employs 2.6X as many as the average city does per capita. Remember NYC is by an arm and a leg the densest city in the country, so they have a relatively tiny amount of land to patrol for the size of the force. And each officer in the army of NYC will get a sizable pension, and generous salary while 'working'. Paying for the cops and teachers is bankrupting the city as is, we need to cut the teacher's insane pensions, and the total number of police dramatically. Demand for transit in that corridor is already greater than the bus lane to be set up on Woodhaven this year can handle. The rail line is needed, but probably won't get built because scum like Cuomo and Pataki have shafted the MTA and driven up their total debt. They can't afford to build a new rail line, and you know muscle car Cuomo and the Blaz don't car about expanding transit enough to fund it either. It won't be a park either, though there is a similar greenway, the former Vanderbilt Motor Parkway that runs between people's backyards and there's no security issue with it. Crappy posted about the people trying to extend it further east a while back. It's going to be nothing for another decade or two, before eventually being converted to IND subway standards. Nothing to worry about for a long time if you live nearby.
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