The obsolete Central Terminal building at LaGuardia Airport has drawn ridicule from business travelers. Now Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to spend $3.6 billion to build a new one.
But this cost is much higher if one includes the diminished value of the properties of the 150,000 residents who live under LGA or JFK flight paths. LGA's key advantage, its proximity to Manhattan, would be all but eliminated if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority built one-seat ride express rail to JFK. For less than $1 billion, the MTA could restore the 3.5-mile disused LIRR Rockaway Beach line in Queens, producing a world-class rail link to JFK while speeding travel to Aqueduct and the Rockaways.
With this high-speed link, a strong case could be made for closing LGA. By handling displaced LGA passengers via larger aircraft at JFK, takeoff and landing noise would be drastically reduced and airline efficiency improved.
With LGA closed, this valuable 680-acre city-owned waterfront parcel could accommodate more than 30,000 units of housing toward the mayor's goal of 200,000 affordable units.
Mr. Cuomo should insist that full consideration of closing LGA be a key part of an FAA-mandated aviation noise study now underway.
—George Haikalis
President, Institute for Rational Urban Mobility
37 comments:
Express train to JFK? Subway or lirr? Subway means taking express service from queens residents to give Manhattan tower people a shorter trip to the airport - think forest hills and east with just the E or the F not both. R or M to the airport would probably be slower than a two seat ride today . Lirr? Hurts queens less, but is still wasteful. You want high frequency from an airport connector - nobody wants to get off the plane and then wait 30 minutes for the next train. And you won't fill up a train every 10 minutes unless you only use a few cars. Metro north and lirr can better fill a train to Penn or ESA most of the day than an airport connector would. Existing two seat airtrain is good enough for those who want to take transit to the airport. And lirr to airtrain lets those who want to avoid the scum you often find on the subway and is reasonably fast.
Never happen -and shouldn't.
All you would get are more con-dos and cars.
Suggesting that few and larger domestic flights would be palliative for the loss of capacity is ridiculous.
This is just about tacking-on a few tens-of-thousands onto the value of some houses in the current LGA flight path and the hell with the inconvenience an even-more choked JFK would cause travelers.
The hell with your houses. The planes were there when you move in, they'll be there when you are gone.
Makes good sense to me to closed LGA. I'm reading this artical now at 5:30AM dreading the noise from the first 6:00AM take off that will continue late into the evening. My quality of life here in North Flushing has diminished since the new flight patterns have taken place.
That would be heaven! How about bringing the monorail up further north and making it a truly viable commute option?
La Guardia is a run-down, broke-down nuisance. However the Van Wyck to JFK is a ALWAYS a nightmare at the Jackie Robinson split. Can that be fixed?
Invest in mass transit and close down LGA because it reduces property values around it? Sounds good to me.
I also like the idea of investing in mass transit and closing down other things that reduce property values. Let's start with the old Interborough Parkway (now Jackie Robinson). It can't handle buses or trucks (so nada on deliveries - no help to most local businesses), is seriously dangerous due to all of the curves and the narrowness, and dead ends anyway in the middle of the nastiest part of Brooklyn.
It attracts lots of traffic to Forest Hills Kew Gardens Richmond Hill Woodhaven Glendale Ridgewood Bushwick Cypress Hills and East New York. The traffic gets concentrated, draws in ugly development (like car dealerships), makes the areas a lot noisier, and drives down property values. Get rid of the JR and the traffic disperses. Traffic finds a way and goes elsewhere. People adjust their driving habits and figure out another route.
Highway stubs like this have already been removed in other cities (although it took an earthquake in San Francisco to prove to everyone that they could do without it). This stub needs to go as well.
Instead, the city has decided to waste a ton of money resurfacing and maintaining the JR. That money should go to mass transit.
Clearly thought and reasonably argued.
Fat chance it'll be adopted.
I always thought a hovercraft would be the way to ferry people to LaGuardia.
Put passengers on buses and the buses drive onto the hovercraft. In a matter of minutes they would arrive at LaGuardia and the buses would bring the passengers to their respective terminals.
what about the jobs that will be lost?
Replace? Replace an airport that serves 26.7 million passengers per year?
And merely by a subway extension? It will be one-seat but still over 1 hour to reach Manhattan.
After spending $1.9 billion on AirTrain are they going to admit this was a boondoggle?
Ferries?? Why not bring back seaplanes and airships as well?
Does anyone know how close LaGaurdia is to Riker's Island? The Bowery Bay Sewage plant and Flushing Bay.
The fact that its noisy doesn't bother me a bit when we consider how the long suffering people around Broadway, Steinway, and 30th are told to put up with bars or move - I am curious why airport noise that bothers a few hundred people is always an issue that takes up the politicians time and resources when there are a hell of a lot more important things that effect a lot more people get routinely dismissed.
I agree that something should be done about LGA. But despite the good intentions here, I remain skeptical about the execution.
Re: the Jackie robinson- I'm for closing it down if more/better mass transit will be added to the areas that it serves. Part of the reason it's so dangerous is because people insist on speeding in the areas where they encourage you to slow down. Even with additional transit options, I'm not sure about closing it. These major arteries are so much better than the stop and go traffic you find throughout most of Brooklyn.
Why does everything have to have crap on it? Real estate people that go ape shit over this are worse than hipsters acting stupid over some obscure food concoction.
Why not a park?
Yes, 'waste' land on people.
Still call it the Interboro - Jackie Robinson had nothing to do with it, and blacks are decreasing their interest in baseball so it was a waste of time and money renaming it.
Never thought it was a good idea having planes coast and gently slow down towards a landing over all that Brooklyn and Queens ghetto with God knows how many jihadi types out there.
The fact that its noisy doesn't bother me a bit when we consider how the long suffering people around Broadway, Steinway, and 30th are told to put up with bars or move - I am curious why airport noise that bothers a few hundred people is always an issue that takes up the politicians time and resources when there are a hell of a lot more important things that effect a lot more people get routinely dismissed.
OH BOY - IS THE GROUND SHIFTING UNDER PROVO-RAMBO? GUESS SHE MIGHT HAVE TO RAISE EVEN MORE MONEY FOR HER 'BOYS'.
Hmmm new East River waterfront residences complete with "affordable housing" where LaGuardia is.
By "affordable housing" of course they mean you must have an income of no less than 700k and no more than 2 million a year to qualify.
As we say-- good luck with that!
So you want to improve property values around La Guardia by destroying lovely parts of Rego Park/Forest Hills with the defunct Rockaway line?
Please explain how that spur would constitute a "one-seat ride" from Manhattan.
Then explain how you would remediate that fragile strip of land and construct FROM SCRATCH a modern rail line on the 20 or so feet of earth berm between all those private houses?
You got a lot of 'splaining to do.
Want a "one-seat ride to JFK?
Take a cab!
Why and how did they publish that article? It reads like the demented fever dreams of robert moses.
Flight pattern noise aside, it's not clear what benefit there is to maintaining a second airport in Queens which only handles domestic flights to take up 680 acres if JFK has capacity. Does anyone actually have any stats on that?
"The hell with your houses. The planes were there when you move in, they'll be there when you are gone."
Read Queens Quiet Skies !
www.queensquietskies.org
Get informed. The flight patterns have changed affecting people who never had the plane noise before.
North Flushing never had so many planes making noise like now.
i don't think a A380 or B777 can efficiently make the LGA to Cleveland route.
Anon # 5 "Instead, the city has decided to waste a ton of money resurfacing and maintaining the JR. That money should go to mass transit."
Really? The city has spent money maintaining the Jackie? When was the last time you were on it?1970? Its one of the worst maintained highways I have ever seen anywhere, it desperately needs to be repaved. And over half of the street lights don't work at night. More maintenance money needs to go towards it, not less.
A complete overhaul is needed of that highway straightening it out, widening it and extending it to the Belt as originally planned, but unfortunately will never happen.
Does anyone really think that if you close LGA the 26 million travelers that use it will be able to be absorbed to JFK or even Newark for that matter?
The Port Authority is pushing Stewart Airport be used upstate because JFK/LGA & Newark at operating at capacity. Take LGA out of the mix and it is chaos. You really can not close LGA and just expect everything to be fine because we built a rail link between JFK and the city.
And then the real mind blower is close the airport and shove more people in the city! What is the purpose of that?
Airplane Noise is going to get much worse.
Please complain to your local elected leaders !
The airplane noise drowns out the helicopter noise, truck traffic, train noise, loud neighbors, loud cars and any other noise you would hear living in the city (or western Nassau).
If LGA is closed, then they should make it a beach just like what was there before the mechanical birds took over. Get rid of the Grand Central Parkway too. It will be just like the 1930s again.
"Really? The city has spent money maintaining the Jackie? When was the last time you were on it?1970? Its one of the worst maintained highways I have ever seen anywhere, it desperately needs to be repaved. And over half of the street lights don't work at night. More maintenance money needs to go towards it, not less.
A complete overhaul is needed of that highway straightening it out, widening it and extending it to the Belt as originally planned, but unfortunately will never happen."
Anon #whatever,
Where've you been? The city is about to blow a big chunk of change resurfacing the JR over the next two years. And you're right. It will never connect down to the Belt Parkway. It will also never be straightened out because it's unlikely they'll be allowed to disinter the thousands of corpses that straightening would require.
Therefore, all the MORE reason to shut the thing down! Thanks for your support!
Robert Moses would close Rikers Island and construct a new set of runways over the East River reaching into Rikers and the Bronx and then build the replacement terminal buildings on a totally blank sheet of paper by leveling everything now standing in Hunts Point.
That's what Robert Moses would do.
LGA is still a significant economic generator to the city. It isnt going anywhere.
Anon No. 30:
Which is why it's a good thing that Robert Mosers is no longer with us.
Bring back North Beach amusement park!
Besides the fact that JFK doesn't have the capacity to incorporate all of the displaced flights from LGA, this article clearly ignores the adverse impact that such an act would have on Southeast Queens.
Shifting flights to JFK would alleviate noise pollution in the Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Flushing areas but relocate them to the Rockaways, Howard Beach Springfield Gardens, South Jamaica, Downtown Jamaica and Woodhaven. Home values in Northeast Queens may rise, but property values in Southeast Queens would fall in an inverse fashion.
Although I can't say that I'm surprised that the implication of this proposed idea upon minority communities was ignored.
Not to mention that the Grand Central Parkway serves as a man-made barrier to the land which LGA sits on, and would serve as a tourniquet to vehicle and foot traffic for any commercial or residential development on that land.
Op-ed says, "By handling displaced LGA passengers via larger aircraft at JFK, takeoff and landing noise would be drastically reduced and airline efficiency improved."
Rockaway would make a nice long new east/west runway and solve the problem of housing in a flood plain and getting planes out over the ocean without flying over homes. LGA is harder, but just acquire the areas where noise is the worst and make a buffer zone around it. All the people pouring into Queens to live would have to pick another borough to live in.
Close Rikers Island jail and merge that land with the current LaGuardia Airport; the new LaGuardia INTERNATIONAL Airport would be a state-of-the-art transportation facility with three 11,500-foot runways that would serve all 5 boroughs and would generate billions of dollars in revenue for the City & State. Rikers is a billion-dollar-a-year money pit... its inmates can be proportionately relocated to local detention centers. Eventually, a bullet shuttle can run between LaGuardia & JFK. This is the REAL solution to the LaGuardia dilemma.
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