NY Daily News
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan for a shiny new streetcar through Brooklyn and Queens took a step forward Wednesday.
The NYC Economic Development Corporation, which also runs NYC Ferry service, announced it approved a contract with a consultant to oversee the environmental review process for the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, or BQX.
The trolley, which was first announced in 2016, looked to be dead in the water last April when Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen questioned whether it was worth its $2.5 billion price tag.
But the city released a revised plan for the BQX in August, which slashed the length of the streetcar's
route from 16 miles to 11, and inflated its cost to $2.7 billion.
The updated route terminates in Gowanus in the south and Astoria in the north.
The new transit option has garnered a good deal of controversy since it was announced. Like the NYC Ferry, it has raised concerns about gentrification and housing prices.
Friends of the BQX, a real estate-backed nonprofit that has been advocating for the project, praised the progress Wednesday.
“We are pleased with the city's commitment not just to moving the project forward, but to community engagement, which must play a central role,“ said the group’s executive director Jessica Schumer, daughter of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “As the city grapples with a transit crisis, now is the moment for it to take control of its mass transit destiny and expand access wherever it can.”
The city hopes to have the trolley completed in 2029 — it still hasn’t determined how it will be funded.
Yeah, the headline above is a little bitty bit of editorializing, but I said that this was going to happen regardless. Because what the real estate overlords want, the real estate overlords get. And I don't like it anymore than you do.
10 comments:
Dumblasio is totally in the deep pockets of the real estate industry, yet the gothamist, Huffington post reading libturds love him, wtf?
"But the city released a revised plan for the BQX in August, which slashed the length of the streetcar's route from 16 miles to 11, and inflated its cost to $2.7 billion...
The city hopes to have the trolley completed in 2029 — it still hasn’t determined how it will be funded."
And if the leftist liberals take complete hold of Washington and the Senate you can be sure Schumer will push for funding to help his daughter who is on charge of the Trolley Folly.
Why not add $1 Billion worth of buses and give the rest of the cash to the subway system?
Build that BQX! Hmmm...sounds familiar. Is there a wall involved, too?
Hey crapster, here is some more info on the BQX disaster:
And $7.2 million of our tax dollars going to study the environmental impact of the Trolley Folly.
Will the real Diblassio please stand up. Oh wait, he already has. Hes a sellout progressive !!
Maybe the should use the trolley rails removed from Main St Flushing in 1990
Google Maps, Gowanus to Astoria: G at 4 Avenue & 9 Street, M at Court Sq 23 Street.
So, who needs more? Paul Massey had it right: The G would travel through Midtown, loop back into Queens on a route used by the M or R trains, and then reconnect with the existing G line at Court Square. Better yet, G over Hell Gate, back from Wall Street
@Anon Re: Trolley = Wall
Bravo!
The trolley's speculative costs are just 3 billion and a 984 more miles less than Trump's whatever wall or barrier.*
Establish a bus route and see how many people utilize it, before spending millions of dollars. No wonder our taxes are through the roof and people are moving out in droves.
Unless you put a bar in a bus like they do with the ferries apparently, the preferred citizens of this city will not utilize them I guess
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