Cross Bay Bridge is free at last

 

 Queens Eagle

Queens residents will no longer need to pay the toll on the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge in Southeast Queens, a major win for locals in the area who often use the bridge to commute and have long complained about the toll’s cost.

Beginning in 2024, residents of Queens who use E-Zpass will get a 100 percent rebate when crossing the bridge, which connects the Rockaway peninsula to Broad Channel and mainland Queens.

The funding comes through a 2018 program called the Outer Borough Transportation Account – which provided additional resources for outer borough transportation improvements – and was heavily pushed by local officials.

“Promises made, promises kept,” said Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato, who has been trying to get the toll changed for locals since she was elected. “After years of hard work and perseverance, my constituents from Lindenwood, Howard Beach, Hamilton Beach and Ozone Park will no longer be penalized. Through the legislation I passed with Senator Addabbo, Queens residents who utilize the New York E-Zpass program and register for the program will get full access to their entire borough, especially the Rockaway Peninsula.”

Crossing the bridge, which gets drivers and pedestrians across Jamaica Bay, is a necessity for some Rockaway locals who need it to get to work in other parts of Queens, Long Island or other parts of the city via the Belt Parkway.

“Finally, the MTA and the governor have listened and are implementing the removal of a barrier to secure economic opportunities for everyone in Queens,” Pheffer Amato said.

Pheffer Amato says that there is a long history of fighting against the toll, one she is happy to bring across the finish line.

“This was always an issue in the community, this unjustified toll,” she said over the phone to the Eagle. “Someone who works at a public school paid an extra over $25 a week to get to their jobs in Queens, through Queens, less than five miles from their home. That to me was the most inequitable part of the toll bridge.”

She said that it took work to figure out the budgeting and the economics, which ultimately led to the usage of the Outer Borough Transportation Account to pick up the tab.

Pheffer Amato’s legislative colleague State Senator Joseph Addabbo called the toll “unfair.”

“This reversal is a monumental victory and an effort that elected officials and residents have been striving to accomplish for decades,” he said. “This achievement will rebate residents for the only intra-borough toll in the city, assist the economic growth and enjoyment of the Rockaway peninsula.”

 

Drivers have to pay full toll again crossing the Cross Bay Bridge

Patch

The MTA is suspending a planned toll rebate for Queens residents driving across the Cross Bay Bridge as its revenue plummets during the coronavirus pandemic, state legislators said Tuesday.

The refund, which would go through E-ZPass and apply to drivers whose cars are registered in Queens, was due to go into effect this summer but is now indefinitely postponed.

"To say I'm disappointed by the postponement of the Queens Resident Cross Bay Bridge Rebate is an understatement, but I understand that the MTA is experiencing never before seen economic hardship and tough decisions have to be made during unprecedented times," Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato said. "We fought so hard for this, for our communities, and it was seen as something that would never be able to happen."

Under the current rebate program, Broad Channel and Far Rockaway residents pay a discounted toll of $1.41 with their E-ZPass, then receive a refund for that amount from the MTA, which operates several bridges citywide.

Crossing the bridge, which connects Far Rockaway to the rest of the borough, costs other drivers $2.29 with an E-ZPass or $4.75 without one, according to the MTA.

 The bridge is the city's only crossing that requires drivers to pay a toll to travel within the same borough, according to QNS.com.

Budget deal reduces Cross Bay Bridge toll

From the Times Ledger:

Negotiations over the state budget seemed as mild as this year’s winter with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature approving a $132.6 billion, on-time package that addressed a major issue in Queens.

Queens leaders praised several aspects of the state budget, including a rebate program designed to reimburse residents of the Rockaways who currently must pay tolls on the Cross Bay Bridge.

The bridge is the only span completely within a borough that charges a toll which, according to state Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Ozone Park) and civic leaders in the Rockaways, was stifling business growth and gouging residents who commute to work outside the neighborhood.

“The return of this important rebate program is a step in the right direction towards the complete elimination of this inherently unfair tax,” Goldfeder said.

Don't believe the hype

Dear Editor,

I'm writing to inform you of a new dance craze that’s sweeping through the 23rd Assembly District in Southern Queens this political season. It’ called the Toll Bridge Side Step and it follows closely on the heels of another political dance called the Aqueduct Twist.

Both dances have been perfected by our Assemblywoman, Audrey Pheffer and were in full view this week as the Assemblywoman was seen marching in the Cross Bay Bridge protest on Tuesday evening.

The Toll Bridge Side Step is difficult to master because it involves walking a fine line between irony and comedy. The irony stems from the fact that Ms. Pheffer was one of the legislators in Albany who voted to deny mass transit (MTA) adequate funding while allowing transit worker’s pensions to balloon out of proportion in light of the economic crisis we have been facing.

A crisis we continue to face. The result was the MTA re-routing funds from running trains and buses into new and larger liabilities. Ms. Pheffer also voted against a reasonable Congestion Pricing Plan that might have provided a sound financial solution to the mass transit mess we are now facing. Add to those two facts her historical vote to repeal the commuter tax which would have helped the working men and women of our district who live in the district and use mass transit. The comedy part of the political dance is where the Assemblywoman then becomes an opponent of the newly instituted tolls on the Cross Bay Bridge which her own votes were instrumental in creating.

The Aqueduct Twist is a much more familiar dance in line with the other cynical political fads that rely on the public’s willingness to forgive and forget. It involves politicians walking up to the podium at civic gatherings and singing the praises of the new contract to develop Aqueduct Racetrack without giving any explanation as to why we had to go through 9 years of failed bids, inadequate oversight of the vetting process and outright political cronyism to get to this point.

I make light of these serious matters only as a vehicle to drive home a very important and timely message to the voters of the 23rd Assembly District.
The message is simple: politics will continue as usual and without accountability only if we allow it to continue. This November 2nd, voters will be part of a momentous vote which will determine the course of our state and our nation. Voters will determine if we should continue watching the political dance which has become as popular with elected officials as watching Dancing With The Stars is with the public. Alternatively, does the public choose to elect new representatives who are not politicians but citizens concerned about the future and determined to right our course? It is my hope that the electorate will change the political channel and tune in to the possibility of meaningful and positive change in our state government.

Dr. Harold Paez
Candidate, New York State Assembly District 23
www.paezforassembly.org

Rockaway residents protest bridge toll

ROCKAWAY, N.Y. (WPIX) — Hundreds took part in a demonstration march across the Cross Bay Bridge Tuesday night.

Directing their anger at the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which on Thursday is expected to approve a toll hike in a package that includes a fare hike for subway and bus riders.

Residents of Far Rockaway were exempt from the toll until July when the MTA terminated the exemption.

Drivers now have to pay the round trip fare totaling $2.25.

Thursday's board vote will likely hike the toll an additional 25 cents.

While the MTA does have a bridge to maintain, residents argue it is the only interborough bridge that requires a toll. Protesters here for the march told PIX 11 News the bridge connects them to their schools, doctors and post office. In addition, they say they will will be unable to handle the hardship.

Once approved by the MTA board, the hikes will likely go into effect January 2011.

Residents to pay more for the Crossbay Bridge

From the Queens Chronicle:

The bulk of the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge rebate program that has been in place for residents of the Rockaway Peninsula and Broad Channel will soon be no more.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced this week that the program will be modified come July.

Under the old rebate program, participating residents of ZIP codes 11691, 11692, 11693, 11694, 11695 and 11697 who have an E-Z Pass are reimbursed $1.13 each time they cross the bridge using E-Z Pass. The toll charge is credited back to residents using MTA funds that come from the state mortgage recording tax.

However, the MTA said starting July 23 the Rockaway toll rebate program will be modified and residents within those six valid ZIP codes in the Rockaways and Broad Channel districts will pay a $1.13 toll for each of the first two trips across the Cross Bay Bridge. All subsequent trips taken on or during the same day on the same E-Z Pass tag will continue to be rebated to the account under the Cross Bay Resident Rebate program

The fare will be $2.75 for cash customers and $1.71 for non-resident E-ZPass customers. In addition, Rockaway residents may also purchase tokens, which cost $1.54 per trip.

Residents fighting proposed Cross Bay toll

From the Daily News:

BROAD CHANNEL and Rockaway residents may be headed to court to fight a bridge toll.

Local leaders are mulling a lawsuit against the MTA if the agency scraps its toll rebate program for locals using the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge between Broad Channel and the Rockaways. It is the only tolled intraborough bridge in the city.

Ending the rebate program would help plug a $750 million Metropolitan Transportation Authority budget shortfall, agency officials said.

The MTA board of directors is scheduled to vote on the proposed cuts at its March 24 meeting in Manhattan.

Many locals have to take the bridge to pick up packages at the post office, take children to school or go to the bank.

"We're in the same zip code, for God's sake," resident Diane Malsy, 47, said of Broad Channel and Rockaway.

One of the reasons she and her husband moved to Broad Channel was because of the toll rebates, she said. If the rebates were eliminated, she would have to pay to drive to her church and attend community board meetings, she said. Charging locals a discounted rate to cross the bridge would save the agency approximately $3.9 million, officials said.

Broad Channel and Rockaway residents with an E-ZPass would pay $1.13 a crossing, officials said. Nonresidents who pay cash are charged $2.75 and nonresidents with E-ZPasses pay $1.71. This would not change.

"These actions were necessitated by the deterioration of the MTA's financial situation," said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz.

New park for the New Year

From the Daily News:

A vacant Jamaica Bay property originally tabbed for private developments is slated to be transformed into the borough's newest waterfront park.

The 1.2-acre site along Beach 88 St. near the Cross Bay Bridge, will offer a range of activities to the public such as picnicking, fishing and boating.

The property was snapped up by the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit group that specializes in land conservation, for $1.925 million, more than $1 million less than its market price, according to the owners.

"We basically purchased and donated the property within five minutes," says Matt Shaffer, assistant director of marketing services for the nonprofit group. Funding by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey allowed the Trust to give the property to the city for the park's construction set to begin in Spring.

Hudson Companies LLC, the original owners, planned to build 20 single-family homes on the waterfront property sometime in the next year, said Alan Ball, an owner of Hudson Companies.

"We had no debt on the property, and we could have held on to it pretty easily, so we said we might as well cut bait and move on," he said. "Moving this project to the Trust for Public Land was a very good thing to do."

The addition of the waterside park would bring much-needed parkland and open space to the Jamaica Bay area, which some environmental activists say is being overdeveloped.

Cross Bay toll coming back, buses& trains to be eliminated

From NY1:

Elected officials in Jackson Heights say there are actually other ways for the MTA to avoid service cuts, including leasing out commercial space at the 74th Street/Roosevelt Avenue station.

From CBS 2:

A political irony Thursday, Gov. David Paterson has lead the chorus complaining about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's decision to whack the student MetroCard program, but he's the one who cut the funds in the first place.

It's a surprising development. The blame for eliminating free student transit passes starts with Paterson.

Proof that it was Paterson's decision to cut student MetroCards is in his deficit reduction plan. On page 79 of the bill it eliminates all but $6 million of the funds.

Cross Bay ramps reopen

From the Queens Chronicle:

Newly reconstructed ramps to and from the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge in Rockaway will reopen to motorists on May 22, just in time for Memorial Day weekend and the kick-off of beach season.

The northbound ramp off the bridge has been closed since December 2008, and the southbound ramp off the bridge has been closed since February of this year. During these periods, vehicles and buses were required to use detour routes. Buses will return to their original routes beginning Saturday, May 23.

Transit saved...hallelujah!

From NY1:

The MTA says that residents of the Rockaways and Broad Channel will continue to travel across the Cross Bay Bridge for free.

Also apparently off the table: elimination of W and Z trains, the J express and 8 Queens bus lines. But the fare will likely increase to $2.25. Dale Hemmerdinger's out, too.

CB14 members fighting the Cross Bay toll

From the Daily News:

A southern Queens community is trying to enlist the help of a civil liberties group in its fight against a proposal to abolish a decade-old toll rebate program on the Cross Bay Bridge.

In a creative legal strategy, community leaders in Broad Channel and Rockaway say that removing the rebate violates locals' First Amendment rights, provisions of the state Constitution and the City Charter.

"We have to pay a tax, in the form of a toll, to travel within our own community," said Community Board 14 member Michael Tubridy, who wrote a letter to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"If the rebate program was removed, it would infringe on [our] rights," Tubridy said.

Broad Channel and Rockaway residents would be the only city residents forced to pay a toll within community board boundaries, established by the City Charter.

"The removal of this rebate will require Broad Channel and Rockaway residents to pay a toll to go to the post office, pick up their children at school, access our local hospital, go food shopping," Community Board 14 District Manager Jonathan Gaska wrote in a letter to the NYCLU. "The financial cost to our residents will amount to thousands of dollars a year ... to conduct everyday activities."

Community members are planning a multipronged effort to halt the MTA plan, which is likely to take effect in June.

Cross Bay users come out in force

...an estimated 300 people turned out at the Sheraton LaGuardia East, many of them residents of Broad Channel and the Rockaways, who were there to protest a plan to charge them for driving the Cross Bay Bridge. Currently, local residents pay a toll -- but get a refund under a program the MTA wants to eliminate.

"The bridge is vital to our existence," said a local resident. "It is the only place in New York City where a neighbor is charged a toll to visit, go to school, or shop within the same borough."

"Any toll on this bridge violates the New York City Charter and will be a hardship for the residents of the Rockaways and Broad Channel," said another.

In addition to toll increases, the MTA also plans to raise the base subway and bus fare as high as $3 in June and implement service cuts in the spring. Among the cuts proposed by the agency is the elimination of the Q26, Q56, Q74, Q75, Q84, QM22, QM23 and X32 bus routes.