MTA honors President Biden at incomplete Woodhaven Blvd Station renovation

  JQ LLC

I don't recall ever seeing infrastructure upgrades honoring a president before. This looks like a campaign ad for The Big Guy.

Pre-City Of Yes housing development in stillborn state

 

 This is nice set of rowhouses between 75th and 77th St on Jamaica Ave. I caught in January 2020 the day after Neir's was saved from closing permanently and a few months before the pandemic lockdowns that has destroyed this city. 

 

 

3 and a half years later, it's still caged and unoccupied.

 

 

The only thing that's living here are the vegetation and the graffiti (looks like the work of Five Pointz).

 

Mayor Adams and his technocrats at NYC planning want to build a city of yes when they didn't even have the motivation to get people in housing that already exists. I wonder how the City Of Yes doctrine will apply here with these buildings that are already completed. Maybe it needs 5 more stories.

Forest Park path alternative

 Queens Chronicle

 Parts of the west section of Forest Park began to close over the past week as the Parks Department began construction on a pedestrian and bike path connecting Glendale to the side adjacent to Woodhaven.

The nearly $4 million project will create a path that will slice through the section of park just east of the Forest Park Golf Course on the western half of the park from the intersection of Myrtle Avenue and Forest Park Drive to the Seuffert Bandshell Parking Lot.

The Glendale-facing entrance begins along a segment of Forest Park Drive that now functions as an off-ramp for the Jackie Robinson Parkway. The renovation will replace what is now a dirt path worn in the shoulder of the heavily trafficked street with a sidewalk-width road intended to be shared by cyclists and pedestrians.

The design for the path continues past that point along Forest Park Drive to cut south through the park until it connects back to the wooded area behind the bandshell parking lot. The southern section will build off of an unused concrete expanse in the park blocked off to car traffic with a two-pronged path consisting of a wide pedestrian route on one side and a two-way bike path on the other.

The entrance to that wide, dual-purpose path will contain plantings and a seating area and adult fitness equipment further down. The redesign will also provide security lighting along the section of Forest Park Drive.

Residents began to notice the project getting underway when they saw a gate go up around the Forest Park picnic area by the bandshell section of the park. Last Friday afternoon construction crews were on site demarcating the path and clearing debris from the path.

Though the picnic area could be blocked off for a year — the length of time Parks expects the construction to take — the project will also provide new picnic tables, grills and coal bins in the bandshell-adjacent section when it is finished.

The total price tag for the project is $3.93 million, consisting of $1.89 million of discretionary funds contributed by Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village) and his predecessor, Elizabeth Crowley, $1.2 million from the Borough President’s Office and $841,000 from the mayor.

“I’m glad this project is moving forward. Our parks are very precious throughout the city, especially in this district. That’s why I’ve allocated more than $1.3 million to Forest Park for various projects,” Holden said in a statement.

While street safety advocates celebrated the addition of a bike path to improve connections and accessibility between Forest Park and Glendale, they spoke to the larger concern over how difficult it is to safely access other large portions of the park by bike or foot.

“This project should be a model to create bike-friendly entrances from all surrounding neighborhoods, including Woodhaven and Ozone Park,” said Juan Restrepo from Transportation Alternatives in a statement. “With the nearby Jackie Robinson Parkway and Woodhaven Boulevard, Forest Park remains inaccessible to the people the park should serve. NYC DOT must amplify the new bike path by creating a network of protected bike lanes to the park.”

Juan is quite a little Hitler about the streets of NYC. Such an exemplary spokesman for the Transportation Totalitarians.

Neir's is now part of the city's geography

 

 Queens Post

A street in Woodhaven has been co-named after historic neighborhood bar Neir’s Tavern.

The corner of 78th Street and 88th Avenue was co-named “Neir’s Tavern Way” during a ceremony Saturday hosted by Council Member Robert Holden. The establishment, located at 87-48 78th St., is credited by some historians as being the oldest bar in New York City.

Holden passed legislation earlier this year to designate the street corner “Neir’s Tavern Way.” The watering hole is about to celebrate its 192nd year in business.

The bar was in danger of shutting down in early 2020 when owner Loycent Gordon was unable to reach an agreement with his landlord when his lease was up for renewal. Several elected officials and community leaders stepped in to save the bar and a new lease was negotiated.

“I’m very proud of how our community came together to save this storied establishment and to further preserve its place in Queens history with the street co-naming,” Holden said in a statement.

 

Jenifer's parking plan controversy gets some clarity, again

 

Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar walked through Woodhaven with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia last week to discuss adding parking spots to the area, sparking a heated debate about the proposal. 

Rajkumar said that a lack of parking has been a long-standing issue in Woodhaven, claiming some of her constituents even sleep in their cars waiting for a spot.

The proposed initiative would add angled parking on 98th Street between Woodhaven Boulevard and Park Lane South, turn the median striping on the Woodhaven Boulevard Service Road into parking spots and slim down the bus lane on Woodhaven Boulevard to add more spots. Rajkumar also proposed turning a private vacant lot outside of the Forest Park Co-Operative on 98th Street into a parking space.

There has been contention over the proposed parking on 98th Street near the co-op, which is right next to Forest Park. 

The confusion erupted after Rajkumar released a statement saying she would advocate to “convert” the “vacant park space” on the “corner of 98th Street and Park Lane South” into a parking lot. However, the assemblywoman has walked back on that statement, saying she never intended to take away any green space for parking.

That proposal to convert a “vacant park space” is for a gravel lot across the street from Forest Park on 98th Street.

Before the assemblywoman clarified her mistake, people took to Twitter angrily responding to her plan.

“Leave 98th Street and Park Lane South alone,” a Twitter user wrote. “I’m a Woodhaven resident, and I will never support converting public space to parking.”

All of the confusion stemming from the original statement even resulted in a protest outside of Rajkumar’s Woodhaven office on Sunday, Sept. 5. 

Rajkumar’s chief of staff clarified that statement and said none of her proposals include taking over any green spaces. 

“To be abundantly clear, Rajkumar never at any time proposed a parking lot inside Forest Park,” said Rajkumar’s chief of staff Vjola Isufaj. “Facts matter. That kind of outrageous sensationalism based on wrong facts and lies may be fun on Twitter, but it’s not truthful and isn’t helping anyone in our district.”

 

 

 

 

Queens Chronicle

Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar needs to learn to admit when she’s wrong and just move on. Instead, she’s led us and her constituents down a rabbit hole of confusion this week, one so weird and in denial of reality that seeing Alice in Wonderland joining a tea party at the Forest Park Co-op in Woodhaven would not be the strangest thing.

As with so much in Queens, the root of the problem is parking. Rajkumar, to her credit, wants to get more for residents of the co-op. She’s proposed, for one thing, some diagonal parking on 98th Street where it runs through the complex just north of Park Lane South. If there’s room, that’d be great. But she also proposed, bizarrely, creating parking in “the vacant park space at the corner of 98th and Park Lane South.”

The “vacant park space” at that corner is a part of Forest Park designated as Forever Wild by the city Parks Department. It must remain so, for the benefit of all (think drainage in a storm!). It’s also on a hill, next to an old railroad. Turning any of it into parking would be an engineering nightmare, if not impossible.

When this was pointed out to Rajkumar — and when a mix of environmentalists and her political opponents protested — her office went silent. Then, as the Chronicle pressed the issue, things got weird. A staffer claimed Rajkumar had never proposed parking at that corner. But she did, in writing, on the internet, in public. Eventually the assemblywoman sent us an email her office previously had sent the Department of Transportation claiming that she “never at any time supported such a plan.” Really? She proposed it.

Then the office shifted to claiming that she really had been talking about a “vacant plot of gravel,” with the assemblywoman herself explaining that it was not at 98th and Park Lane South but on 98th off Park Lane South. She’s apparently talking about an asphalt (not gravel) seating area in the co-op complex. It doesn’t look like it would fit many cars, but if that’s what the residents there want, OK; it’s not precious parkland. (But,but trees...-JQ)

Meanwhile, Rajkumar denies any mistakes at all, telling us that “all of the releases and plans that I have sent out were perfectly correct.” Nope. Why claim something so obviously false? Just admit the error. Otherwise it’s tea time with Alice at the co-ops.

Cute analogy, but all those charlatans still showed up and held a fake protest in front of the abandoned Rockaway Rail Line train station. And despite the "forever wild" designation, it's been a transit graveyard for 60 years. It's also not parkland. Plus Rajkumar's chief of staff sent a post clarifying the parking proposal. These actorvists chose to be confused.

You know Alice could have decided not to follow the bunny. But then there wouldn't be a story...

The Woodhaven Horror

 

 

 

 NY Post

 

Three people were shot at an abandoned house in Queens on Tuesday night, cops said.

The victims were struck by gunfire inside 87-42 77th Street in the Woodhaven section of the borough, according to police sources.

 

 Looks like there's some Airbnb action going on here in this place too.

 

Neir's gets national preservation grant

 

QNS 

 The historic Neir’s Tavern in Woodhaven is getting a much-needed cash infusion to help it stay afloat as the city begins its post-COVID reopening.

The 191-year-old bar and grill, one of the oldest establishments in the five boroughs, is one of 25 historic and culturally significant restaurants across the United States to be recognized with a $40,000 grant from American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“Neir’s Tavern is so grateful to be included as an American Express and National Trust for Historic Preservation grant recipient,” Neir’s Tavern owner Loycent Gordon said. “As the oldest establishment on the list, we appreciate that these organizations are spotlighting the need to preserve historic small businesses across the country.”

Established in 1829, Neir’s Tavern survived the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, two world wars and the Great Depression, but nearly went out of business in 2020 until the de Blasio administration helped broker a new deal to keep the doors open. The COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges for the establishment as it draws closer to its bicentennial.

“As we struggle to survive our second pandemic, this grant will ensure that Neir’s Tavern’s outdoor area is not only maintained but enhanced,” Gordon said.

The “Backing Historic Small Restaurants” funding will help each of the 25 historic establishments enhance restaurant exteriors, build new outdoor seating areas, and upgrade online businesses to help mitigate operating costs as they work to recover from the pandemic.

“Historic small restaurants are cultural treasures that strengthen their communities and carry their legacies and traditions forward in deeply meaningful ways,” National Trust Chief Preservations Officer Katherine Malone-France said. “These restaurants have demonstrated their resiliency for decades, and even while dealing with the financial impacts of the pandemic, they have continued to support their communities in many ways.”

Queens Is Burning: Castle goes on fire in Woodhaven and Long Island City luxury tower sales are blazing

QNS 

 A two-alarm fire in Woodhaven sent one firefighter to the hospital on Sunday.

Firefighters first got a call about the blaze inside a three-story home located at 84-11 86 Rd. around 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 4, according to the authorities.

QNS 

The Long Island City real estate market is showing signs of life after the COVID-19 pandemic froze the nation’s fastest growing neighborhood a year ago.

At the Skyline Tower at 3 Court Sq., monthly sales more than doubled in March with 20 units going into contract.

“The month of March was on fire and my team was killing it,” Modern Spaces Founder and CEO Eric Benaim said. “Not only the market is coming back but New York City is coming back.”

Modern Spaces is handling the marketing and sales of the Skyline Tower, the tallest condominium building in Queens, rising 67 stories with 802 units. The total value of the project is expected to be the first billion-dollar development in the borough when the condo units sell out.

“We’re at 44 percent sold and we should be at 50 percent by the end of spring,” Benaim said. “We’ve got 25 to 30 units occupied already with more units moving quickly.”

Closings began in February and people began moving in during March. The development features an array of luxury amenities including a state-of-the-art fitness center, a 75-foot indoor pool, a whirlpool spa, sauna and steam room, a children’s playroom, a business center and an outdoor terrace. There are private, outdoor terraces for 155 of the units.

If this monolith seems familiar, it's the building over the Court Square train station where a commuter almost drowned and nearly got hit by a train when the retaining wall collapsed during a storm as the building was still being developed.

 

Ridgewood EMS is coming to town

 

Queens Chronicle

The Ridgewood Volunteer Ambulance Corps recently announced that its plan for 2021 involves extending community-based volunteer EMS services to Woodhaven, Richmond Hill and Kew Gardens.

In December, the RVAC submitted a formal application of area expansion with the New York City Regional Emergency Medical Services Council to provide services into those communities.

A few years ago, the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Corps lost its right to operate due to administrative troubles, according to Kevin Mahoney, RVAC board vice-chairman. Eager to resume coverage, the board of the defunct South Queens volunteer group reached out to the RVAC to partner and get back up and running under the Ridgewood banner.

“It’s easy for us to put in an expansion as opposed for them to start over as a new ambulance service,” said Mahoney.

Mahoney said the group is hoping to get the expansion on the agenda in a February NYC REMSCO meeting, when the body would vote on it. If approved, the application would then head over to the state.

The move comes after a series of successful mergers for the ambulance corps.

In 2019, RVAC, which serves parts of Brooklyn as well as Queens, incorporated the Glendale VAC and Middle Village VAC. According to a press release the group sent out, the mergers have allowed it to centralize its clinical services and operational efficiency. The three entities now serve together as one unified EMS service.

The mergers have reinvigorated the RVAC’s volunteerism and allowed a stronger response to the pandemic, it said.

Neir's gets five more years

 

QNS

Neir’s Tavern, the historic bar in Woodhaven, signed a new lease on Thursday, ensuring the tavern will tack on at least another five years onto its 191-year run in the neighborhood.

On Thursday, Oct. 29, the landlords, Ken and Henry Shi, and the tavern’s owner Loycent Gordon signed the five-year lease inside the bar, located at 87-48 78th St. The lease allows for an additional five years after the current lease ends in 2025.

The oldest bar in New York City has been the recipient of a great deal of community support, dating back to January, when the landlords threatened not to renew the lease to Gordon. The call to preserve the historic ale house – which was once used to film a scene in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas – made it’s way to the mayor, who came out in support of Gordon and Neir’s Tavern.

 On Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio again showed his support by attending the lease signing. Several lawmakers, including State Assemblyman Mike Miller and City Councilman Robert Holden also dropped by to see the bar, which first opened in 1829, into the future.

“We could all do something for the comeback of Neir’s Tavern and also for the comeback of the city of New York,” Gordon said. “We all can do something, and I think this is an opportunity to start over. This is a new lease on life. This is an opportunity in the middle of a pandemic. We have an opportunity to start over and strive to create connection and not division.”

The bar also received support from small business advocates, including Thomas Grech, the CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Jonnel Doris, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services, and Raquel Olivares, the executive director of the Woodhaven Business Improvement District.

Neir's Tavern burglarized

A GoFundMe has been set up by a fan of the bar to recover some of what was lost.

NY Post 

The historic Queens bar that was used to films scenes for “Goodfellas” was burglarized just three months after it opened for outdoor dining following a pandemic shutdown.

The Woodhaven watering hole was looted of the cash register, POS system, about $300 in cash and four bottles of booze from behind the bar by a pair of thieves, police sources said.

“I am just tired to be honest with you,” owner Loycent Gordon told The Post. “It’s another straw on top of everything. The weight is getting too heavy to carry.”

According to police sources, two men entered the premise through the basement door at 3 am on Friday morning, removed the cash register valued at $200, the $300 inside and four bottles of Jack Daniels valued at $160. They fled westbound on 88th Avenue. There have been no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.

After the robbery, a group called Neirs200, which is dedicated to ensuring the bar sees its bicentennial, set up a GoFundMe to support the bar.

Speaking to the thieves, an emotional Gordon said:

“I understand maybe you have to eat and feed your family, but we also have a family to feed. It’s a shame you have to burglarize someone to feed yours.”

He added that while he is disheartened and demoralized from the latest setback, he vowed to keep going.

“We are trying to be Rocky and keep fighting.”

Neir's may yet be destroyed - by the de Blasio administration

Bioswale BS may be the biggest fraud perpetrated on city residents other than ThriveNYC and the homeless shelter industry. What the hell are they doing here? Watering rocks?

 Admin note:

It was only a few weeks ago when de Blasio invited Loy to the state of the city address at the American Museum of Natural History to witness his promise to save the small businesses of this city right to his face. They featured the bar on the city's website

Such a bastard. -JQ LLC

Woodhaven's small businesses frustrated by and are suffering from city's opaque sign regulations

Queens Chronicle

 
“Jamaica Avenue looks like crap,” said Margie Schmidt, the second-generation owner of Schmidt’s Chocolate in Woodhaven.

The candymaker is not alone in her blunt assessment of the neighborhood’s main shopping street.
Stores along Jamaica have been pulling down their awnings and signs — many of them up for decades — to avoid thousands in potential fines from building inspectors who blitzed the neighborhood three years ago.

On the facades of stores, restaurants and laundromats up and down the boulevard, signs no bigger than a car window are all there is to identify businesses.

For owners, the tiny signs were all they could think of to keep from being written up. Signs less than six-feet square do not require a city permit.

Last week, the Woodhaven Business Improvement District, which represents 317 stores and professional offices on Jamaica Avenue, sponsored the first workshop for business owners since the city declared a moratorium on writing tickets for sign violations last February.

But many of the more than 50 Woodhaven business owners who packed the tables at the Avenue Diner, where the workshop was held, said they still could not get straight answers from representatives of the city’s Department of Buildings about how to comply with the law.

“I wanted to know: How much is a permit?” said Schmidt.

‘‘‘Well,’ they said. ‘I don’t want ‘Well.’ I need the city to tell me. You mean there is no set price?’
“I asked three times,” she said

When a reporter asked Pedro Woss, owner of K&P Realty Services, also on Jamaica Avenue, what information he got from the workshop, he held up two fingers in the familiar shape of a zero.

“They don’t know the answers to questions,” said Woss.

 

Neir's: It ain't over yet

Well folks, it takes a lot for me to come out of semi-retirement to weigh in on current events, but this whole Neir’s Tavern situation became such an unnecessary debacle that I can’t sit idly by and not call attention to some things.

Yesterday, Mayor de Blasio - himself a millionaire landlord and facilitator of citywide hotel-shelter slumlordship - decided to tell the owner of Neir’s that greedy building owners are awful. Where the hell was he when the LPC denied the landmarking bid for it back in 2016? A lot of the worry over the bar's fate could have been avoided if the LPC stopped doing what it always does to Queens history. And he can request that the “new” LPC (minus Meenakshi Srinivasan) take a second look at it.

Now, Loycent Gordon is not only an immigrant but also the black owner of a small business. This is EXACTLY the type of entrepreneur that fauxgressives want to be seen helping. But perhaps because Loy is also a lover of Queens history, and therefore a threat to development, he was totally disregarded for years. Except, that is, after he became so desperate that he felt forced to plead with the mayor on his radio program. How utterly sickening.

How the hell did we as a society get to this point?

And another question for those of you out there in Crapland… did you hear those January crickets yesterday? That sound was coming from every borough president candidate out there as an establishment dating back to 1829 almost went dark.

And why did the owner really have a change of heart? The NY Times explains:

Mr. Holden, a Democrat who represents the area, said the negotiations were tense until it became clear that a major problem for Mr. Shi was that he could not get a mortgage because the building lacked a proper certificate of occupancy and did not meet current zoning rules.

Mr. Holden said an agreement was reached under which his office would work to ensure that the building met all requirements; the city would make a small business grant available to improve the property; and Mr. Shi would raise the rent much less than he had proposed.

So while we can all celebrate that a piece of Queens history has been temporarily spared, keep in mind that the lease is only for 5 years and in 2026 this might happen all over again. And in the meantime, it's very likely that the next piece of Queens history that gets threatened won't have the stars align for it the way this one did. Because we keep electing the same lame tweeders over and over and over again and the rare ones who actually give a damn like Holden will be gone. (Why the hell did Michael Gianaris show up to the victory party when he did absolutely nothing?)

A big thank you and shout out to the media who realized the significance of this story and what it would have meant to lose Neir's and used the power of the press to call attention to it. All of the stories were pretty good (and I read or watched them all), but 2 really stood out to me: Corey Kilgannon's original NY Times piece and PIX11's story. Check out the reaction of the news anchor at the end. He totally gets it.



It's 2020, people. Wake up already, heh?

- QC

I like to add (again) that de Blasio's Landmark Preservation Committee refused to give Loycent and Neir's landmark status because they felt that a bar that has existed 190 years was not historically significant enough.

Congratulations to Mr. Gordon and the staff at Neir's and a great job done by Councilmember Holden and Assemblyman Miller (leave it to de Blasio to try to bigfoot credit for it). Here's to five more years, hopefully there will be better and moral officials running this city in the future.  

JQ LLC

Goodnight Neir's Tavern

Friends,

Yesterday I was forced to make one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make.

Sunday January 12th I will have to step down as owner of Neirs Tavern and I have no one available to replace me.

I’ve been unable to obtain an affordable long term lease to reach our goal of the 200th anniversary in 2029.

I’m operating month to month with an unaffordable rent and insufficient sales to overcome a year of losing money every month.

Due to increase personal obligations I’m unable to put in the time necessary to overcome increase business challenges I’m faced.

Everyday I pray I would find a way to dedicate more time to overcome these challenges until yesterday I had to face the truth.

Neirs Tavern is losing money and I don’t have the time to help to overcome it. I want to be a good father and husband.

I hope my Neirs Team will be here until Sunday in the event a miracle happens.

But I have no more money after Sunday.

I’m sorry i let you down.
I’m sorry I couldn’t get landmark status.
 I’m sorry I couldn’t buy the building.

but I’m grateful for all the memories we’ve created together saving Neirs Tavern the last 11 years I’ve been here.
Thanks to everyone past and present who made Neirs Tavern our 2nd living room for the past 190 years.

With gratitude,

Loycent, Neirs Tavern and the entire team


Even the late great Anthony Bourdain couldn't save it.
The city landmarks a Pepsi ad and they wouldn't give Neir's one.  

Greed is killing this city.

Update:

As everyone has seen, a miracle has happened and Neir's Tavern lives another day.

And greed is still killing this city

Happy Birthday, Neir's Tavern

Queens Eagle

A Woodhaven watering hole will be celebrating its 190th anniversary on Oct. 5 — making it older than more than half the states in the country.

Neir’s Tavern has been around since 1829, beginning the same year that Andrew Jackson became president. Called the Old Blue Pump House at its inception, it became Neir’s when Louis Neir bought it in 1898. He added a bowling alley and hotel, and even ran the place as a speakeasy during Prohibition.

Neir’s changed hands several times up until 2009, when Loy Gordon, an FDNY lieutenant and the current owner, bought the bar along with some friends to save it from closure.

 

Woodhaven businesses being targeted for fines

From CBS 2:

Dozens of store owners in Queens say the city is cutting into their bottom line.

They’re being forced to take down their outdoor signs that they say are vital to their business.

A DOB spokesperson says they’ve received anonymous complaints about area businesses, and have to inspect once that happens. In a statement, the spokesperson said the department isn’t specifically targeting Woodhaven.

Local leaders aren’t satisfied.

“They weren’t aware they had to have a permit when the sign was put up,” Assemblyman Michael Miller (D-38th) said. “Now they’re being penalized for it.”

Miller is trying to find a compromise with the city. He’s hoping they can set up an amnesty period for business owners.

Store owners say the only thing falling will be their bottom line since as things currently stand, they have no way of advertising their business. Many say they bought their shop with the awning or sign already up, thinking everything was already up to code.

Push to use video as evidence for littering summonses

From the Queens Chronicle:

A Sanitation Department official told the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association last Thursday that the agency would “love” to use camera footage in its enforcement of littering laws, but can’t because of the law.

“It does help our enforcement because usually its ritualized,” said Nicholas Circharo, community affairs liaison for the DSNY. “They do it every morning. We would love to use the footage.”

Right now, Sanitation enforcement agents must catch a litterer in the act to write him or her a summons and are not allowed to use video evidence against an illegal dumper.

Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village) said earlier in the meeting that he’d be interested in writing a bill that would allow the agency to use surveillance equipment to keep streets clean.

Litter laws are a top issue for the WRBA, and it’s discussed at almost every one of the civic’s meetings. Circharo was asked to appear at the May one to answer a few questions from WRBA President Steve Forte and other residents.

Many complained that summonses are often written to homeowners and merchants for trash left behind by other people in front of their property — some businesses have been issued thousands of dollars in violations.

Another tragic fire in an illegal conversion

This is the new normal in Queens and other parts of the City. Read it and weep.

Queensway compromise?

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Regional Plan Association isn’t choosing the QueensWay over the Queens Rail, or vice versa.

Instead, the transportation think tank has partially endorsed both ideas for the abandoned 3.5-mile Rockaway Beach Rail Line.

In its Fourth Regional Plan, issued late last month, the RPA called for the creation of the QueensWay — a proposed park along the elevated right-of-way — between Rego Park and Woodhaven.

From Atlantic Avenue south into Ozone Park, the RPA has endorsed the reactivation of train service along the defunct line.

Under the Fourth Regional Plan, the Queens Rail would run between Atlantic Avenue and Kennedy Airport with a stop near Aqueduct Race Track in between.

At Atlantic Avenue, the service would connect to the Long Island Rail Road’s Atlantic Branch — which itself would be extended west from Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn into Manhattan.

That would give train proponents that 30-minute one-seat ride from Manhattan to JFK many have advocated for.