MTA bus route remix gets the ire of 15 angry councilmembers

Queens Eagle

 All 15 city councilmembers from Queens say they oppose the MTA’s draft plan to overhaul the borough’s bus network, unless significant changes are made to ensure better, more extensive service, particularly in public “transportation deserts.” 

The entire Queens delegation issued a joint press release condemning the plan Thursday, citing criticism and concerns from constituents across the borough. Queens residents have specifically complained about a lack of express bus service and proposed route cuts in neighborhoods that do not have subway service, as well as alterations that would severe bus services in specific locations.

“We are deeply concerned about losing bus service on Little Neck Parkway and Braddock Avenue as well as throughout Glen Oaks,” said Northeast Queens Councilmember Barry Grodenchik, whose district does not include a subway line. “We need the bus redesign to provide better, faster, more expansive bus service.”

Councilmember Robert Holden called for an express service line in Maspeth, one of the neighborhoods he represents. 

“In District 30, we only have access to two stops on one subway line, so my constituents rely heavily on the bus network,” said Holden, whose district includes the end of the M train line. “Maspeth is in desperate need of an express bus route, but this plan actually reduces the current express routes.

 The Queens delegation called on the MTA to revise the plan and commit more money to making an equitable transit system in a borough home to more than 2.3 million residents.

“The goal of public transit should be to take New Yorkers from point A to point B expeditiously,” said Councilmember Adrienne Adams, who represents a swath of Southeast Queens. “The plan in its current form would make this goal unattainable for many residents of Queens especially commuters with limited public transit options.”

The agency hosted community forums on the bus plan in Ridgewood on Tuesday and Flushing on Wednesday. Six additional sessions will take place at 6 p.m. on the following dates:

Jamaica 

Jan. 23

Queens Educational Opportunity Center

15829 Archer Ave.

Kew Gardens 

Jan. 28

Queens Borough Hall

120-55 Queens Blvd

Ozone Park

Jan. 29

JHS 202 Robert H. Goddard

138-80 Lafayette St.

Corona

Jan. 30

Langston Hughes Library and Cultural Center

100-01 Northern Blvd

Long Island City

Feb. 4

Jacob Riis Settlement

1025 41 Ave

Rockaways

Feb. 5

RISE/Rockaway Waterfront Alliance

58-03 Rockaway Beach Blvd.

Bayside

Feb. 20 at 7 p.m.

Korean Community Services

203-05 32nd Ave.

Bellerose

Feb. 27 at 7 p.m.

Cross Island YMCA, 238-10 Hillside Ave.

The Great NYC Ferry Subsidy Robbery and city bus austerity

NY Post

Ferries help the poor? That’s rich.
 
Mayor Bill de Blasio has insisted that his administration’s heavily-subsidized ferry service would help poor New Yorkers get around, but newly revealed data shows it’s been a plaything of the rich almost from the jump — figures the city sat on for months.
 
An internal survey taken in July 2017 — two months after the service’s inception — found that the median rider’s income ranges between $100,000 and $150,000, a trend that held as of another poll conducted in the winter of 2018.
 
The results of the surveys were obtained by The Post through an eight-month Freedom of Information 

Law battle with the Economic Development Corporation, the city-controlled non-profit that manages the ferry service and solicited the data.
 
The EDC for months rebuffed The Post’s requests as it claimed it was still searching for the records — but City Councilman Antonio Reynoso had a different explanation for it.
 
“The city was being misleading about what information they had, and also didn’t want to give the information because it would prove a point that many of us were already making,” said Reynoso (D-Brooklyn/Queens).

Impunity City

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”
                                                                                                S’chn T’gai Spock.

The NY Post reported the other day that the prime demographic that frequently uses the NYC Ferry are upper class people making six figures.

But we all knew it.

The fucking New York City Economic Development Corporation knew it.

The goddamn New York City Mayor knew it.

And both of them fucking spent every second of city time trying to hide it for two years.

The NYC Ferry is mostly used by the wealthiest commuters by the river towers that are owned and run by all of Mayor deFaustio’s developer overlord donors. Notably at the ports on the west Brooklyn coast line where it’s a leisure walk away from them (plus Hunter’s Point in Queens).


The current cost for each taxpayer for each $2.75 ride across the rivers and under the bridges is currently at $9.75. A seven dollar loss for each ride millions of people don’t take or don’t bother to take because they don’t live near the ports. And because they probably have no need and use for the boats because they are just plain inconvenient for where they are located and where they need to go.

If they are not the overvalued rental market rate rent paying tower people, it’s tourists and hipsters going to Rockaway Beach. Which is probably the most popular destination of the city gentrification yachts. Which is where some of this profligate spending on this boondoggle is located.


Because whats constantly overlooked about this obscene and overtly useless and consistently vacant aqua transit service is that there is a free shuttle bus service when you get off the ferry. Although ever since this started, you have to pay another fare to get on a city bus. 



 Now above is the Rockaway port, the picture was taken in 2017 late in the summer when it first started. It should be noted that these stylish shuttle buses weren’t available until late August and the city was actually using big ass charter buses to transport upper class denizens to the beach.

 

Above is the city bus stop for the Q22, now why are free ferry shuttle buses necessary when you can just set up a free transfer from the city bus to go to your desired destination, because both buses go to the same places east and west of the peninsula. Why clearly spend money irresponsibly on some private company buses when you got a long time city transit service right there in front of your face?

Developer wants city to pay for new NYC ferry dock by their luxury tower in Astoria

THE CITY

 A developer wants the city to extend a ferry line by one stop to connect Astoria with the Upper East Side – at public expense.

The Durst Organization recently opened the first tower in a planned seven-building residential complex in Astoria, about a 10-minute walk from the neighborhood’s ferry terminal.

The ferry route currently runs from Wall Street to 34th Street, with subsequent stops at Long Island City, Roosevelt Island and Astoria. The Durst Organization is calling for the line to stretch back over the East River, ending at the 90th Street ferry terminal in Yorkville.

“It’s about 1,000 feet between the two ferry stops. The trip would take less than five minutes,” said Jordan Barowitz, a Durst spokesperson.

Barowitz stressed the proposal was preliminary. He added the developer would rely on the New York 

City Economic Development Corporation to pick up the tab.

The Astoria-to-Upper East Side proposition comes as budget watchdogs scrutinize ferry subsidies amounting to $10.73 per ride. City Comptroller Scott Stringer has demanded the city move the ferry operation out of EDC’s purview following THE CITY’s reporting that taxpayers are on the hook for as much as $369 million in ferry purchases.

The developer plans to float the proposal before a Manhattan community board Wednesday before making a formal pitch to the Economic Development Corporation, which oversees the city’s ferry service.

For Durst, an impetus for the plan is to improve transit options for residents within its planned 2,400-unit Astoria development, Halletts Point, which opened its first tower to tenants earlier this year.

There should be no more debate about what this service was tailor made for.