Caption Transportation Alternatives

Restaurant annexes the curb

 

 Today is the day City Council has a remote hearing on a deranged and autocratic proposal by the Department of Transportation to give restaurants, BIDs and Transportation Alternatives and Open Plans connected groups the right to annex roads and steal parking spaces for privatization to continue the pandemic era "open streets" program that barricades streets and impedes traffic. 

A good example of this colonizing of the streets of New York for dining and drinking is this space hogging restaurant that built two shanties and stole multiple parking spaces where the aforementioned urbanist lobbyists have ties. 

Here's where you can testify via writing or zoom to finish this program once and for all.

 

Queens Borough President Donnie Richards hires Transportation Alternatives lobbyist as "liaison" for transportation

 

 Queens Chronicle

Laura Shepard, chair of Community Board 2’s Environment, Parks and Recreation Committee, as well as an outspoken member of the Transportation Committee, announced her resignation at last Thursday’s board meeting.

Shepard is moving up to Queens Borough President Donovan Richards’ office, to serve as a transportation and parks liaison.

“I’m really going to actually miss serving with all of you,” Shepard said, reminiscing on her four years as a board member. Shepard, a former Queens Chronicle contributor, started as a reporter, sitting on the sidelines watching the board meetings, before making her way to the microphone for public comment and finally joining the panel.

“I just want to thank you all for your hard work and dedication to the community,” Shepard added. “And, going forward, I want to see you all at celebrations, not vigils.”

Y'all remember her. She was the one yelling along with other TransAlt minions at Vickie Paladino who were sabotaging the DOT's fake workshop to induce a bike lane in a mostly commercial traffic corridor. She and her pals were also calling her and the community against it "white supremacists" People should also be aware that the Queens DOT offices just happen to be inside Queens Borough Hall. If only Donald Manes was alive to see this.

 

DOT will build new bike lanes for friends of Transportation Alternatives in Ridgewood

 

Streetsblog

Protected bike lanes and built-out sidewalks are coming to Cypress Avenue to provide a safe connection to Highland Park on the Brooklyn-Queens border, where traffic going to and from the Jackie Robinson Parkway currently reigns.

The Department of Transportation plans to set up a two-way cycle path protected from traffic by jersey barriers along with new sidewalks between Cooper Avenue and Cypress Hills Street, according to a design presented to the local community board in June. The upgrades mean people on foot or bike won't need to dodge traffic coming off and on the Jackie Robinson Parkway to get to the park and nearby cemeteries, said one local advocate.

"This is like a win-win," said Bree Mobley, a volunteer organizer with Ridgewood Riders, a cycling group that has pushed for the upgrades for years. "Let’s make it happen, let’s get park access in the neighborhood."

Cypress Avenue is a steep, wide and busy thoroughfare sandwiched between cemeteries and full of heavy traffic from the nearby highway. Those dangerous conditions make it hard for people to get to Highland Park from Ridgewood and Bushwick, even though it's only a mile away, Mobley said.

"It’s not for the faint of heart," the safe streets advocate said. "People are zooming by you, 30-40 miles per hour. They don’t care, they’re just trying to get to the highway and get there as fast as they can."

The intersection of Cypress and Cooper avenues in particular is a well-known danger zone with a history of crashes.

Ridgewood Rides and advocates with Transportation Alternatives have gathered nearly 1,000 online signatures in support of safer access to the park. 

  They are crowing about a non story that they dropped the ball on 2 months ago. And they’re too dumb to notice that the map DOT provided is wrong. Also enjoyed the comment by Transportation Alternatives ally H2O that they think they’re going to get both a bus stop and Citibike station there.

And that map from the proposal is completely incorrect. There is NO protected bike lane along the Jackie. It's a shared sidewalk for cyclists and pedestrians. Internal park paths should not be portrayed as protected bike lanes as there are no vehicles to mix with.

 

 There's also no sidewalk north of the Jackie, the cemeteries are not required to install them. So DOT is installing one, but most people who walk to Highland approach from the other way.Vermont Place sidewalk improvements would be welcome, but there still are like 4 on/off ramps for peds to cross to get to the reservoir entrance where these jerks want to divert the bus.

 

As for the H20 ally who posted this comment that got the traffic light wrong (de facto stewards in the area?), his name is Peter Frishauf, an Upper West Side millionaire donor to transportation alternatives and streetspac who practically ordered the DOT to reimagine a street with planters, paint and rocks that usurped parking spaces and mocked and 84-year-old woman who got arrested for protesting against it.

CONFIRMED: The woman has been arrested. pic.twitter.com/6HsLzsWtCv

— Streetsblog New York (@StreetsblogNYC) October 16, 2023

One more thing

 The department of transportation alternatives own data shows protected bike lanes don't really protect anyone. Especially cyclists. 

 

Happy June 30th

NYC Planning to hold a town hall on zoom for the Jamaica Neighboorhood Action Plan (but don't call it the City Of Yes)

📢 Attention Southeast Queens residents!

This is your chance to chime in on what should be included in the long-term vision to improve the downtown Jamaica area.

Join us at the Jamaica Neighborhood Plan Town Hall on Thursday, June 13th at 7PM!

RSVP: https://t.co/48u7DF7HhD pic.twitter.com/YtODxTbWI8

— Adrienne Adams (@NYCSpeakerAdams) June 10, 2024

 

Jamaica Plan  

Why wouldn't Natasha Williams and Dan Garodnick and all those urbanist plants from the NYC Planning office hold an in person town hall now that the weather is a lot warmer out. Maybe it's because everyone in Jamaica knows this is part of the notorious City Of Yes plan to rezone and upzone residential blocks and make driving and parking difficult for them. Here's another thing, the toxic lobbyist Cerebrus who supported the failed congestion pricing scheme-transportation alternatives, open plans and Open New York have heavily influenced the Jamaica Plan from the very beginning. This zoom town hall is going to be rigged with those lobbyist creeps and their cult supporters unless the people from Southeast Queens stops them.

Caption Transportation Alternatives

Lobbyist borg submits amicus brief in defense for the congestion pricing tax

 

SDNY

Caption Linky Restler

  

Thought this would be a good way to end 2023. Our favorite fauxgressive in a bad mood at a fake protest with his masters from lobbyist non profits Transportation Alternatives and Open Plans last summer. This is the first time I've seen him really pissed off. He's come a long way since he was gerrymandering homeless people for former mayor and now gigolo Bill de Blasio. Happy New Year everybody.

We're not gonna take the DOT anymore

 

I don't know about you but IMO this has Transportation Alternatives Jim Burke's lizard fingers and powerwashed teeth all over this. Don't want to leave the insidious presence of Open Plans out of it too, especially with their personal parking space xenophobe founder Mark Gorton's opinions of New Yorkers as pigs who own their own cars.

Caption Council Member Lincoln Restler

  

@ImpunityCity

Transportation Alternatives message to Southeast Queens residents: you'll pay congestion pricing and like it

You're supposed to put your car payments toward a 1-family house in SE Queens that his urbanist supporters think is evil? 😂 Did Danny go off script? https://t.co/gxm50Z7Mrq

— Queens Crapper (@QueensCrapper) May 14, 2023

Southeast Queens population is predominantly people of color and immigrants who rely on cars to get around New York City for work, chores and leisure. Danny Harris says the quiet part out loud about the inherent racism and discriminatory nature of the congestion pricing tax and apparently he does not want them coming to his borough of Manhattan anymore without paying admission.

Department of Transportation Alternatives forces open street in Sunnyside

 

Sunnyside Post

The city’s Dept. of Transportation (DOT) is likely to convert one of the main commercial strips in Sunnyside into an Open Street next month, although some business owners and residents are opposed to the plan and say they have not been properly consulted or informed about the decision.

The DOT plans to close off 46^th Street, between Queens Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue, from vehicular traffic from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Sundays under a program that aims to create more public spaces across the city.

The street is instantly recognizable due to a large arch known as the “Sunnyside Arch” which marks the entrance to the one-way, southbound street.

The Open Street, known as a “limited access” plan, calls for a temporary barrier to be put in place to block non-delivery vehicles from entering the strip during these hours. Delivery trucks will be permitted to enter during these hours and volunteers and workers for Sunnyside Shines, the organization that oversees the business improvement district (BID), will move the barriers to let the trucks in and out in order to make deliveries. The Open Street will run until Oct. 31.

Community Board 2’s Transportation Committee unanimously voted to approve the initiative at a transportation committee meeting on April 4 and the board then wrote a letter to the DOT in support of the plan. The vote came four weeks after Dirk McCall De Palomá, the executive director of Sunnyside Shines, presented plans to the committee at its March 7 meeting.

McCall told the Queens/Sunnyside Post that the BID had consulted with residents and the business owners who operate along the 46th Street section before the plans were submitted to the DOT. He said residents were overwhelmingly in favor of the plan and that the vast majority of business owners along the commercial area supported the initiative.

During Community Board 2’s monthly meeting on April 13, some of the residents who testified voiced support for the plan, saying that it will create much-needed public space for residents in the heavily built-up area and will also help generate more foot traffic to the businesses on 46th St.

Others opposed the plan, arguing it would be detrimental to the businesses, as shoppers who rely on vehicles will not have access to the street. Opponents also said it would cause trucks to get backed up on Queens Boulevard, and 46^th Street would still be unsafe for children given the trucks will still be permitted to enter.

Amin Siad, who owns Fresh n’ Save supermarket, which takes up the entire east side of the 46th St. stretch, said at the April 13 CB2 meeting that all the business owners along the street are opposed to the plan. Siad said he was initially in favor of the plan, but now opposes it.

“We do not want — and the small businesses in the area do not want — a pedestrian promenade there because at first, I believed it would help businesses, but it turns out it won’t,” Siad said.

Siad did not go into detail as to why he feels it would negatively impact businesses. However, he said it made little sense to create an open street where delivery trucks could still access the area.

“I was told that someone would put up a barrier and remove a barrier ongoing for 12 hours… what’s the purpose then?” he asked.

The Department Of Transportation Alternatives gets sued

Charles v City of New York - Complaint - FILE STAMPED by queenscrapper on Scribd

State legislators fantasy MTA fix

 

Queens Post 

New York City lawmakers and public transport advocates held a rally in Albany on Tuesday, Feb. 14, calling on the state to pass a finance bill worth nearly $11 billion that they say would fully fund the MTA through 2026 and make it more efficient.

The legislation, known as Fix the MTA, would also keep current subway fares at $2.75 and prevent a proposed 25 cents hike to $3.

It would also make bus rides throughout the city free by 2027 and aims to make services more frequent and reliable — by ensuring subways and most buses arrive at least every six minutes, every day of the week.

The largest portion of the package, around $4.6 billion, would essentially bail out the agency by plugging its forecasted budget deficit for the next four years, while nearly $2 billion would go towards increasing bus services across the system by 20 percent.

Around $1.4 billion would be allocated to the agency to account for a 27% dip in ridership numbers compared to 2019 levels.

Fun fact: nothing is mentioned about congestion pricing. And it's mostly hedging on

State Senators Michael Gianaris, Jessica Ramos, John Liu and Kristen Gonzalez were among the Queens lawmakers who attended the rally, while Assembly members Zohran Mamdani, Alicia Hyndman Juan Ardila, and Jessica González-Rojas were also present. Assembly member Robert Carroll from Brooklyn and Assembly member Tony Simone from Manhattan also attended.

They were joined by transportation advocate groups such as Riders Alliance, the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA and Transportation Alternatives.

 Jesus Christ these cults are just never going to go away, as a public duty I present the counterpoint plan from Passengers United who actually ride the buses and the trains everyday with their proposal to "fix the MTA" which also includes public safety measures for transit workers, something the Albany fauxgressives and the moneyed transportation actorvates never bother to acknowledge.

 

 

 

 

Happy Parking Space For People New Year

Our secretary worked with the @NYCMayorsOffice, @NYC_DOT and @BobHoldenNYC and was able to negotiate a deal that keeps 100% of @CitiBikeNYC stations on the sidewalk in #Glendale and #MiddleVillage and continues to work on #Maspeth and #Ridgewood pic.twitter.com/sSUT3RRFsy

— Juniper Park Civic (@junipercivic) December 20, 2022

Citibike's expansion to Middle Queens will remain on the sidewalks. Nice try but no dice Transportation Alternatives.

Transportation Alternatives Jim Burke calls the cops on fellow mass transit advocate during rally for bus services

TransAlt's capo Jim Burke is very powerful and very protected. Here Riders Alliance's shady CEO Betsy Plum pushes Charlton away from him and at the "trick or streets" announcement, Donovan Richards and Catalina Cruz shoved fingers in citizen's faces when they confronted him about his false gay bash allegations against a rival and gay community leader. The public really needs to know more about this guy, because he sure likes to lie about people threatening him.

The Department of Transportation Alternatives accused Juniper Civic of political machinating at Community Board 5 meeting

From the Juniper Civic:

This is a new comm board member from Ridgewood lamenting that JPCA had the executive committee change the chair of the transportation committee because "DOT told him that's what happened". We had no idea we had this much power! We didn't even realize the chair was changed, nor do we care.

I actually would like to know who this masked man is and what would compel him to make such an accusation. Which is ironic considering how Transportation Alternatives presence has been at every announcement of street infrastructure and transportation related policy announcements this year. And whoever this person the committee removed is such a concern for the clearly regulatory captured DOT then that's ok by me.

And if this guy is representing Ridgewood that town has got a lot less cooler.

This just in:

It turns out that this masked man relaying accusations by the Department of Transportation about Juniper Civic is Derek Evers,the campaign manager for Juan Ardila for his failed city council campaign last year. As reported on this blog, Evers was picked by Borough President Donovan Richards to represent the district on CB5 and also appeared in Ardila's social media campaign ad larping as a regular citizen. It's a safe bet that honesty is not one of his skill sets.

  

Since Ardila had tremendous backing by non-profit "advocacy" organizations for street safety and equity Transportation Alternatives and Open Plans's StreetsPac during his stunning win for the State Assembly, despite his use of a car and racking up a load of traffic and parking violations during his campaign run; what Derek has clearly done here, to use his term, was reveal their influence on the D.O.T.'s street infrastructure policy decisions. Going after Juniper was obvious considering numerous social media posts showing how they want to place citibike racks on the streets to usurp parking spaces for people's cars instead of ample sidewalks. 

About the person who got sacked by CB5 that the DOT and Evers were trying to defend, Toby Shepard Bloch. That's him on the right sitting next to Lincoln Restler during a town hall for a hotel about to converted into a homeless shelter in Maspeth. Toby apparently was supposed to be their rubber stamp for the Citibike expansion and colonizing of curbside parking and this fits in well with Linky's own attempts to force shelters on communities without their input. And as we all her know about Linky, he's the biggest Transportation Alternatives agency captured official in Brooklyn and all of New York.

 

It's beyond hilarious how the DOT has the audacity to accuse CB5 and actually anyone of political shenanigans after the way their municipality has been agency captured by Transportation Alternatives as that non-profit org has been present at every rally involving street infrastructure and policy announcements by politicians the past year and then they get mad because some appointee who was basically a proxy for them gets canned? Maybe if they didn't try to force Citibike on a town and wouldn't compromise on how public spaces can be used for them, they wouldn't be whining right now. They need to remember who the fuck they work for, the taxpayers, not private corporations with some bike share scheme.

The Queensway has just been approved

 

NY1

Mayor Eric Adams on Friday unveiled an investment of $35 million to begin phase one of QueensWay, a new linear park planned for Queens.

The funding includes $2.5 million from the City Council, a press release said. 

“We are moving from a city of no to a city of yes and QueensWay is the way we are going to go throughout this entire city,” Adams said at news conference in Forest Hills. “And ensure that open space, green ways, good clean environments for children and families will continue to grow in this city.”   

The first phase of the project will help transform a section of an abandoned Long Island Rail Road line in Forest Hills, known as the Met Hub, into a five-acre park.

Once complete, the 47-acre QueensWay will provide the 2.4 million residents living in the borough with a new open space that will give them access to recreational amenities, outdoor educational programs and an alternative transportation to schools, businesses, and 10 bus lines, the release said. 

“QueensWay improves quality of life, improves the air quality and it promotes both physical and mental well-being and it gives more visibility to businesses along the route,” Adams said. “And so this is an economic stimulus as well.” 

But some residents were hoping get more transit options.

Last month, state, local and federal officials signed onto a letter calling for Adams and Gov. Hochul environmental impact study on the prospect of a subway line being extended into the area.

“QueensWay improves quality of life, improves the air quality and it promotes both physical and mental well-being and it gives more visibility to businesses along the route,” Adams said. “And so this is an economic stimulus as well.” 

 The gaslighting by every elected official at this announcement about the lack of park space and how it's a transit desert is mind blowing. Forest Park is by there and spans 4 neighborhoods. Numerous bus lines go around there. This also throws any plan to restore the rail transit line in the garbage.

And here's another thing. Why are two members from Transportation Alternatives there? That's Peter Beadle on the left who was at that hilarious parody protest against Jenifer Rajkumar by the rail line last year and fellow bike zealot and shameless anti-car fascist Juan Restrepo. Does that "non"-profit "public streets advocacy" organization have a government office we are not aware of? Their presence is also heinous because their Queens chairman Jim Burke recently defamed a community group led by a gay man as homophobes and racists with absolutely no evidence with the help of one of their fellow elected officials in City Council!

It's astounding how this plan just materialized from thin air after Adams made budget cuts to every municipality only a few days ago and city council found money to fund this fantastical project. This isn't the city of yes like Swagger Adams says, this is the twilight zone.

The Department of Transportation Alternatives commissioner promotes bike lanes during presser about car crash that killed 3 teenagers

 

 

NY Post 

City Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez shamelessly exploited a visit to the scene of a deadly Staten Island crash to tout unrelated local new bike lanes Monday and should apologize, a local pol says.

“Our DOT commissioner just showed up for a photo op at the site of last night’s horrific accident, which tragically claimed the lives of three teenagers, to announce that DOT will be installing bike lanes and turning lanes over a half a mile away,” City Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) fumed in a Facebook post.

Borelli blasted Rodriguez’s visit as nothing but “shameless exploitation” and accused him of staging “a photo up” over the controversial planned bike lanes on Hylan Boulevard between Satterlee Street and Page Avenue.

Borelli said the bike-lane proposal, which the city Department of Transportation unveiled in June, “was strongly opposed by the community board, elected officials, and residents in community surveys.”

He noted that there are already bike lanes at the intersection where teenage siblings Fernanda Gil and Jesie Gil and 15-year-old pal Ashley Rodriguez died when the car they were in collided with another vehicle Sunday night. 

The accident had nothing to do with bicycles.

“This is the most shameless exploitation I have ever seen by a city official to push through an unpopular agenda he had long sought to see through,” Borelli wrote.

“In other words, when he heard of this accident, he decided it was a good moment to push more miles of bike lanes. He should resign.”