MTA takes a decade to take another three years to fix the Rockaway rail lines

 

QNS 

MTA representatives appeared before Community Board 14 at the Knights of Columbus in Rockaway Beach last week to preview the Rockaway Rehabilitation and Resiliency Project, a 44-month construction project that will redesign and rebuild much of the peninsula’s existing transportation infrastructure.

The project, scheduled to start later this year and finish in the summer of 2026, will repair the Rockaway Viaduct, Hammels Wye Viaduct and South Channel Bridge, while also adding a signal tower to Beach 105th Street in Rockaway Park. This undertaking by the MTA is inspired by Hurricane Sandy, which resulted in seven months of repair to the train tracks to get them back in service from late 2012 to early 2013.

“It was a tremendous feat in such a short period of time,” said Deirdre Harvey, the project CEO at MTA Construction & Development. “We’re here to try to make the line even more resilient so we don’t have such an interruption in the future.”

During the project’s construction, south Queens residents will face service interruptions for the A-train and the Rockaway Park shuttle, starting later this year as the MTA works on the tracks at Broad Channel and Howard Beach. 

The project will then eventually move toward major structural repairs at the Hammels Wye Viaduct, where the A-train and Rockaway Park shuttle separate, and South Channel Bridge, which connects both of these lines from Broad Channel to the Rockaway peninsula. As a result, there will be a required 16-week shutdown of service from January 2025 to May 2025. 

Alternates modes of commuting during this period include a non-stop bus shuttle from Far Rockaway to the Howard Beach-JFK Airport station, a local bus shuttle from Beach 67th Street and Broad Channel to the Howard Beach-JFK Airport station, and a subway shuttle that goes across the peninsula between Rockaway Park and Far Rockaway. 

The MTA representatives said they would also “enhance” the existing bus service in the area, which includes the Q53 and Q22, as well as cross-honor MetroCards on the Long Island Rail Road at the LIRR-Far Rockaway branch station. There are also ongoing conversations with the New York City Economic Development Corporation to potentially increase ferry service, according to the representatives, but this has yet to come to fruition.

 

Caption Linky Restler

   

Oh, why not...

Miracle on Van Doren St.

    

Remember this abandoned house beauty in Corona?

 

 It had a floor collapse and a massive fire.

 

Well get a load of it now.

        

Who says miracles don't happen in Queens?

 

We have to build more market rate housing to make affordable housing

 

QNS  

According to a new Douglas Elliman report, the median rent in the northwest region of Queens for the month of May was the second-highest on record, just short of the prior month’s record.

The median rental price increased by 15.3% from the previous year. For the month of May, the average rental price was $3,662, which was the same as the prior month. However, May’s average rental price was an 11.1% increase from 2022.

The average rental price for a studio was $3,157 in May, a 4.6% increase from April and a 21.7% increase from 2022.

A one-bedroom unit averaged $3,209 in May, a 6.6% decrease from the prior month and an 8.3% increase from 2022. The average rental price for a two-bedroom unit was $4,691, a 4% increase from April and a 13.4% increase from 2022. The average rental price for a three-bedroom was $4,239, an 8.6% increase from April and an 18.4% increase from 2022.

First female NYPD commissioner can't do this anymore

 

 

City & State

New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell is resigning from her job as top cop, ending her 18-month tenure amid an ongoing power struggle with City Hall.

In a statement on Monday evening, Mayor Eric Adams thanked Sewell for her leadership. “When we came into office, crime was trending upwards, and thanks to the brave men and women of the NYPD, most of the major crime categories are now down,” the emailed statement read. “The commissioner worked nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a year and a half, and we are all grateful for her service. New Yorkers owe her a debt of gratitude.”

But even if Adams has publicly praised his commissioner, there has been tension behind the scenes. Sewell wasn’t able to make even simple moves like promoting a cop to detective without approval from City Hall, the New York Post reported Saturday. Police insiders have long said it seemed like Adams and his Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks – both of whom are retired police officers – were bigfooting Sewell, and the problem reportedly got worse when the commissioner followed through on disciplining Chief of Department Jeff Maddrey for wrongly intervening in an arrest. Maddrey is a favorite of Adams and others in City Hall, and the mayor seemed to undermine Sewell by publicly defending Maddrey. 

One City Council member who asked for anonymity to discuss a developing situation, suggested that Sewell leaving One Police Plaza was more a question of when than if. “If someone is surprised,” they said, “that’s because they haven’t been paying attention.”

 

Cannot blame her at all, live long and prosper Commissioner Sewell.

Mayor Eric Adams wants you to goo goo. pic.twitter.com/Vp9xVA7dIE

— JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) September 1, 2022