January 31–February 6, 2020 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 9
New train for Brooklyn?
MTA prompts study of billion-dollar passenger route
The MTA will study the proposed “Bay Ridge
Branch” that would run from Bay Ridge to Queens.
Club in limbo after fatal fi re
Photo by Ben Verde
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By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
Engineering gurus will begin
studying a proposed billion
dollar passenger train
that would run through southern
Brooklyn, authorities announced
on Wednesday.
The Metropolitan Transit
Authority awarded infrastructure
firm Aecom
with a $1.3 million contract
on Jan. 22 to determine the
feasibility study for the project,
which would revive passenger
service on the Bay
Ridge Branch — a freight
line that once carried straphangers
through Bay Ridge,
Bensonhurst, Midwood, and
East Flatbush until it was decommissioned
in 1924.
The study will evaluate the
potential for a subway, commuter
rail, light rail or even a
bus service for the line, all of
which would operate in conjunction
with existing and
planned freight rail service,
the MTA announced.
The passenger line would
stretch from Brooklyn Army
Terminal in Sunset Park to
Astoria, Queens, and would
connect to 11 existing subway
stations along the way, providing
transfers for 14 subway
lines.
According to one urban
planner, the train would play
a pivotal role in linking transit
starved residents to subways
and increasing accessibility
within Brooklyn.
Over 75 years FOLLOW US ON:
Photo by Regional Plan Association
“Transit service on the Bay
Ridge Line would not only
provide better transit service
between the outer boroughs,
but also cut construction and
acquisition costs since the rail
tracks are already there,” said
Tom Wright, the president and
CEO of the nonprofit the Regional
Plan Association.
The Bay Ridge Branch
makes up about half of a longer
line called the Triboro Line
— a proposed passenger train
that would continue past Astoria,
up through the Bronx.
The Regional Plan Association
has pushed for a study
on the Triboro Line since
the 1990s, and in June, support
for the train ratcheted up
when Assemblywoman Latrice
Walker (D—Brownsville)
proposed a bill calling
on the Metropolitan Transit
Authority to conduct a study
for the project.
While passenger service
on the Bay Ridge Branch has
been defunct since the early
1900s, some urban planners
argue that the freight line is
well-suited for commission
because its tracks are currently
underutilized, and the
existing infrastructure would
help keep costs down relative
to building new tunnels.
But the project’s astronomical
costs make the Bay Ridge
Branch line unlikely.
A senior analyst at the
Regional Plan Association
pegged the project’s price between
$1 billion and $2 billion
— a figure that would eat up
a sizable chunk of the transit
authority’s $5.7 billion budget
for all Long Island Rail
Road-related work in its 2020-
2024 Capital Plan.
Another recent MTA study
revealed that a similar proposal
to restore passenger
service along an existing
Rockaway line would cost
a jaw-dropping $6.8 billion
— more than $6 billion more
than originally estimated, the
City reported.
An MTA spokesman did
not say how long the Bay
Ridge Branch study will take,
but previous feasibility studies
indicate that the project
will likely take years.
By Ben Verde
Brooklyn Paper
The fate of a recently
opened jazz club remains
up in the air after a fire tore
through the top floor of its
building in Park Slope on
Wednesday, killing two people
and rendering the structure
uninhabitable.
Mikhael Brovkine, one
of the co-owners of Made
in New York Jazz Cafe and
Bar, which opened just three
months ago, says the club suffered
extensive damage from
the thousands of gallons of
water that New York’s Bravest
poured onto the fire, which
they now believe claimed most
or all of their instruments and
sound equipment. Fire Marshalls
have determined that
the fire was likely caused by
an extension chord.
“It’s all gone,” Brovkine
said.
On top of that, the place
reeks of smoke, according to
Smoke-eaters surveyed the damage the morning
after the fire.
Brokvine’s partner, who suspects
he’ll probably end up
having to tear out the walls
just to get rid of the odor.
“It all smells like barbecue,”
co-owner Boris Bangiyev
said after surveying the
damage on Wednesday.
Brovkine is cautiously optimistic
that he may be able to
salvage some of his equipment,
but said that an investigation
conduct by the city’s Fire Marshall
has prevented his team
and his insurance company
from taking a full inventory,
and said until he’s effectively
trapped in limbo until their investigation
is concluded.
Until then, the jazzman
couldn’t say definitely
whether he’ll reopen or not
in the wake of his club’s inauspicious
start.
For all his troubles,
Brovkine has his health, and
the musician said his heart
goes out to the two real victims
of Wednesday’s fire,
22-year-old firefighter-intraining
Steven Munoz and his
girlfriend Destiny Marmolejo,
who lost their lives after the
fire erupted in their fourthfloor
apartment, trapping
them in their bedroom.
“It’s crazy, but the family
on top of us has experienced
much more,” he said. “People
are dead, and this is the worst
thing that can happen.”
By Ben Verde
Brooklyn Paper
The alleged vandal who
tagged the Soldiers and Sailors
Arch at Grand Army Plaza
in December struck again this
week, this time scrawling a bizarre
screed about birds just a
few feet below where his original
tag was.
“If you cripple or kill any
more of my birds I will innihilate
sic you in this next
CARTEL WAR,” the graffiti
reads.
Police cuffed the same
36-year-old they previously
arrested in December for tagging
the arch.
In the more recent act of
vandalism, the suspect seems
to offer a step-by-step guide
describing the amount of birds
a person can kill before divine
punishment kicks in.
“This is when you begin
to live the lives,” the cryptic
guide reads.
An alleged vandal defaced the Soldiers and Sailors
Arch at Grand Army Plaza for the second time.
Photo by Paul Martinka
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