Ridgewood-area residents concerned about bus redesign
St. Agnes
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JAN. 17-JAN. 23, 2020 13
BY MAX PARROTT
At Community Board 5’s
meeting on Wednesday, Jan.
9, Ridgewood-area commuters
vented their concerns over
MTA’s draft plan of the Queens
Bus Network Redesign.
Like the residents of Jackson
Heights who recently created
an online petition to protest
the elimination of routes
they see as vital to the neighborhood,
members of the Glendale,
Maspeth and Middle Village
communities expressed
their concerns over several local
lines that are being cut.
“We don’t have great public
transportation in Glendale,
and the one bus that goes to
the express train is now being
eliminated — the Q23,” said
Kathy Masi.
Masi went on to suggest
that the community board
make a concerted effort to
weigh in on the plan, and encouraged
its members to show
up at the district’s scheduled
MTA meeting Jan. 21.
One parallel to Jackson
Heights involved the residents’
fears about the loss of
bus lines that demographics
like seniors and people with
disabilities rely on exclusively
for accessible transportation.
A criticism that has
emerged from the unveiling
of the redesign is that its objective
seems to be to take
commuters to the closest subway,
presuming residents are
physically able to take the that
form of transit. In reality, only
about a quarter of subways
stations across the city have
elevators.
Maryann Lottanzio, a resident
of Maspeth, took the floor
to state her concerns about the
elimination of the Q18, a route
that starts in Grand Avenue in
Maspeth and travels up northwest
to Astoria, hitting the
61st Avenue Woodside station.
“You can take the Q18 to
61st, you can take an escalator.
If the escalator is broken
you got an elevator there,” said
Lottanzio.
She pointed out that the Q18
passes several large co-ops on
65th Place inhabited by a large
percentage of seniors and families,
whose children take the
bus to school in Astoria.
Transit Committee Chair
John Maier said that the
elimination of local routes
like the Q18 is a trade off of
the MTA’s revenue neutral
approach to the redesign. In
other words, when the plan
increases service in one
neighborhood or incorporate
new destinations, it cuts service
from elsewhere. He said
that the Q18 should be looked
at, but suggested the circuitous
path might explain why
it was cut.
“It wove in and out of the
neighborhoods that it served
and didn’t serve to get people
places quickly. But you need
to make sure that the service
that is being provided where
the service is needed,” Maier
said.
“A lot of what I think we’re
missing in Maspeth, Middle
Village and Glendale is some
of that local service is getting
taken away that would take
us north. I’ve already heard
people very concerned about
the Q47,” Maier added.
Maier said that the committee
was in talks to get an MTA
representative at its February
meeting.
Before that happens, Ridgewood
will be the MTA’s first
stop on its public workshop
tour around the borough
aimed to share the bus proposals
and collect feedback. Community
Board 5’s workshop
will be held from 6 to 8 p.m.
Jan. 21 at the Greater Ridgewood
Youth Council, 59-03
Summerfield St.
But complaints have already
sprung up about the feedback
session itself. A spokesperson
for Councilman Robert
Holden came to the meeting to
say that Holden was upset the
MTA is not coming to Maspeth
or Middle Village to listen to
their concerns as individual
neighborhoods.
CB5 member Walter Sanchez,
who had been communicating
with the MTA representative
assured the members
that he got the impression that
community board recommendations
are going to be very
important as the plan goes
forward.
To view the plan, visit new.
mta.info/queensbusredesign.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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