Delegation of Queens elected offi cials urge the
MTA to reconsider plan for Jamaica Bus Depot
BY BILL PARRY
With MTA Bus planning
to reconstruct and expand
the existing Jamaica Bus
Depot beginning in 2021,
City Councilman I. Daneek
Miller, state Senator Leroy
Comrie and 16 other Queens
elected officials sent a letter
to MTA Chairman Patrick
Foye and NYC Transit President
Andy Byford urging the
agency to construct the new
depot with enclosed parking,
as opposed to the authority’s
preferred plan of open-air
parking.
The elected officials expressed
their “disappointment”
with the proposal,
noting the facility at 165-
18 Tuskegee Airmen Way
in Jamaica, heading into
its 80th year, was obsolete
years ago.
“At this juncture, the
strain and state of the depot
has led to the improper
storage of buses, with up to
60 at a time parked on adjacent
public streets and next
to a local senior center,”
the elected officials wrote.
“With the Jamaica Bus depot
housing many of the buses
with the busiest routes in
Queens, including those that
terminate in the Downtown
Jamaica area, proper infrastructure
that addresses the
concerns of the surrounding
community is crucial.”
Currently, pollutants
and loud mechanical noises
negatively impact the quality
of life of locals and to add
insult to injury, they wrote,
the local community board
and the union which represents
the workers at the depot,
ATU 1056, made it clear
they preferred enclosed
parking in the residential
neighborhood.
“Additionally, to allow for
open air parking at this depot
would be to continue to
perpetuate decades of environmental
injustices against
Elected officials from across Queens are urging the MTA to reconsider
its plan to reconstruct the Jamaica Bus Depot with open air
parking. Photo via Wikemedia Commons
the residents of Southeast
Queens, who suffer some of
the highest asthma rates in
the city,” they wrote. “To
simply rebuild a depot that
has been part of the problem,
allowing pollutants and
noise to be released into the
open air and harm our community,
is for the MTA to be
complicit in continuing to
victimize local residents.”
QNS reached out to the MTA
and is awaiting a response.
In closing, the elected officials
— including several
from districts outside southeast
Queens, such as City
Council members Peter Koo,
Daniel Dromm and Karen
Koslowitz, and state Assembly
members David Weprin
and Nily Rozic — urged the
MTA to reconsider the proposal
that included enclosed
parking.
“After eight decades there
is finally an opportunity to
do right by the Queens community
and construct an
enclosed bus depot,” they
wrote. “We regret that thus
far the MTA has failed to embrace
this opportunity and
commit to a modern, environmentally
friendly design
with the greatest capacity
possible for the Jamaica Bus
Depot.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry
by e-mail at bparry@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone
at (718) 260–4538.
Relieve Pain.
Regain Your Life.
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TIMESLEDGER,QNS.COM NOV. 29-DEC. 5, 2019 5
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