Transportation
Brooklyn Queens Connector
City moves forward with BQX project launching
wide-ranging community engagement process
BY BILL PARRY
The de Blasio administration
is moving forward with its
Brooklyn Queens Connector
project, the controversial
proposal for a state-of-the-art, zero-emission
streetcar system along an 11-
mile corridor from Astoria to Gowanus,
Brooklyn. The city launched an official
BQX website that provides information
on the proposal, important dates and
opportunities to provide feedback
throughout the public engagement
process.
The plan will include briefings with
elected officials, community board
presentations in both Queens and
Brooklyn, email blasts, webinars, on-the-ground
outreach, public workshops and
environmental review scoping hearings.
“With the BQX heading towards its
public review process, 2020 promises to
be a big year for the project,” a Friends of
the BQX spokesperson said. “Engaging
with those who live and work along the
route is critical to the BQX’s success,
and we applaud the city for putting
together a robust outreach plan for
the coming months.”
When it was first announced in
2016, the BQX project was seen as
an expensive boondoggle of waterfront
developers along the East River. But
according to the NYCEDC, the streetcar
service would provide a crucial north-south
transit route that would connect
400,000 New Yorkers who live along
the route, and 300,000 people who
work along the fastest-growing business
corridors in city while linking to 13
subway lines, more than 30 bus routes,
nine NYC Ferry landings and more than
a hundred Citi Bike stations.
“From transit advocates and public
housing leaders to business owners
and civic groups, the BQX has a broad
and growing range of supporters,” the
Friends of the BQX spokesperson said.
“As more New Yorkers learn about the
project over the next few months, we
expect that support network to keep
growing.”
Over the course of the next several
months, the community engagement
process will explain the proposed project
as described in the 2018 Conceptual
Design Report, including the proposed
route, discuss potential alternative types
of transportation that will be evaluated
in the environmental review process, as
well as focus on community priorities,
suggestions and concerns.
In addition to the community board
presentation, the two city agencies will
also conduct five community workshops
and work with local partners to distribute
information to residents and businesses
in the 12 neighborhoods along the
proposed route’s corridor.
While some residents and
businesses owners dismiss the project
over fears of gentrification and the
estimated loss of 2,000 parking spots
46 JANUARY 2020 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
along the proposed route residents of
the public housing developments in
western Queens have a vested interest
in the project, especially after Amazon
scuttled its plans to build its HQ2
campus in Long Island City taking
away the 25,000 jobs it pledged to
create along with tens of billions in
revenue that could have been invested
in NYCHA.
“This is a big breakthrough for jobs
because there are new opportunities
up and down the waterfront but so
many of our residents are stuck in
transit deserts, we have problems with
the 7 and the F while Astoria Houses
are 30 blocks away from the subway
stations,” Queensbridge Houses
Tenants Association President April
Simpson said. “We’ve been waiting
a long time for this and I’m very
pleased to see the city taking some
steps towards connecting us with jobs,
school, healthcare and all of the park
space along the waterfront. I have to
admit I was a little skeptical over the
high price though.”
When the BQX was first announced,
Mayor Bill de Blasio said it would pay
for itself through value capture which
would involve increasing tax revenue
and raising property tax values along
the route. Now with a $2.7 billion price
tag attached to the project, even de
Blasio said it would need federal funding.
“Providing transit along that
spine that runs along the waterfront
is essential, especially for the 40,000
NYCHA residents along the corridor,
and there are delivery mechanisms that
can bring the costs of the project down,”
Regional Plan Association President and
CEO Tom Wright said. “It always costs
more to build large-scale infrastructure
projects in New York City. Part of the
planning process now will be finding
ways to deliver it at a lower price
using design-build and private-public
partnerships like the state is doing with
the LaGuardia Airport reconstruction
project. With the BQX there are ways
to deliver it efficiently and I’m quite
confident that this is what the city is
heading towards.”
Courtesy of Friends of the BQX
The city is launching a huge community
engagement process in support of its
Brooklyn Queens Connector streetcar
project over the next several months.
/www.qns.com
/www.qns.com
