Readers: The BQX is a waste!
COURIER LIFE, JANUARY 24-30, 2020 39
Downtown civic gurus are questioning
the sanity of Mayor Bill de
Blasio’s recently-resurrected pet
project to build a $2.73 billion trolley
along the Brooklyn and Queens
waterfront, arguing that dedicated
bus lanes would be more effi
cient and cost about $800 million
less.
“Why are we moving forward
with something like this when we
could cover the entire city with a
network of busways for roughly
the same amount of money or a lot
less,” said Brian Howald at Community
Board 2’s Transportation
committee meeting on Thursday.
If de Blasio has his way, the socalled
Brooklyn Queens Connector
— a joint project between the Department
of Transportation and
the Economic Development Corporation
also known as the BQX—
would run on a rail line above
ground from Red Hook to Queens.
Readers spoke up online:
Left unsaid is the self-interest of
the Downtown CB/residents to not
have their lives bothered with construction
that helps communities
that have been screwed over for generations.
Also, maybe just build the
Red Hook to Downtown part, which
is the key underserved area.
Robert Gibbons
Another instrument for gentrifi -
cation and screwing over motorists.
Mitchell Rentzler
This is DeBlasio’s boondoggle to
payback the real estate interests who
own him.
Jihan Kim
Revamp the old subway system
that starts in Bay Ridge and goes to
Queens.
John Sweeney Jr.
It runs along the coast line basically.
I feel like it’s only really for
the high end luxury real estate, businesses,
and shops.
Phillip Brendunn Grady Jr.
The city need to do better!
Northern Brooklynites blasted
National Grid reps for beginning
construction on a seven-mile pipeline
slated for installation under
the streets of Williamsburg and
Bushwick — without telling locals
about their scheme.
“Almost no one knew you were doing
this work,” said Greenpoint resident
Kevin LaCherra at Community
Board 1’s general meeting on Tuesday.
“You are here telling this community
that you are doing the work
— and the work has already begun,
the ground is trenched, the pipe is
laid.”
The company is currently tearing
up the streets around the neighborhoods
to install a seven-mile stretch
of natural gas pipeline, which
would connect its system in Brownsville
to its Maspeth Avenue depot at
Newtown Creek — a plan designed
to relieve pressure on its network
and support economic growth in the
area, company offi cials said.
Readers had a lot to say online:
Apparently the folks in the
neighborhood have no idea what’s
going on below the street. Having
worked in a field where we did a
lot of underground work all over
NYC, I can tell you this. The gas
main is the least of your concerns.
If you want to live in a big city you
can expect all kinds of stuff placed
there in the past 100 plus years. Today,
you can assume there is a variety
of abandoned lead pipes, lead
cables, fuel (oil and gasoline) storage
tanks, water mains, cathodic
equipment, coal storage vaults,
rusting rails, creosote covered
ducts, and corroded galvanized
pipes. Some of that old plant could
even be asbestos covered or lined.
That’s just some of the old abandoned
plant. The working plant
may include high-pressure nat
gas, jet fuel pipelines, oil service
lines, plastic and lead sheathed
cables, in addition to the tel/cable
tv/local service gas/water/sewer
lines.
Tommy Fuchs Del Giorno
They don’t realize that when
you have a gas volume problem (ie
not enough supply for the demand)
you have to run at increased pressure
which increases the chance
of leaking. Running a connecting
line to give more volume, which allows
the gas company to continue
to operate and the lower pressure
while still supplying the needs of
the community.
If they don’t want gas lines in
their town, they need to all go
out and buy heat pumps so the demand
goes away. I guarantee that
National Grid, nor any other gas
company, will waste their time in
an area where they can’t sell their
product.
Brian Terry
No! Just no! Has anyone ever
heard of sustainable resources?!?.
Jan Van Der Berg
I cook and heat my house with
gas as do many in Brooklyn, so
those calling for renewables should
tell us how we would do that. In the
mean time I have no issues with
improving infrastructure.
John Watson
Emotional support hero
A Clinton Hill man registered
his beer as an emotional support
animal last month, hoping
the certification will allow him
to access public transit in possession
of his favorite beverage.
“I travel from upstate to
Brooklyn a lot, and on the bus
they say its a federal crime to
smoke or have an alcoholic beverage
unless by prior written
contest, and I always wondered
where you get that consent,” said
Floyd Hayes.
“Not that I’m an alcoholic,”
he added.
Readers made themselves
heard online:
Good! Let’s bring this to light!
Too many fools are bringing their
untrained pets where they don’t
belong and claim they’re ESA.
Let’s pass laws to stop this. I’ve
seen way too many pets licking
food at grocery stores or almost
attacking true service animals.
Katherine Figueroa
Why not, the Supreme Court
ruled corporations are people!
Tamah Lettieri
I would love to have that much
free time. Good for him!
Susan Tang
I find it disgusting and so very
sad that “emotional support dogs”
for legitimately ill people, PTSD,
Depression etc., has turned in to
a joke....
June Adamchuk
Sounds legit.
Gregory A. Butler
When you pass your dog off as a
bogus emotional support animal,
it leads to this...
David Stehle
He’s got a point...
Borough President Eric Adams
has stuck his foot in it yet
again, this time after accusing
Midwesterners of “hijacking”
apartments and demanding they
return to wherever they came
from.
“Go back to Iowa, go back to
Ohio, New York belongs to New
Yorkers,” Adams said at a Martin
Luther King day event at Rev.
Al Sharpton’s National Action
Network in Harlem.
“You were here before others
came, who decided they wanted
to be part of the city, those hijacking
your apartments and
displacing your living arrangements,”
Adams said.
Readers experssed themselves
online:
The hipster motto: “We love the
neighborhood, now change everything!”
Mitchell Rentzler
I tend to agree with him..
Linda Glovach
People who relocate to Brooklyn
SHOULD learn and respect the
culture and history of this place
and not trample on it and on us natives.
Marie Roberts
I like somebody that tells it like
it is!
Cathy Sheehan
I agree that hipsters are awful,
but it is a free country after all.
Seamus McHenry
Landlords who gentrify buildings
and force you out of your
apartment to create a new market
of rental consumer are the real enemy,
along with the profiteers like
them.
Eryk Szkarłat
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