26 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 16, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM THE QUEENS editorial PUBLISHER & EDITOR CO-PUBLISHER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VP, EVENTS, WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA ART DIRECTOR ARTIST SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER STAFF REPORTERS CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER CLASSIFIED MANAGER CONTROLLER PRESIDENT & CEO VICE PRESIDENT VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH RON TORINA EMILY DAVENPORT KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA SUZANNE MONTEVERDI CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI DEBORAH CUSICK CELESTE ALAMIN MARIA VALENCIA VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 www.qns.com editorial e-mail: [email protected] for advertising e-mail: [email protected] Entire Contents Copyright 2017 by The Queens Courier All letters sent to THE QUEENS COURIER should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE QUEENS COURIER. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to THE QUEENS COURIER within fi ve days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. Schneps Communications assumes no liability for the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold THE QUEENS COURIER and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement. LONELY GULL OVER LITTLE NECK BAY // PHOTO BY JEFFREY PFLAUM Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! To submit them to us tag @queenscourier on Instagram, visit our Facebook page, tweet @QNS or email [email protected] (subject: Queens Snaps). Fixing the LaGuardia logjam We feel terribly for those unfortunate travelers heading to and from LaGuardia Airport last Friday who were subjected to one of the worst traffi c jams in Queens history. Th e congestion was so bad that some people, stuck on the Grand Central Parkway leading into the airport, left their taxis and walked up the parkway exit ramp to the terminals. Not even the two Queens buses serving LaGuardia Airport were an option; they were both rerouted because of the heavy volume. You couldn’t make a better case for the proposed LaGuardia Airport AirTrain line than that the Great LaGuardia Logjam of 2017. Th is line, proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, must be built as quickly as possible. Prior to the huge traffi c jam last week, Cuomo announced that the Port Authority was seeking requests for proposals to build the LaGuardia AirTrain, which would link the terminals to Willets Point; the train would most likely run above the Grand Central Parkway. A new transportation hub would be built at Willets Point to connect AirTrain riders with the 7 line or the Long Island Rail Road. While this is not the one-seat ride to and from LaGuardia that some transit advocates want, the LaGuardia AirTrain would be a boon to Queens in many diff erent ways. It would be more eff ective than limited or local bus lines heading to and from the airport, and the Willets Point hub would serve as another springboard toward redeveloping the area into the borough’s newest residential and retail destination. Of course, there are challenges. Th e AirTrain would take travelers off the streets leading to the airport, but many of them would then use the already extremely crowded 7 line. Connecting to the LIRR at Willets Point would be a quicker alternative than the 7 line for most travelers, but service isn’t as frequent, and a one-way LIRR ride from Willets Point to Penn Station is $6 during off -peak hours, more than double the $2.75 7 train fare. Th e MTA has added trains to the 7 line in previous years, and one wonders if the line has the capacity to accommodate any more. So the next logical step would be to create an LIRR express between Penn Station and Willets Point, where there are two platforms and multiple tracks, and invent a discounted ticket to ride both the express and the AirTrain (the JFK AirTrain fare is already $5, and it likely won’t be any less when the LaGuardia AirTrain gets rolling). A combined AirTrain and LIRR express train option would be the cure for most of the traffi c problems that ail LaGuardia Airport. STORY: Lady Gaga is coming to Queens this summer as her world tour stops at Citi Field SUMMARY: In the wake of her phenomenal Super Bowl 51 Halftime Show performance, Lady Gaga announced her “Joanne” World Tour, which has a stop at Citi Field this August. REACH: 16,150 (as of Feb. 13, 2017)
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