FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com october 9, 2014 • The Queens Courier 3 HBO MINISERIES FILM CREW SPOTTED IN WHITESTONE USING ITALIAN RESTAURANT 1-800-382-HOME(4663) for Housing www.sonyma.org Photo courtesy of Devin O’Connor Flushing-Jamaica bus routes set to get upgrade in distant future BY ERI C JANKIE WICZ @ericjankiewicz [email protected] The city is hoping to reduce bus travel times between Flushing and Jamaica — just not any time soon. Preliminary plans that will take a least a year to be refined were floated by officials at a recent meeting with community members at York College. Among the proposals is the implementation of Select Bus Service, where, among other things, passengers would pay the fare on sidewalk kiosks before the bus arrives to reduce boarding and debarking times. “The bus trips are long and slow,” a spokesman for the Department of Transportation (DOT) said. “And with Select Bus Service we think there’s a solution to improve things.” The DOT is considering two routes between the neighborhoods for SBS. The first would travel along Main Street where the Q44 and Q20A/B run. The second route under consideration is Parsons and Kissena boulevards, currently serviced by the Q25 and Q34. Whichever street is chosen would undergo changes like the installation of bus-only lanes and sidewalk fare kiosks. In the meantime, the city is considering installing a feature on some buses called traffic signal priority, according to a city spokeswoman. The feature uses GPS to track a bus and can either prevent a light from turning red until a bus passes the intersection or shorten the length of a red signal to let a stopped bus start moving again. But, the spokeswoman noted, if the community decides that it doesn’t like this idea, then the city won’t install the traffic signal feature. The DOT plans on working with the community for at least a year to find how SBS can be best suited to its needs. “I think it’s clear that local community members want faster bus service,” said Jess Nizar, from the public transportation advocacy group Riders Alliance. “It’s really important to get community input in the planning process of these things.” BY ERI C JANKIE WICZ @ericjankiewicz [email protected] Film crews were spotted in Whitestone on Oct. 3 shooting a new HBO miniseries called “Show Me a Hero.” The crew, which arrived early in the morning, used the Italian restaurant Trattoria Neo to film a scene involving a clam bar. “The show takes place in the ‘80s, so our décor must’ve just worked for a scene involving a clam bar from that time period,” said Antonetter Mirro, a manager at the restaurant on 149th Street and 15th Avenue. The crew came in around 10 a.m. and left at 3 p.m., according to Mirro. The cast for the show includes Winona Ryder, Catherine Keener, James Belushi, Terry Kinney and Michael Stahl-David. The miniseries, which hasn’t released a premiere date yet, is based on a nonfiction book by Lisa Belkin of the same name. It tells the story of a mayor, Nick Wasicsko, who’s charged with building low-income housing in his hometown of Yonkers, N.Y. The project brings to the surface class prejudices, almost shuts down the local government and ruins the mayor’s political career, according to a show synopsis. Mirro said that the crew will not be returning to the restaurant. During the filming, she didn’t notice any of the main cast members, but she spotted LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson’s wife, who is going to be in at least one episode, according to IMDb. She also noticed one actress from “a soap opera that I used to watch many years ago.”
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