TRANSIT TOMORROW
CAN D.C. SPARE A BILLION?
Future of BQX streetcar depends upon help from Washington
BY MARK HALLUM
As the Brooklyn-Queens
Connector crawls closer
to reality or bust, there
is one snag a source sees
in the $2.7 billion proposal by
the de Blasio administration
to link the two boroughs by a
north-south streetcar route.
The project is dependent
on the acquisition of $1.4 billion
in federal funding to come
through, and a former Federal
Transit Administration official
says this may be a forlorn
hope for the transit project.
“The odds are slim to none
that the project will get out
of the barn,” Larry Penner,
who worked in the FTA for 31
years, said.
The project will rely on a
grant through FTA New Starts
program, but the March 2019
report from the agency for all
projects does not include the
BQX for fiscal year 2020. This
is problematic, according to
Penner, for the five years it
takes for grant applications
to make its way through the
Federal Full Funding Grant
Agreement approval process.
How the streetcar would
navigate Newtown Creek
and the Gowanus Canal is
still unclear.
The latest route projection
for the plan puts it closely
shadowing and placing its
new southern terminus just
block from that of the G train
instead of making its way all
the way to Red Hook as originally
promised.
And although the plan has
morphed and shortened over
the years since its 2015 inception,
the cost assessment seems
to be on a continuous rise.
Additionally, the streetcar
route would eat 2,000
parking spaces.
But advocates remain loyal to
the promise of BQX, having rallied
in front of City Hall in late
May prior to a hearing in the
Council chamber with the task
force assigned to the streetcar’s
deployment as well as representatives
from city agencies.
Bishop Taylor, founder of Urban Upbound, called for the city on May 30 to
move forward with the Brooklyn-Queens Connector. Photo by Mark Hallum
Not all members of the task
force are fully invested in the
plan and question Economic
Development Corporation and
Department of Transportation
officials how they plan to
avoid fallbacks.
Councilman Costa Constantinides
wanted to know
how they plan to avoid exasperating
gentrification and
roadway congestion on 21st
Street in Astoria.
Rendering courtesy of Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector
The EDC said they have
taken into account residents
who are protected under rent
control laws, which have not
stopped gentrification in the
past, and that businesses will
adapt to receive deliveries.
With BQX proposal hardly
making it past the environmental
review stage four years
into the game, city officials
said the delay in kickstarting
the streetcar project is not
30 QUEENS TOMORROW 2019