March 17, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
LOCAL
CL ASSIFIEDS
PA GE 19
BY BILL PARRY
Winning this game of bingo
is surely a losing proposition
for Queens commuters.
With the April 1 state budget
deadline looming, transit
riders played a game on March
10 in Jackson Heights in which
they collected horror stories
from fellow riders about all of
the different ways the subway
and bus system have let them
down and then completed game
cards for delivery to Queens
representatives in the state legislature
to build momentum for
congestion pricing.
Activists with the grassroots
Riders Alliance held “#FixThe-
Subway Bingo” Sunday at the
Jackson Heights-Roosevelt
Avenue station, filling their
boards of common commuter
headaches — including rerouted
trains, overcrowded platforms
and long wait times —
before heading to Flushing and
Forest Hills.
“I rely on public transportation
every day to go either
to school or work,” Riders Alliance
member Fulton Hou of
Little Neck said. “When the
subways are delayed it affects
my life, especially my commute
to school. We have just a few
weeks before our state representatives
pass the state budget,
and we’re here to say we have
suffered enough bad commutes
because of failing subway and
bus systems.”
Congestion pricing would
place a toll on cars and trucks
entering Manhattan below 60th
Street in a program projected
to raise billions to modernize
the transit system.
“Queens residents, students
and commuters put up with a
HOOPS CHAMPIONS
Christ the King players, coaches, and cheerleaders celebrate after winning the 92nd Annual CHSAA Class
AA Intersectional Championship game at Fordham University in the Bronx. Photo by Robert Cole
BY BILL PARRY
When it came time to select his
own replacement, Queens District
Attorney Richard Brown turned
his office of nearly 30 years to “a
great colleague and, more important,
a close and trusted friend.”
John M. Ryan, who served as
chief executive assistant for the last
22 years, was designated on March
7 to succeed Brown on an interim
basis until the next district attorney
is elected in November.
Brown announced he was stepping
down early due to health complications
related to his years-long
fight with Parkinson’s Disease. He
had announced in January that he
would not seek an eighth term in
the office he has held since 1991.
Ryan began his career at the
Queens District Attorney’s office
in 1972 as an intern and became an
assistant district attorney in 1974
after graduating from St. John’s
University School of Law. Early
on, he handled the investigation
of the 1975 bombing at LaGuardia
Airport that killed eleven people.
Additionally, Ryan pros-
New four-star hotel
coming to Flushing BY MARK HALLUM
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
The development of a new four-star hotel underway
in Downtown Flushing will offer global
travelers and local residents an unexpected lens
on the vibrant neighborhood.
SCG America and F&T Group announced
Q52 only bus route to get an ‘A’
VAo Cl.N 8G.8G NPou.PNuob.b 1l1ic l1i1cation ation Vol. 7 No. 10 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT TIMESLEDGER.COM
In a city with bus service
in apparent decline,
one Queens route is shining
above the rest, earning an
‘A’ on its report card from a
transit advocacy group.
The Q52, the Rockawaysto
Elmhurst route which
was converted into a Select
Bus Service line in 2016 and
2017, was said to provide
the quickest and most reliable
service to riders after
the implementation of bus
lanes and all-door boarding
along Woodhaven and
Cross Bay Boulevards.
The Transit Center,
which compiled the report
card, said ridership has
declined 17 percent between
2009 and 2018, with
a 4.7 percent in decline in
2018 alone, but that fewer
bus routes received fail-
The Q52 was the only bus in the city
to make an A rating on report card
from a transit advocacy group.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Meet interim
Queens DA
John Ryan
Queens commuters play bingo
Transit riders use classic game to share their travel headaches in Jackson Heights
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