WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MARCH 12, 2020 19
MTA chair identifi es Maspeth as a fl awed
section of the Queens bus redesign plan
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
At a bus workshop on March 9,
the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority admitted that
its plan for Maspeth in the Queens bus
redesign was fl awed, and promised
resident they were focused on improving
it in the next iteration.
In a show of commitment, MTA
Chairman and CEO Pat Foye came
out to speak to residents at the P.S.
153 public meeting, hosted by Assemblyman
Brian Barnwell and Councilman
Robert Holden. He listed the
surrounding neighborhood as one
of three perceived problem areas in
the plan.
“I will admit, and this is unusual for
someone in my position, I don’t think
we got it totally right — either here
or in Bayside or Jackson Heights,”
said Foye, adding that that there is
no concrete timeline for next draft
of the plan.
“We’re going to take whatever time
it requires to get it right,” Foye told
QNS.
A large number of the approximately
100 Maspeth residents who
came to the workshop were concerned
that the draft plan consolidated
parts of the Q18, Q67 and Q47
in the northern half of the neighborhood
into one route with one local
and one express line.
“It seems like this is designed by
an engineer on a blackboard. They
don’t want to go where the people
are, they want to go where it’s most
convenient for buses,” said Soren
Larson, a Maspeth resident and Q18
rider.
The plan proposes that a local bus
line called the QT78 would run up
69th Street from the Long Island
Expressway to the 69th Avenue
Seven subway station. One problem
with this route is that 69th Street
Seven-train station does not have
wheelchair access.
Maspeth resident Anna Wasiewicz
said that this is going to present a
major hurdle for many people in her
building — one of several large coops
at the intersection of 65th Street
and 53rd Avenue that skews toward
families and older residents.
The Q18, which fish hooks east
along 53 Avenue, before turning
north of 65th Place, passes directly
by these co-ops. Wasiewicz worried
that even though the QT78 runs parallel
to the much of the Q18 route on
69th Street, the extra two-to-three
block walk would stop residents in
her building from using the bus.
John Rafferty came to the
MTA Chairman Pat Foye Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
workshop prepared with 600 petition
Queensboro UNICO announced the induction of three new members at a March 3 meeting. The new members
are Anthony Ferretti, Vincenzo Armano and Robert Fraumeni.
Photo courtesy of Queensboro UNICO
signatures from people who
were asking not to change the Q18
and Q67 lines.
The table over from Rafferty was
also talking about their goal to keep
the Q18 and Q67 in place. Asked
about how to improve those routes,
the group suggested removing some
of the stops in between short blocks
could make it move faster.
“Basically, you don’t want the new
routes. You just want to keep the
old routes,” recapped Avelyn Hang,
an MTA moderator who also lives
in the area. “Everybody is in agreement.
Nobody is happy with the new
routes.”
Queensboro UNICO welcomes new members
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