12 JULY 25, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Leaving out Queens residents again
Love them or hate them, the Citi
Bike transportation program has
a singular purpose: To provide
more New Yorkers with another
affordable way of getting where they
need to go.
Since its inception back in 2013,
the bike-sharing program has
enabled tens of thousands of people
to get moving. In fact, it’s become
so popular that the city announced
last week a Citi Bike expansion
that includes moving the program
further east over the next four years
into the Queens neighborhoods of
Ridgewood, Maspeth, Sunnyside,
Woodside, Elmhurst, Corona and
Jackson Heights.
While that’s all well and good
for those communities, the Citi
Bike program left out areas of
southeast Queens that could really
use extra wheels to get around.
That development irked local
lawmakers such as Councilwoman
Adrienne Adams, who said that “the
many transportation deserts and
communities of color in Queens have
already waited far too long for Citi
Bike and many neighborhoods are
EDITORIAL
still being denied.”
Adams is not alone in that opinion.
New York Communities for Change
recently issued a report which
identified the Rockaways and
Jamaica as two areas of Queens
whose people could benefit from
Citi Bike by more easily connecting
them to the few train lines available
to them.
The truly bizarre aspect of Citi
Bike’s snub of southeast Queens
is that the program sought this
time around to address the very
concerns that Adams and the New
York Communities for Change had
— but elsewhere. Citi Bike will be
coming to Brownsville, Brooklyn
and Mott Haven in the Bronx, two
communities of color sorely in need
of better transit options.
Why did they leave southeast
Queens out?
The subway system ends in
Jamaica. The Long Island Rail Road
has a handful of stations in the
southeastern Queens neighborhoods
of St. Albans, Hollis, Queens Village,
Locust Manor, Laurelton and
Rosedale which offer limited service
— but at a higher cost than the $2.75
fare for a subway or bus ride.
Bus service in the region, much
like the rest of Queens, is woefully
inadequate and often crawling
through local streets that grow
more and more congested with every
passing day. The MTA and the city
Department of Transportation are
working on a long-awaited redesign
of the Queens bus route network, but
the potential impact on the region
remains unknown.
It should be noted that the areas
of Queens that are gaining Citi
Bike already have numerous public
transit options at their disposal,
including multiple subway lines.
Southeast Queens residents
deserve better transportation, and
making Citi Bike available to them
would give them another affordable
public option to get around their
own community.
For a city administration that
touts the importance of creating
a more equitable city for all, to
exclude southeast Queens from this
great program is truly hypocritical.
Our government needs to start
representing and serving all of
Queens.
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ESTABLISHED 1908
Co-Publishers
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
Editor-in-Chief
ROBERT POZARYCKI
Classifi ed Manager
DEBORAH CUSICK
Assistant Classifi ed Manager
MARLENE RUIZ
Reporters
EMILY DAVENPORT
MARK HALLUM
CARLOTTA MOHAMED
BILL PARRY
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