WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 3
Judge dismisses suit over Fresh Pond bus lane
IKEA coming to Rego Park
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Rego Park is about to get access
to Sweden’s bounty of modern,
practical furniture.
Ikea Retail announced that it will
open a 115,000-square-foot store in the
Rego Center at the corner of Queens
Boulevard and Junction Boulevard in
the summer 2020. It’s the fi rst branch
of the furniture giant in the borough.
“With a growing community of more
than 900,000 households, Queens was
a natural next destination for IKEA in
New York City,” said Leontyne Green
Sykes, CEO of IKEA Retail U.S. “We
know that more than half of Queens
residents travel via public transportation,
and we selected Rego Park for this
Photo courtesy of IKEA
new store concept to meet the unique
needs of this customer.”
The Queens store will be the fi rst to
open in the U.S. with a new layout for
the furniture giant. The Queens version
of the big-box retailer will take up
less than half the amount of fl oor space
of a typical IKEA, like the 346,000-
square-foot store in Brooklyn.
While the store will feature thousands
of products for purchase and
takeaway, larger furniture items will
be available for convenient delivery.
The retailer also will off er services like
assembly and installation, in addition
to a new food options.
The Rego Park Center couldn’t immediately
be reached for comment.
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
An attorney representing the
Fresh Pond Coalition was swiftly
rebuked by a Queens Supreme Court
judge deliberating on the Article 78
proceeding filed last week to stop
the Fresh Pond bus lanes by tying it
up in litigation.
Judge Joseph Esposito dismissed
Arthur Schwartz’s argument against
the southbound bus lanes would
bring economic ruin to the shops on
the corridor within a half hour on
Monday.
“To me one of our arguments is the
secret argument, and that is that they
should have done an environmental
assessment,” Schwartz said. “We
don’t know exactly how many daily
bus riders it is … They’re going to
have to actually show us where they
got these numbers.”
City Department of Transportation
estimates put the ridership on
lines traversing Fresh Pond at 30,000
per day.
Esposito was not convinced that
turning 17 alternated side parking
spaces into metered parking would
hurt business either, pointing out
to Schwartz that this means there
will be turnover instead of cars
occupying a space for many hours
at a time.
“I’m not an expert and neither are
you,” Esposito said in response to
Schwartz’s claims. “You know why
Fresh Pond Coalition doesn’t like
it? They don’t like it because nobody
likes change. I don’t like change …
But it’s not about me. It’s not about
a narrow group of people who use
the roads … Everybody has to share
the road, you don’t see that? It looks
like you’re taking a really parochial,
myopic view.”
Esposito prefaced his determinations
by looking back at his tour of
Fresh Pond Road on Friday which he
called “unnecessary.”
“We are grateful to Justice Joseph
Esposito for his decision today to
keep the bus lane open along Fresh
Pond Road during afternoon rush
hours,” DOT Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg said. “Since we installed
this new lane on Aug. 27, initial MTA
data indicate that one of the slowest
streets for buses in Queens has
seen a dramatic improvement in
travel times, which benefits 30,000
New Yorkers who rely on the Q58 as
well as the QM24, QM 25 and QM34
Express bus routes.”
The 3 mph, three-mile span of
Fresh Pond serves multiple bus
lanes and also sees traffic from out
of services buses coming from all
over Queens and Brooklyn. It is also
one of the few north-south routes in
southwestern Queens.
The city Department of Transportation
was backed in court by Riders
Alliance and nonprofit TransitCenter
who submitted an amicus before
the noon hearing. Danny Pearlstein
said the Article 78 had the potential
to tie the bus lane up in mitigation
that could consume time for riders
getting to and from work for years.
“It’s frustrating because these
are kind of hard-won victories for
transit riders,” Pearlstein said. “We
push and push and push, but the city
has its own agenda. These things
individually require the mayor’s
focus and obviously that is kind of
short. So just to get them up to that
agenda is a big deal, to be a big part
of the Better Buses Action Plan. The
Better Buses Action Plan is not going
to solve every rider’s problems, but
it’s a move forward.”
Arthur Schwartz, an attorney for the Fresh Pond Coalition, reads an
amicus by Transportation Alternatives. Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
L Shana Tova
Best Wishes for a Happy & Healthy Jewish New Year
Congresswoman
Grace Meng
Paid for and authorized by Grace For New York
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