WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES OCTOBER 7, 2021 13
Why the LaGuardia AirTrain project must move forward
BY TOM GRECH, SETH BORNSTEIN
AND HOPE KNIGHT
Communities in Queens face
urgent needs, ranging from
schools to health care, and
more recently, improved sewage
and drainage systems. However,
canceling the AirTrain to LaGuardia
— a project that will stimulate
economic activity that supports
small businesses; ease traffic congestion
on our roads; and invest in
our local parks — will not provide
a single penny to address those
important priorities.
If LaGuardia AirTrain does not
go forward, the $2 billion budgeted
for the project by the Port Authority
could instead be used to pay for
the agency’s capital investments
in transportation projects in other
boroughs — or even New Jersey.
Some opponents of LaGuardia’s
AirTrain seem to suggest otherwise,
arguing that funding for the mass
transit project would be better spent
elsewhere in the community. We all
understand the need for greater investment
in critical community resources
and infrastructure, particularly
after many of the communities
nearest to the airport were hard-hit
by COVID-19 and Hurricane Ida. But
those are needs that city, state and
federal officials must address – not
a self-funding agency created by
Congress solely to build transportation
infrastructure and to stimulate
economic development. The Port
Authority is legally restricted to
spending the revenues it raises only
on its own transportation projects
and facilities.
The Port Authority has myriad
transportation priorities that need
funding, from a new bus terminal in
Midtown to New Jersey’s PATH train
expansion. The bi-state agency has
so far prioritized capital funding
for AirTrain as part of its commitment
to a complete transformation
of LaGuardia Airport. It would be a
shame to lose that significant investment
in Queens.
The fact is that construction of La-
Guardia’s AirTrain will deliver real
benefits to Queens, to the borough’s
residents, and its local and minority
and women-owned businesses.
Building AirTrain will create 3,000
good-paying, union construction
jobs with a hiring and recruitment
program targeting local residents.
It will create permanent jobs operating
and maintaining AirTrain,
with 80% of those posts filled by applicants
from communities nearest
to LaGuardia Airport. AirTrain will
create $500 million in contracting
OP-ED
opportunities for minority- and
women-owned businesses, as well
as local businesses in Queens.
AirTrain would include a new, ADAaccessible
LIRR station at Willets
Point with full-time service to Penn
Station and Grand Central Terminal
for the first time. And it would remove
millions of cars a year from local
streets and highways, reducing
congestion and greenhouse gases
that contribute to climate change.
In addition, AirTrain LaGuardia
delivers a robust package of
community benefits that includes
a historic $50 million to make
significant improvements to the
Malcolm X Promenade at Flushing
Bay and other local parks, including
long-term financial support for
maintenance. The Promenade has
not seen any investment in more
than a generation. If we lose this
opportunity, it will likely not see
any investment for at least another
generation, if not longer. More than
5,000 trees would also be planted in
the community.
AirTrain will also provide funding
for STEM programs for local middle
school students and college scholarships
for students from the nearby
communities of East Elmhurst and Corona.
These will be real investments in
the community that were demanded by
the community, and the Port Authority
is actually able to deliver them only
because of the AirTrain to LaGuardia.
Without that project, these investments
also disappear.
AirTrain is the only rail alternative
of the nearly 50 that were independently
evaluated by the FAA that
would be built without the taking of
any private property and that does
not run through any residential or
commercial neighborhoods. Significantly,
it would be built without any
taxpayer dollars — leaving those
much-needed public funds for other
worthy projects.
It should be noted that there
was similar resistance to the JFK
AirTrain. Some believed it would
not be utilized, be an eyesore, and
devalue the surrounding area. The
opposite has happened; it is well
used, is not an eyesore and it has
spurred development.
All of this would be lost if
AirTrain does not go forward. And
for Queens, that would be a tragic
loss of investment, jobs and economic
activity that’s sorely needed
to help lift up and restore our communities
after the brutal effects of
COVID.
Tom Grech is the president and CEO
of the Queens Chamber of Commerce.
Seth Bornstein is the executive director
of the Queens Economic Development
Corporation. Hope Knight is
the president and CEO of the Greater
Jamaica Development Corporation.
SNAPS
HALLOWEEN SPIRIT ADORNS AUSTIN STREET
PHOTO BY JOE ABATE
Send us your photos of Queens
and you could see them online or in our paper!
To submit them to us, tag @qnsgram on Instagram,
visit our Facebook page, tweet @QNS
or email editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps).
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
