FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 10, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 15
In Queens visit, Johnson pushes for
city control of subways and buses
Photo: Mark Hallum/THE COURIER
Foreclosures still high in southeast Queens: report
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
edavenport@qns.com
@QNS
While the city is experiencing a decline
in fi rst-time foreclosures, a recent report
found that Queens continues to be the
borough with the highest number of
foreclosures and pre-foreclosures.
PropertyShark recently released their
Residential Foreclosure Report for Q4
2018, which measured the number of
fi rst-time foreclosures and pre-foreclosures
throughout the city. Overall, New
York City had 720 homes hitting the auction
block for the fi rst time during the
fourth quarter of 2018, increasing only
slightly from the third quarter, which
saw 716 foreclosures. However, the city
as a whole had a 14 percent decrease in
fi rst-time foreclosures year-over-year.
While the world’s borough had a quarter
to-quarter decrease of 17 percent,
Queens saw the largest number of fi rsttime
foreclosures throughout the fi ve
boroughs with 252 homes on the auction
block this quarter. Additionally, Queens
saw an 8 percent year-over-year increase
in fi rst-time foreclosures, marking the
borough as the only one to have an
increase from 2017 to 2018.
Just like during the last quarter, the
highest number of foreclosed properties
in Queens this quarter were listed
in the 11434 ZIP code, covering parts of
South Jamaica, St. Albans and Springfi eld
Gardens.
With 2,113 pre-foreclosures this quarter,
the city overall had a 16 percent
decrease year-over-year in pre-foreclosures.
Despite the decrease, Queens had
the most pre-foreclosures this quarter
with 842 homes in pre-foreclosure.
To read the full report, visit www.
propertyshark.com/Real-Estate-Reports/
NYC-Foreclosure-Report.
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
New York City’s subways and buses
weren’t always controlled by the MTA; the
city relinquished control while in bankruptcy
during the 1970s and 80s, a notoriously
dangerous time for the subway riders
in particular.
Now, if City Council Speaker Corey
Johnson has anything to say about it, the
city will one day reclaim control of its own
transit system.
Johnson spoke about such a proposal
during a visit to Queens on Jan. 7. In
his capacity as acting public advocate, he
launched a fi ve-borough straphanger survey,
speaking with commuters about the
myriad transit problems they face and possible
ways to fi x them.
“It’s a very detailed conversation that we
have to have and I’m going to have more
to say in a detailed way over the next two
months,” Johnson said about city control
of public transit. “It’s similar — though
not exactly the same — as the conversation
around mayoral control of the schools
… If we take over the MTA, New York
City Transit, which I support, breaking
out the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-
North from that and just taking the NYC
Transit, we would still going to state support
and money. Th e schools still needed
state support and money when we took it
over. So there’s something still something
analogous in that way, but it’s a conversation
we’re going to have.”
Th at conversation will likely involve
Governor Andrew Cuomo, and it turns out
that the governor’s fed up with the MTA
as well.
“Blow up the MTA. Blow it up,” Cuomo
was quoted as saying in a Jan. 7 editorial
meeting with the Daily News; he meant that
the state agency should be rebuilt from the
ground up in the style of Port Authority.
Cuomo claimed the governor’s offi ce
has no control over the MTA, although it
appoints the majority of board members
and supplies the funds, but said remodeling
it like Port Authority would give him
direct control.
“Th e MTA is so tedious to deal with that
it developed a boutique industry of people
who just are willing to deal with this thing
called the MTA,” Cuomo said, according to
the Daily News. “And the people who know
how to do it normally came from the MTA
and then go to the contractor and that’s why
they know how to make the connection.”
Newly sworn-in Assemblywoman
Catalina Cruz, who represents Jackson
Heights, said turning over operations of
NYC Transit was something she campaigned
on.
“Th e fi rst step in solving a problem is fi guring
out the depth of that problem,” Cruz
said. “We don’t know how bad the MTA
is. We know that the trains don’t arrive,
that if the 7 breaks then the E breaks, the
R breaks, everything breaks. But it’s always
useful to get concrete data and everyday
stories of people and how terrible the service
really is.”
City Councilman Daniel Dromm and
newly sworn-in State Senator Jessica
Ramos were also present at Johnson’s press
conference, held in the foyer of the Jackson
Heights station.
Last week, Cuomo put a pause on the
scheduled 15-month Canarsie Tunnel closure
that would have aff ected the L line,
opting instead for overnight and weekend
service cuts for Hurricane Sandy-related
repairs. NYC Transit President Andy
Byford was absent from this conversation.
Th e MTA did not respond to a request
for comment before Th e Courier's press
time on Jan. 9.
Photo via Getty Images
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson meets with straphangers in Jackson Heights on Jan. 7.
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