4 The Courier sun • APRIL 7, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com WORST. COMMUTE. EVER. ROCKAWAY TRAVELERS ENDURE THE MOST GRIEF, STUDY SAYS BY KATARINA HYBENOVA khybenova@qns.com/@QNS It turns out that Rockaway residents suffer through the longest average daily commute of all New York City neighborhoods. Rockaway residents commute for 53 minutes every day, which is 27 minutes longer than the national average. Rockaway is closely followed by Queens neighborhoods of Jamaica where residents commute for 51 minutes and Bellerose/ Rosedale with 47-minute long daily average commute. NYC-based think tank Center for an Urban Future conducted a study on the average length of daily commutes in New York. It turns out that while New Yorkers are efficient, fastpaced and fast-moving, their commutes are anything but. All of the NYC neighborhoods exceed national daily average commute time of 26 minutes. While the longest commuting Rockaway residents spend 53 minutes daily on average, the residents of the Financial District and Greenwich Village spend only 26 minutes daily on average commuting, which over the course of a five-day work week means that Rockaway residents spend four hours and 29 minutes more time commuting than those who live in Downtown Manhattan. Interestingly, the average commute for residents of Astoria is 38 minutes, while residents of Williamsburg, Brooklyn commute for 36 minutes. Bayside’s commute is 42.6 minutes, which roughly compares to Bed-Stuy residents’ commute of 41.9 minutes. Queens residents are also the most likely to work outside of the city with 13 percent commuting to jobs beyond the five boroughs. The 10 NYC neighborhoods with the longest commutes are: the Rockaways (53 minutes), Jamaica (51 minutes), Brownsville/Ocean Hill (48 minutes), Flatlands/ Canarsie (48 minutes), Bellerose/ Rosedale (47 minutes), Howard Beach/S. Ozone Park (46 minutes), Kingsbridge Heights/Mosholu (46 minutes), Soundview/Parkchester (46 minutes), East Flatbush (46 minutes) and Bensonhurst (45 minutes). It goes without saying that the commute times in NYC, not only in Queens, are simply too long. Center for an Urban Future made three recommendation to change that. First, it recommended an accelerated schedule for the modernization of the MTA’s signal system. Second, it recommended introducing tolls on the city’s East River bridges. According to the think tank the plan would generate $1.5 billion in net annual revenue for the MTA, which would help to improve stateof good-repair and to finance system expansion. Finally, it recommended reducing the LIRR fares and integrating payment with the subway MetroCard. MTA operates over 20 LIRR stations in the five boroughs, but only few New Yorkers use the service because of its high fares and its poor integration with the subway MetroCard. This way the city could dramatically reduce commutes in northeast and southeast Queens. File photo 1,000 NEW GAMING MACHINES COMING TO RESORTS WORLD NEW YORK BY MIGUEL VASQUEZ editorial@qns.com/@QNS Resorts World Casino New York City will soon get a thousand additional slot machines under the state budget deal brokered last week. The South Ozone Park casino, located in the former grandstand of Aqueduct Racetrack, already has 5,000 video lottery terminal (VLT) machines in place, making it one of the most profitable gaming establishments in the country. A portion of the revenue that the 1,000 new machines will generate will go to the Nassau OTB Corporation, bringing an end to a push for a casino at Belmont Park on the Queens/Nassau border. Nassau OTB sought the Belmont casino to supplement its betting revenue. That casino would have served as direct competition with Resorts World at Aqueduct just eight miles away; both tracks are operated by the New York Racing Association, which receives a percentage of revenue from the existing VLTs at Resorts World Casino. The deal was struck through negotiations between the state, Nassau OTB and the Genting Group, Resorts World’s parent company. As one of the people who worked to approve these machines, Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder is extremely proud of the decision: “This will generate more revenue for our local schools and ensure Aqueduct’s continued success for years to come.” “Resorts World Casino New York City has created more than 1,000, goodpaying jobs with over 80 percent of our employees coming from our local Queens community,” according to a statement from Resorts World Casino New York. “These are jobs we work hard to protect. Key provisions in this year’s State Budget will give our employees job security and place our business on a more competitive footing.”
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