8 The Courier sun • MAY 19, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com QUEENS IS THE FOURTH MOST AFFORDABLE COUNTY IN NEW YORK TO PURCHASE A CAR Downtown Jamaica is getting free Wi-Fi this summer BY BRIANA ELLIS [email protected]/@briinformed Are you tired of strolling through the streets of Jamaica, Queens, while running up your cellphone data? Kiss those overcharges goodbye, as Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and the city plan to launch free Wi-Fi in the area this summer under the Jamaica Now plan. “We’re gonna get Wi-Fi on the streets by the end of July so in the Jamaica corridor you will, for free, be able to go out in the street connecting to a Wi-Fi,” Katz told QNS on Thursday about her plans for free wireless Internet connection in downtown Jamaica. “It will be the first neighborhood in the borough of Queens that will have Wi-Fi on the streets and that’s gonna be a game-changer in Jamaica and it’s also gonna be the first in the entire borough and a direct result of the Jamaica Now plan.” Jamaica is a popular destination for shoppers, with a variety of retail clothing stores, sneaker boutiques and restaurants along Jamaica and Archer avenues as well as Parsons Boulevard. It’s within walking distance of both the subway and the Long Island Rail Road. “There’s a lot of benefits that have happened now because of the Jamaica Now plan. The first one, you probably can’t define, which is that we really put Jamaica out front in the borough of Queens and it should have been for generations,” Katz said. “The culture and the arts and the great families, the communities that are building there and that have built there have been amazing.” The Jamaica Now Action Plan, which was launched last April by Katz, Mayor de Blasio and Alicia Glen, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, is an agency that aims to revitalize the Jamaica community through 21 strategic actions like small business support and partnering, quality job increases and internships over the course of three years. According to Katz’s April 15, 2015, press release, the project has represented about $153 million in current public funding. Photo by 165th Street Mall/QNS art dept. Downtown Jamaica will receive free Wi-Fi by July, Borough President Katz promises. BY ANGELA MATUA [email protected]/@AngelaMatua Queens residents looking to purchase an affordable car won’t have to travel far, according to a new study. Autolist, a new and used car search engine, analyzed 67 million vehicles listed on its website and found that out of 62 counties in New York, Queens was the fourth most affordable place to purchase a car. The study also found that cars in Queens are $965 less than the state average. Autolist aggregates millions of car listings from websites such as eBay, Autobytel, Edmunds and more. The site features more than 4.4 million listings. The listings captured were from Nov. 28, 2010, through March 31, 2016, and Alex Klein, vice president of data science for Autolist, also broke down the information by most affordable make and model in Queens. The Lexus LX 570 is the most affordable vehicle in Queens, with prices $1,890 below the New York average. The Kia Sportage is also highly affordable, with prices $1,868 below the state average. In third place, the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport is $1,858 below the state average. Those looking to purchase a Mazda CX-5 will find that in Queens, that make and model is $1,867 below state average while the Nissan JUKE is $1,811 below the state average. Manhattan was ranked first in affordability, with cars priced at $1,710 below the state average. The Bronx was ranked third on the list and Kings County was fifth, after Queens. Staten Island, which is considered Richmond County, was ranked 15th on the list with cars priced at $63 below the state average. “Across our study, we found that high population density areas have lower prices, as there are more dealerships and as a result, more competition for buyers,” Klein said. “This increased competition if the key factor driving down prices. New York City specifically is one of the most densely populated areas in the nation, and therefore we see the prices for NYC, New York county, and the immediately surrounding counties coming in well below the state and national average.” Photo courtesy of Shutterstock The Lexus LX 570 is more affordable in Queens than in most other New York counties, according to a study.
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