FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 11, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 39
letters & comments
This photo from the Ridgewood Times archives in the 1970s shows bumper-to-bumper traffi c along the Grand Avenue overpass, looking west above the
Long Island Expressway, in Maspeth. Look carefully at the expressway in the background and you can see three lanes of traffi c moving in each direction.
The LIE was expanded to four lanes in each direction during the late 1980s. Send us your historic photos of Queens by email to editorial@qns.com (subject:
A Look Back) or mail printed pictures to A Look Back, The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned
to you.
DOING MORE TO BOOST
7 LINE SERVICE
Th ere are other investments to improve
service on the No. 7 Flushing subway service
(“MTA to boost weekday 7 line service
starting next spring,” Th e Queens
Courier, Sept. 27).
In March 1953, a super express began
operating from Flushing–Main Street to
Times Square in the a.m. rush hour.
Th is No. 7 stopped at Main Street, and
Willets Point before skipping all stops
to Queensboro Plaza, skipping the
Woodside and Junction Boulevard
express stops. Th e running time was cut
down to 23 minutes from 25 minutes.
Th is ended in a few years.
Holiday and Saturday express service
was discontinued in March 1954. Midday
express service between 10 a.m. and
3 p.m. was discontinued in August 1975.
It briefl y returned for several years in the
1980s before ending once again.
Riders have had to endure too many
years of inconvenience as a result of the
MTA NYC Transit investing $774 million
in Communication Based Train Control
(CBTC) on the Flushing No. 7 line. With
or without CBTC, there are opportunities
to increase capacity and service by
running trains more frequently mid-day,
evenings, overnight and weekends on the
No. 7 line.
Upon implementation of CBTC by the
end of 2018 (which was supposed to
have been completed October 2016), let’s
hope mid-day express service resumes.
Investing $774 million in CBTC will only
result in increasing the number of rush
hour trains by 2 from 30 to 32 in each
direction.
Aft er that, the MTA NYCT no longer
has any other opportunity for increasing
rush hour capacity on the No. 7 line.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
NO POL SHOULD IGNORE
SENIOR ISSUES
With over 40 million Americans caring
for older parents, spouses and other loved
ones, why is the issue of family caregivers
not on the campaign agenda of our local
candidates?
Th e issue should be one of their priorities
as our population ages and many of our
Baby Boomers are reaching the point where
they need help from family members.
Voters over 50 need to hear from our
candidates on how they will support
unpaid family caregivers if they want our
votes in the coming elections.
But let them know we’re paying attention.
Be the diff erence. Vote!
Fay Hill, Springfi eld Gardens
Editor’s note: Th e author is AARP lead
volunteer for the Fift h Congressional
District of New York.
FED UP WITH
CONSTRUCTION
PROBLEMS
Editor’s note: Th e following is an open
letter by the author to Borough President
Melinda Katz.
Recently several corners were renovated
in my neighborhood, in the area
of 203rd Street and 38th Avenue in
Bayside. The construction of these corners
resulted in the construction company
violating clean air acts.
Cutting concrete with dry saws sends
carcinogenic concrete fibers into the
breathing atmosphere. I have a video
showing this which I sent to your office.
Now, another company is installing
gas mains in the neighborhood. The
gas company is now destroying the
new concrete corners to install their
gas lines.
Is anyone in charge at your office?
Does the government have extra money
one day to install new concrete corners
and two or three months later another
company rips it up.
Oh, I guess you will just raise the
property taxes.
Something is really wrong in Queens.
Is the government asleep at the switch?
Timothy Collins, Bayside
HOMELESS PROBLEM
CAN’T BE IGNORED
Mayor de Blasio was recently confronted
by homeless advocate, Nathylin
Flowers Adesegun, while he was working
out at the Prospect Park Y. She had
ask him to provide 30,000 more affordable
housing. He responded by saying,
“I’m in the middle of my workout.”
Well I guess his work out was more
important than providing housing for
the homeless.
This is a national problem that affects
many different people from many walks
of life. One group is our veterans where
some suffer from depression, physical
and chemical dependencies. As a
member of the American Legion and
the Knights of Columbus, I feel more
should be done for our veterans.
As for myself, I can feel their pain. I
am a Navy veteran of the Vietnam era
and over 40 years ago, I found myself
homeless. I had suffer from depression
and even tried to take my own life. But
due to divine intervention, I had gotten
help and due to the kindness of a
stranger named Cyril, I was provided
a place to live off the cold streets of
Hempstead.
There are many today that are not so
lucky and that is most sad. I find this
homeless situation and the lack of concern
by some of our government officials
to be most distressing. I feel more
has to be done.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.,
Glen Oaks Village
Email your letters to editorial@qns.
com (Subject: Letter to the Editor) or
leave a comment to any of our stories
at QNS.com. You can also send
a letter by regular mail to Letters to
the Editor, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside,
NY 11361. All letters are subject to
editing. Names will be withheld upon
request, but anonymous letters will
not be considered for publication. The
views expressed in all letters and comments
are not necessarily those of this
newspaper or its staff.
A LOOK BACK
link
