EDITORIAL
OTHER VOICES
Have you had enough of transit problems?
BY RENAE REYNOLDS
“Enough already!” Every New
Yorker who counts on the subway
to get around knows the feeling,
but for more than a decade state
lawmakers in Albany have
delayed implementing congestion
pricing to fix the subways, and
now it’s a genuine crisis. Well,
enough already!
When was your
latest “enough already”
subway moment?
Maybe “enough already” hit
you when the subway made you
late to pick up your kid - again!
Maybe the subway made you late
for work one time too many, or
made you late to interview for a
job you really deserved, really
wanted, or you and your family
really needed.
The truth is, every New Yorker
knows the “enough already”
feeling about the subways, but
it hits some of us worse than
others. Guess who?
Here are five simple facts:
• New Yorkers who earn
$35,000 or less depend most on
public transit.
• African-American and
Latino New Yorkers are more
than 50% of transit riders.
• Lower-income New Yorkers
tend to have the longest
commutes, according to a Federal
Reserve study.
• Riders with longer commutes
are more vulnerable to train
delays and poor service.
• Low-income New Yorkers
are especially vulnerable to bad
transit service.
We deserve better, but for more
than a decade, officials in Albany
responsible for funding the
MTA have been unable to enact
congestion pricing to fund the
subway and bus improvements
we desperately need. Without
funds from congestion pricing,
millions of New Yorkers remain
delayed from getting where we
need to go.
Enough already! Hopefully
this at last will be the year
that Albany lawmakers enact
congestion pricing, repair the
transit system, and get us moving
forward again!
Reynolds is a resident of Far
Rockaway and a transportation
planner for the New York City
Environmental Justice Alliance.
CLEAR THE AIR
While Senate Republicans continue to mock
progressive Democrats and their Green New Deal, no
one is laughing along a stretch of western Queens known
as Asthma Alley. In fact, many are gasping for air.
Residents of Astoria and Long Island City have
suffered from high rates of respiratory problems for
years from the pollutants pumped into the air from a half
dozen power plants built along the East River shoreline.
Now an award-winning Jackson Heights filmmaker
has documented the community’s rising against the
Poletti power plant nearly a decade ago. Melania LaRosa
produced and directed “How to Power a City” which
chronicles stories from the front lines of the clean energy
revolution.
LaRosa screened the segment of her film that
examined the Poletti fight at the Queens World Film
Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image March
17. City Councilman Costa Constantinides, who was a
community organizer at the time, and Tony Gigantiello,
the founder of CHOKE, or Citizens Helping to Organize a
Kleaner Environment were featured in the segment.
The nearly 33-year-old natural gas and oil plant was
permanently closed down in 2010 after a lawsuit filed by
then City Councilman Peter Vallone and neighborhood
leaders and was finally disassembled in 2013. The Poletti
power plant was deemed the city’s worst polluter and the
fight continues today against the remaining generators
in Astoria and Long Island City that produce 60 percent
of the city’s electricity.
Since he was elected to the City Council in 2013,
Constantinides has pushed his own Green New Deal for
the city as Chairman of the Environmental Protection
Committee. Among the legislation he has passed over
the years includes Local Law 66 of 2014 to reduce carbon
emissions by 2050. To help achieve this, Constantinides
has sponsored additional legislation to encourage more
use of solar, wind, geothermals and biofuels.
In 2017, Constantinides’ environmental justice
legislation passed ensuring that city agencies would
identify and study neighborhoods with a significant lowincome
population and communities of color where the
power plants have been constructed in recent decades.
Air pollution in western Queens isn’t a laughing
matter. It’s fact that the plethora of power plants in the
area have made residents sicker over time. If any part
of the United States could benefit from the introduction
of more alternative energy sources — specifically wind
and solar power — it’s “Asthma Alley.” And it’s time for
all of our elected officials to get serious about it and do
something to clear the air, at long last.
The pollution problem in western Queens persists.
So should Constantinides and his own Green
New Deal.
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TIMESLEDGER,16 MARCH 29-APR. 4, 2019 QNS.COM
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