Today’s Headlines

Garodnick Introduces Three-Strikes-You’re-Out Bill for TLC License Suspensions (News)
Police Make Arrest in Imam’s Killing Because Suspect Left Scene of Car Crash After the Murder (NYT)
Rodriguez Rejects Rezoning for 50-Percent Affordable Project at Inwood Parking Garage (Politico, News)
Daily News Unimpressed by Vanessa Gibson’s Double Standard After She Gets NYPD to Cancel Ticket
Port Authority Pushes Bus Terminal Replacement, But Manhattan Pols Hold All the Cards (Politico)
Post Visits Toronto to Ride Open-Gangway Trains, Which Will Be Coming to NYC
LaGuardia Rehab Work Snarling Traffic — Including Buses Going to the Airport (WSJ)
“Suck It Up” Isn’t a Good Response for L Train Shutdown; We Need Better Buses (2nd Avenue Sagas)
Atlantic Av Merchants Losing Business Because of Bogus Parking Placards Hogging Spaces (Eagle)
During the Summer Olympics, DNA Looks Back at How NYC’s 2012 Bid Shaped the City

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

Joe R.

My own preference is to take Union Turnpike to Main Street, hang a left, then take Main to Queens Blvd. I wasn’t even aware of the bike lane on Jewel near the park, not having been there in years, but it probably only makes things marginally better. My usual method crossing Jewel there was to build up as much speed as possible on the downgrade to hopefully carry me up the hill fast enough so I didn’t have cars up my ass. If I was lucky I’d hit the light on the GCP service road on green so I could use some leftover momentum to get me up the hill after the light. If not, then it’s a strenuous slog up. Main Street avoids all that, albeit at the expense of adding maybe a mile to an east-west Queens trip.
Vooch

you obviously haven’t been to Bayside or Staten Island.

Density is low in vast areas of the 5 boros
Vooch

under a blanket 2x upzoning, the highly nuanced soviet Style Central Planning differentitation would remain – only cjange would Be instead of a R-1 in Bayside for exanple, it would Be R-2.

In CBD FARs of 10 would become 20.

The City would still have significant differentiation between neighborhoods.

Soviet Style Central Planning had been tried and tweaked in NYC for 80 years. The result is a extreme housing shortage which hurts The Working poor.

blanket 2x upzoning of The entire city would do more for the NYC working poor in 3 years than the last 80 years of Soviet style central planning
Joe R.

And with the lack of public transit these areas already have horrendous traffic problems at their present density. I’m all for upzoning, but you need to start in areas near subway stations. If/when the subway ever expands to places like Bayside or Staten Island, then you can upzone there also.
BKBedStuy

Soviet Style? Jesus. You are intellectually bankrupt.

And again, *your* idea wipes out the working poor because you do nothing to deal with the speculation that will result from this building bonanza or the national and international investors backing it. So you simply can’t pretend that *anything* that you are proposing helps working families. It doesn’t. Again, intellectually bankrupt.
Ferdinand Cesarano

I live on Jamaica Avenue; so I can just use that street to get to eastern Queens on most occasions. But I also use Hoover plenty of times, even if the hill is tough coming back west.

There’s also Union Turnpike; but that’s good only for an experienced rider. Also, that street is a lot easier to use going east than going west. Going east you can just cross Queens Boulevard in a straight line; but the challenge comes later when you have to get over to the left in order to stay on Union and not get on the Grand Central Parkway service road. (Most often it’s best to just concede on that and to go ahead and veer onto the GCP service road, and then make a left at the first light at Main Street to get back up to Union.) Going west Union Turnpike is a big hassle. First, the crossing of the Grand Central is much more difficult. And then at Queens Boulevard you cannot go straight through. In order to continue west on Union Turnpike, you first have to turn right on QB to go up to 77th Road, then left on that to Austin Street, then right once you get back down to Union.

Roosevelt Avenue, which is unpleasant under the best circumstances, is now nightmarish with the construction on the bridge. Let’s not even consider that.

There is another way to get between eastern and western Queens which I think most people don’t know about: the bike path along the Flushing Bay shore. You can access it from the west at 34th Avenue and 114th Street. You get on it from the east at Northern Boulevard and Main Street.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7629194,-73.8334584,3a,90y,215.82h,77.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swb3l19WzzzbB6eJeKAl9Zg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e3?hl=en

There we see the entry to the bike/pedestrian path on Northern Boulevard. (The unfortunately placed “no pedestrians” sign refers to the crossing of Northern; note that there is no crosswalk there. It does not refer to the path, which is definitely open to pedestrians.)

Even if Hoover Avenue is the best option overall, I find Jewel to be dramatically improved. For me the stress levels on that street have been drastically reduced; and I now sometimes use that street just for pleasure. I also don’t know what the count of bicycles on that street is; but the street feels transformed to me.
Vooch

Joe,

Gotta disagree here. I’d argue that Bayside could easily Handle 25% more people. it’s über Löw density today. doubling Zoning allowable in Bayside simply means a bunch of Granny Apartments would Be Built in SFD Land
Vooch

more supply = lower prices

LOL
BKBedStuy

Right, because life is actually as simple as your understanding of economics.

Yes, once all the building is done, there will be lots of units. But it’s not as if they come on the market all at the same time. Capital (foreign and domestic) is being dumped into the NYC real estate market for the purpose of investment, not creating housing. So, in the short term, how do you propose to keep the new housing affordable when demand (not strictly for housing) is still far above supply? How do you stop rampant speculation for these new units (and units around them experiencing the “halo effect”), especially when the financing is not at all tied to the local market?

Nothing about the NYC housing market operates as a classic idealized market. So how do ideologues deal with this? What are your concrete ideas to ensure that working class and poor people can afford to stay in the city?
Joe R.

The obvious answer to end real estate speculation given that it’s one of the major things driving up housing prices in NYC. Make it illegal for corporations or LLCs to buy any residential real estate for starters. Make it illegal for individuals to own more than one apartment or private home. It’s really perverse when you have entire buildings of luxury apartments which are almost empty, being bought out entirely by speculators, while many in this city can’t find affordable housing.

You might also change the tax laws. Enact a NYC 100% tax on real estate profits when a house or apartment is sold unless that place was your one and only primary residence. That would end speculation cold. Within probably a year or two of the tax being enacted, real estate prices here would fall by over 50%.

The problem is exactly as you said. Right now the real estate market in NYC isn’t one of classic supply and demand. It hasn’t been in at least 25 years. It’s being manipulated by a small number of people with a vested interest in keeping prices high.
Vooch

questions only a soviet bureaucrat would ask. Central Planning has been tried in NYC for 80 years and failed, failed, failed, failed.

What are my ideas to insure the working poor can afford housing in NYC ?

Answer: Allow & Encourage speculators to build 100,000 new units per year to eliminate the 500,000 unit shortage.

You should read ‘for the good of the cause’
BKBedStuy

Ok, you’re obviously a troll, since nothing you’ve written has any basis in reality. Delete your account.