Today’s Headlines

  • Will the BQX Pay for Itself? Not Likely (Voice)
  • De Blasio Plans to Rezone 50 Blocks in Long Island City for New Housing (DNA)
  • Cuomo’s Javits Center Vanity Project Is Already 50 Percent Over-Budget (DNA)
  • More Coverage of TLC Vote to Improve App-Hail Data Collection: Post, AMNY
  • Victim in Fatal Off-Duty Cop Crash Was Also a Cop (Post 1, 2); News: Driver Was Speeding
  • School Bus Driver Jumps Curb Outside Ft. Greene School, Injuring Child (Bklyn Paper)
  • Seniors Wait Years for DOT Safety Fixes to Riverdale Street (Press)
  • The City’s New LED Streetlights Are Keeping People Awake (Gothamist)
  • Work on Meadowlands Mega-Mall Stalls as Concept Metastasizes to Miami (WNYC)
  • Daily News Reader James Carroll Has Just About Had It With the Traffic

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • bolwerk

    More streetcar hysterics? Of course it might not pay for itself. That is a risk with any project.

    “New York is doing this backwards in some ways: They have the real
    estate development that’s gone all along the water, they rezoned all
    that stuff in Williamsburg ten years ago,” says Fischer. “They have the
    demand, they have the people — and now they’re putting in the transportation.”

    So was the Voice demanding subway or light rail access to the waterfront 10 years ago? If they have the people, should those people not have transit? BQX criticism would be a lot useful if it would shed light on why it costs so damn much. Half as much per mile would be way more reasonable.

    Then again, the waterfront might be the right place to be a BANANA, if climate change is half as bad as predicted.

  • Guest

    Not holding my breathe for driver of the high speed crash coming back from City Island to be charged in connection with the death of his passenger…

  • AnoNYC

    Upzoning doesn’t cause gentrification or hyper-gentrification. When will be people figure this out? The neighborhood was already zoned for mixed use development and is already highly desireable.

    What I would suggest however are bus lanes on the Queensboro Bridge.

    And I personally love the new LED lights. More light = better visibility.

  • Greg

    None of the article makes sense to me.

    I don’t understand the argument that its route is already saturated. The Brooklyn Navy Yard area, far north Fort Greene, the Columbia Waterfront District, all of Red Hook, and waterfront Sunset Park are a near constant ribbon of underutilized waterfront. Even if, say “Red Hook” is already considered “hot”, it’s absurd to claim that neighborhood wouldn’t experience an incredible boost by actually convenient transit. Willaimsburg and Greenpoint are just a tiny part of the route.

    It may not pay for itself (in two years? is that what the article suggested as a base line?). But isn’t there consensus that mass transit shouldn’t be self-supporting: the MTA and Citibike being two particularly notable examples? Are the MTA’s inability to be self-sufficient and calls for publicly funding Citibike strikes against these systems?

    Sure, other routes could be imagined. And maybe some would offer more promising investments. I’m not sold on the “serve outer areas” argument given the lack of comparable criticism I see for the 2nd Avenue Subway. And maybe some technology beside light-rail makes more sense. Or this project can be done more efficiently.

    But the principled arguments against it just seem incoherent. And some are parroting the anti-mass transit rhetoric we’ve all been putting up with since the dawn of time.

  • bolwerk

    Reeks of self-indulgent neoliberal indoctrination: if it doesn’t do everything we want now, so a consultant can get paid immediately, it’s not useful!

    Yes, that last part is what I was thinking: the critics of BQX buying into delusional anti-transit propaganda is probably keeping the project from being improved upon. Criticism is good if it makes sense, and much is terribly wrong with BQX.

  • Joe R.

    Yeah, the article was click bait full of junk information. The vast majority of people seem to be OK with the lights given the small number of complaints mentioned in the article relative to the city’s population. Obviously some people will dislike them, but hey I lived for over 40 years with sodium lights I hated. Not everything in the city can be to your liking. Ever since we took out the mercury vapor lamps I’ve been longing for a return to white, or at least “whitish”, lighting. It’s finally happened. Honestly, I think this is one of the most significant things the city has done in decades. The city actually looks better and more vibrant at night now, and the lights don’t contrast with the stars. I can even see more stars than before!

  • ahwr

    It may not pay for itself

    Spread over 30 years per rider build out costs for BQX are north of $10, it will never pay for itself.

    2nd avenue subway phase 1 projections are roughly double the cost of BQX and four times the ridership. The BQX ridership number is more speculative, based not on who is living there today, but on who might be there in 20 years, and more than double their 2020 ridership projection for who is there now. Per rider future phases of second avenue are more expensive, and they do have their critics among transit supporters.

    https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2016/12/15/second-avenue-subway-phase-2-to-cost-6-billion/

    .At $6 billion, this line shouldn’t be built.