Earlier this year the Mayor proposed a streetcar line linking the Brooklyn and Queens waterfronts, now New Yorkers are getting the chance to weigh in on the multi-billion-dollar plan. Ruschell Boone has the story.
It was a packed house inside the boys and girls club on 30th Road in Astoria, where dozens of people came looking for answers about the proposed Brooklyn-Queens Connector — also called the BQX.
It was the first public meeting held by the city's economic development corporation to talk about the Mayor's proposed $2.5 billion streetcar line — and there were many concerns.
"First of all, it sounds like an awful lot of money that's being spent that's only going to carry 45,000 riders a day," said one man who attended the meeting. "I'm worried about what construction is going to do."
"I'm curious about the route, the cost, who it's going to benefit," said a woman who attended the meeting.
The BQX would run along 16 miles of the waterfront between Sunset Park Brooklyn to Astoria Queens, at an estimated cost of $30 million a year. At the meeting, EDC representatives tried to address those issues
While encouraging community input from where to put the street car, what it should look like and where the 20 estimated stops should be.
"As we move forward with planning process we will be making sure that we are understanding the needs and concerns of different residents," said President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation Maria Torres-Springer.
Some residents embrace the idea.
"The MTA can be a pain sometimes," said resident Andre Stithe. "Trains are hard. Buses are hard. You know it gives you a new faster way of moving around and for me it will be good.
"I'm potentially excited," said Queens Councilman Costa Constantinides. "This is an opportunity to build out a network for families to get to new jobs to get to a burgeoning tech center that's growing every day."
The city is hoping to break ground on the project in 2019 and have it up and running by 2024.