LaGuardia Link Low Priority

[Kris]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

MTA puts brakes on LaG train

By PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, July 14th, 2003

Plans to extend the subway to LaGuardia Airport - a project pushed by the Giuliani administration - have fallen off the radar screen.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's 2000-04 capital plan set aside $645 million to design and begin building an extension of the N train or some other transit link to connect Manhattan with the airport.

Though $17 million in taxpayer money has been spent on planning, the MTA has not touched any of the $645 million - and, for now, those funds cannot be used for anything but the airport link.

"It hasn't gone away, but it's slid," MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow said of the project.

The airport link has wound up last in a long line of major projects: bringing Long Island Rail Road trains into Grand Central Terminal, extending the No.7 train to Manhattan's far West Side and building the Second Ave. subway.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, officials are working on building a major hub at Ground Zero that could extend commuter lines downtown and connect Kennedy Airport with lower Manhattan.

"That's where all of our attention is focused," Kalikow said, "those issues we think more important than LaGuardia access."

Not a priority

Elliot Sander, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University, agreed.

"LaGuardia is a good project, but you have to prioritize," Sander said. "In terms of political support from City Hall, Albany and Washington, it's moved back in the queue."

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani could not be reached for comment.

The $645 million earmarked for the LaGuardia link can't be used for any other project unless the MTA amends its capital spending plan.

Despite spending $17 million on planning, MTA and Port Authority officials are reassessing whether the LaGuardia link would be worth the money and years of construction.

Pared to 4 plans

Over the years, officials have looked at 20 possibilities for a LaGuardia connection - including running a No. 7 train extension from Shea Stadium to the airport.

By the time the $645 million was allocated in 2000, the MTA was down to four plans.

Three of the plans would extend the N line through Astoria. One would be underground, another would be elevated along 31st St. and 19th Ave. and the third calls for creation of an elevated spur along the Grand Central Parkway.

The fourth plan would create a guided busway from the Queensboro Bridge.

None of those ideas please local people and merchants, who fear noise and a loss of business.

The project "should be on the back burner and remain there," said George Delis, district manager of Queens' Community Board 1.

"We will fight this thing as hard as we can as long as we have to, and we will raise money" to file a lawsuit against the project, he added.

Improving airport access has been a longtime goal of city officials and planners. The Port Authority's AirTrain - which will link Kennedy Airport terminals with the Howard Beach subway station and subways and LIRR trains at Jamaica Station - is slated to begin service this year.

[TLOZ Link5]

It's definitely still on the table. *Does anyone think that these NIMBYs have a shot at defeating the project, though?

[Kris]

They seem like caricatures. In the last news report on this one of them said: "It'll destroy our neighborhood."

[Agglomeration]

"It'll destroy our neighborhood!"

By what? Relieving traffic on the Grand Central Parkway and all the side streets near it? Providing new jobs and better convenience for travelers and airport employees? Helping Laguardia shed its reputation for decay and congestion? I'm having a serious problem trying to comprehend these uncompromising zealots :angry: .

(Edited by Agglomeration at 9:14 pm on July 14, 2003)

[TLOZ Link5]

The way you put it, Agglom, they don't sound like NIMBYs. *You've quite accurately painted them as BANANAs. *I live on Second Avenue and my quality of life (or at least that of my parents, considering them I'm going to be living in an NYU dorm) will definitely deteriorate for some time during the subway construction. *But you know what? *None of us are complaining because this project is a necessity and in the end will improve the standard of living on the far East Side. *These people seem to have an adverse way of thinking, unfortunately.

Do the Community Boards have webpages? *You ought to send that to them, or at least as an op-ed to the Daily News as a counterpoint to their ludicrous argument.

[TLOZ Link5]

In fact, acting on a spur of activism, I just finished E-mailing an editorial to Voice of the People:

"In regards to Monday's report on the MTA's decision to put a project extending the N Line to LaGuardia Airport on hold: Hearing of Peter Kalikow's decision to delay this necessary project for the time being did not vex me as much as reading about the selfish complaints of Astoria residents who fear so-called 'noise and a loss of business.' *Their opposition, spearheaded by Queens Community Board 1 chairman George Delis—quoted as promising to "fight this thing as long as we have to"—seems less out of concern for the well-being of the city and reeks of Not-In-My-Back-Yardism.

"These self-styled community activists are less interested in new jobs and better convenience for travelers and airport workers, as well as easing congestion on the Grand Central Parkway and reversing the airport's slow decline due to its isolation from mass transit; and more concerned about the immediate setbacks as a result of the construction. *While Hong Kong, Chicago, London and Tokyo, among others, now utilize mass-transit options for airport access, New York remains one of the few major international cities that lack rail links to regional airports—and unless City Hall stops showing tolerance for community groups trying to stymie such projects, it will remain that way for the forseeable future."

If anyone else is ticked off by these meddling "community activists," then feel free to write op-ed pieces of your own.

(Edited by TLOZ Link5 at 10:10 pm on July 14, 2003)

[Agglomeration]

I've sometimes ridden my bicycle along the East Elmhurst area (that's the main neighborhood just south of LaGuardia) and all they have are houses surrounded by hotels, the tallest of which is the 11-floor Marriot. The area is actually relatively isolated except for a couple of food stands. So far I haven't heard much complaining from the people in that area. And thank God I'm not hearing any sign of Tear-Everything-Down-At-Once-ism aimed at demolishing LaGuardia Airport.

Well, the Astoria area is under construction already, with improvements being made to the roads just north of the 59th Street Bridge. The immediate area could use a lot more improvement.

(Edited by Agglomeration at 9:11 pm on July 15, 2003)

[TLOZ Link5]

One must hope these fools are merely a vocal minority, then.

[Kris]

Well done, TLOZ Link5. What's Voice of the People?

[TLOZ Link5]

Voice of the People is the op-ed section of the Daily News, where normal Joes can sound off about city issues that concern them. *Their regular and syndicated columnists (Lenore Skazy, E.R. Shipp, Stanley Crouch, Bill O'Reilly, Dave Barry, etc.) also appear around those pages.

[GowanusGuy]

I wonder if Obama's infrastructure spending plan will address the LaGuardia access problem?

[TranspoMan]

I doubt it. The infrastructure component of the economic stimulus package may amount to $90 billion, with about $9 billion going to transit, and will be distributed to other cities besides New York. Last week, the MTA said it expects to spend almost half a billion of stimulus money to complete the Fulton Street Transit Center. A while ago, the MTA decided to spend the money it had earmarked for the LaGuardia Airport link to construct a Metro-North Station at Yankee Stadium.

Providing subway access to LGA is a worthy project but in this day and age with limited federal and state funds for infrastructure maintenance and capital expansion transportation planners have to prioritize. A project like the Second Avenue Subway is going to give the most bang for the buck.