BQX Prototype Unveiling Print Clips Highlights

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1 BQX Prototype Unveiling Print Clips Highlights November 13, 2017

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4 Peek Inside a Life-Size Model of the Brooklyn-Queens Waterfront The plan for a streetcar connecting neighborhoods along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront has been in the works for some time, and now, the proposal s main backer the nonprofit Friends of the Brooklyn-Queens Connector has unveiled a prototype of what the streetcar might look like. Photos courtesy Friends of the BQX At a press conference today at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Friends of the BQX showed off a life-size model of two BQX cars, which measures 46 feet long and close to nine feet wide. The $100,000 prototype was created by Alstom, a French firm that has previously been contracted for streetcar programs for Miami Beach and Toronto, among other cities. The cars themselves are open gangway a design that has yet to be rolled out throughout the New York City subway and will have 23 seats, along with plenty of handrails. There are also a few leaning bars, similar to the ones found in the MTA s recently revamped subway stations in

5 south Brooklyn. Route maps didn t offer specifics on station locations, but rather noted the neighborhoods the route would serve from Astoria down to Sunset Park. The choice of the Brooklyn Navy Yard for Monday s presser was no accident; as the complex begins to welcome workers its enormous manufacturing hub at Building 77 just opened to the public last week stakeholders are pushing the BQX as a transit option for those commuting to the Navy Yard. (It s currently served by several bus routes, but is a solid mile from the nearest subway.) It s no secret that the BQX has been facing some problems; there are questions about the project s funding (which relies, in part, on a value capture model tied to rising property taxes which itself has prompted questions about who the streetcar is actually being created for), as well as how the city will acquire all the land necessary to construct the whole 16-mile streetcar. But the Friends of the BQX is hoping that the prototype will shore up support for the project. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is one stakeholder who s throwing his weight behind the project; in a statement, he said that the growth of our emerging job hubs is stifled by the severe lack of transit connecting them with our workforce. To be sure, there are key details that need resolution before this project can advance. I am confident that the City can work productively in a community-led process on issues such as route design, financing structure, and MTA fare integration.

6 Advocates Unveil What BQX Light Rail Could Look Like The reveal aims to drive support for the BQX streetcar that would run 14 miles from Astoria to Sunset Park on the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront. Advocates hoping the proposed Brooklyn-Queens Connector, or BQX, becomes a reality along the Brooklyn- Queens waterfront unveiled the first glimpse at what it might look like on Monday. The nonprofit Friends of the Brooklyn-Queens Connector revealed a life-size prototype of the streetcar at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which is expected to add 10,000 new jobs over the next three years, to urge newly re-elected Mayor Bill de Blasio to make the light rail project a priority in his second term. The Friends of the BQX said the project would connect 400,000 residents and 300,000 workers in subway deserts along the 14-mile stretch of the waterfront from Sunset Park to Astoria.

7 Today we re providing New Yorkers with their first real taste of what the BQX would look and feel like and calling on the city to bring light rail service to areas long underserved by reliable mass transit, Executive Director Ya-Ting Liu said in a statement. Today we can start to imagine what s possible, and now it s time for the city to make this a reality. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said that the area is stifled by the severe lack of transit that connect the neighborhoods to the workforce, which could expand should the city be selected as the location for Amazon s second North American headquarters, commonly known as HQ2. With the city's recent Amazon HQ2 bids focusing on the Brooklyn Tech Triangle and Long Island City, the BQX can be a vital connector for workers heading to those potential tech hubs, said Nick Sifuentes, executive director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign. A potential massive influx of new highpaying jobs will require rethinking transit in these areas, and the BQX can be part of that solution.

8 The large-scale transit project, which de Blasio announced in February 2016, would cost $2.5 billion and be developed and run independently of the beleaguered MTA, though it would offer a familiar ride, according to the prototype. The 46-foot-long, 8.7-feet-wide BQX model revealed Monday consisted of two articulated cars, including one for the driver, that are similar to Select Bus Service buses to allow for additional straphangers. The streetcar offers 23 seats, leaning bars and handrails as well as street-level boarding for riders with mobility issues. The $100,000 prototype was created by Alstom, a French firm that has factories in New York state and has developed light-rail options for cities like Toronto. Since its proposal last year, the BQX has faced questions about its funding, which is said to be connected to property taxes, and the acquisition of waterfront land. The BQX is currently undergoing a feasibility study to answer these questions as well as establish its routes, but an extensive approval process is still ahead. Construction is slated to begin in 2014, with the BQX officially opening for business in 2024.

9 This Is What the BQX Streetcar Might Look Like Advocates of the proposed 14-mile Brooklyn Queens Connector unveil a life-size prototype to build support STEPHEN KOEPP November 13, 2017 A couple of the most crowded train cars in Brooklyn this morning, at least for a few minutes, were two that had no wheels on them. Yet the passengers were pleased anyway, since the vehicle they boarded was a life-size prototype of the proposed BQX streetcar, on view for the first time. Advocates of the streetcar, Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, unveiled the mockup at the New Lab technology space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a likely site for stops along the proposed 14-mile route from Sunset Park to Astoria, Queens. The 46-foot-long, 8.7-foot-wide

10 prototype featured several modern touches, including roomy gangways and street-level boarding to help the mobility-challenged. Business leaders, politicians and citizen advocates squeezed into the space to see the futuristic-looking prototype and voice their support. I come from a community where you have to walk ten blocks to reach the nearest subway. We are effectively cut off, said Claudia Coger, the resident-association president at the Astoria Houses, part of the city s Housing Authority. Our residents have to struggle to reach the opportunities available to so many others, she told the crowd. Queens Borough President Melinda Katz described Queens as a transit desert. Two thirds of our borough is not covered by subway. Katz endorsed the BQX as part of an expanded transit system with many modes, including subways, ferries and bike lanes. Right now the most important thing is to make sure we can move New Yorkers from borough to borough to borough. Several speakers pointed to the rapid redevelopment of the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront as the major rationale for building the proposed $2.5 billion system, connecting work centers including Industry City, the Navy Yard, Williamsburg and Long Island City. When the city recently pitched sites for Amazon s proposed second headquarters, two of the four suggested sites were Long Island City and the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, which includes Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo and the Navy Yard. The tech sector is moving in, but struggles with transportation, said Manhattan-based venture capitalist Fred Wilson, who chairs Tech:NYC, a nonprofit that advocates for the city s tech industry.

11 Backers of the light-rail project estimate that it would serve more than 400,000 residents along the route, as well as 300,000 workers in the corridor. While Brooklyn and Queens have multiple subways running along east-west routes, New Yorkers heading north or south along the rapidly developing waterfront corridor have few options, notably the suddenly vital G train. If you think about it, our subway system was built 100 years ago, when Manhattan was the center of the universe, said Ya-Ting Liu, executive director of Friends of the BQX. We are so confident that this mode of transportation is really going to be a game-changer. Since February 2016, when Mayor de Blasio announced the BQX proposal from the transitstarved neighborhood of Red Hook, a host of supporters have climbed aboard, including major employers, politicians, environmental advocates, and the Transit Workers Union. Who, then, is against it, or at least asking tough questions? The critics include residents who worry about the streetcar s right-of-way taking up traffic lanes and parking spaces, people who think the money would be better spent on initiatives like expanded bus routes in Queens, and others who feel that it will hasten the gentrification of working-class and low-income neighborhoods like Sunset Park. (One group even made an 18-minute video expressing its objections.) At today s event, Borough President Eric Adams said, I fully support this project, but acknowledged the debate and emphasized that the BQX will need a lot of community involvement to shape it and keep it moving. People are raising questions about different aspects. These are great questions, Adams said. Paraphrasing Brooklyn native Jay-Z, he added, We have 99 problems and 101 solutions from people telling you how. While the viability and technology of light rail has been amply demonstrated in such U.S. cities as Minneapolis-St. Paul and Portland, Ore., installing a 14-mile system in a city as old and

12 complex as New York raises major logistical challenges: routes, utility lines in the way, and financing methods. All are being explored in a feasibility study commissioned by the city. In April, a leaked memo prepared by the mayor s BQX project team noted that a potential concern is the financing method not providing sufficient revenue to fund the entire project as originally stated. However, de Blasio said in an interview later the same month, We believe this is a vision that can work and can work on time. Indeed, persuading the mayor to fully commit his political capital to the project during his second term was evidently one of the goals of bringing the streetcar prototype to Brooklyn. Said Ya-Ting Liu: We call on the city of New York and the mayor to take action and move this program forward. The project should appeal to the mayor s oft-stated goal of creating 100,000 good jobs over the coming decade. Advocates of the streetcar noted that the Navy Yard alone is projected to add 10,000 new jobs in the next three years, thanks to expansion at the 300-acre site. The project could conceivably bring jobs to New York State as well. The prototype was build by Alstom, a French company that has a major train-manufacturing plant in upstate Hornell, N.Y., that is producing the next generation of high-speed trains for Amtrak.

13 Prototype unveiled of BQX streetcar that could link Brooklyn to Astoria Some residents from western Queens get a close-up look at the first prototype of of a BQX streetcar and they like what they saw. By Bill Parry The Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector unveiled the inaugural BQX streetcar for a crowd that included Queens Borough president Melinda Katz, NYCHA leaders and representatives of the waterfront business community Monday at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The 46-foot-long Citadis 405, constructed in and shipped from Nice, France, gave the audience a glimpse of the future if the light rail system is approved to run along a 14-mile stretch of the East River from Astoria to Sunset Park. Today we re providing New Yorkers with their first real taste of what the BQX would look and feel like, and calling on the city to bring light rail service to areas long underserved by reliable mass transit, Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector Executive Director Ya-Ting Liu said. It s clear: Now is the moment to move forward with this transformative project to connect hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, including over 40,000 public housing residents, to jobs,

14 education, healthcare and recreation along the route. Today we can start to imagine what s possible, and now is the time for the city to make this a reality. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the ambitious $2.5 billion project that is still in its planning stages. If it survives a length public approval process, construction could begin in 2019 with service scheduled to start in I think there are a lot of questions still moving forward on the routes and where they would be located and its effects on parking spots, Katz said. While Queens is expanding and building so much and folks are coming from all over the world to settle down in the borough, it s good that we re having a further discussion on how we are going to transport people from one area to the next. Katz said the public approval process had an unofficial start at Monday s unveiling with many community leaders and tenants associations from western Queens in attendance. The Astoria Houses have long been forgotten by the city when it comes to transportation and only recently, thanks to new ferry service, is this beginning to change, Astoria Houses Tenants Association President Claudia Coger said. But our residents need more reliable options. This is an issue of economic justice and it is why we have been so adamant about the need for the BQX. Mayor de Blasio should move this project forward now, to provide relief to the thousands of working families in the Astoria Houses, and the many more along this increasingly important corridor. The event was held at the Brooklyn Navy Yards, which is set to add 10,000 jobs over the next three years. Yet it is hard to reach by subway, especially from Astoria. At my inauguration nearly four years ago, I laid out a vision for a new transportation link for Brooklyn s waterfront, a line to connect historically underserved transit deserts and unlock the full potential of our neighborhoods; that vision is captured by the BQX proposal, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said. The growth of our emerging job hubs is stifled by the severe lack of transit connecting them with our workforce. To be sure, there are key details that need resolution before this project can advance. I am confident that the city can work productively in a community-led process on issues such as route design, financing structure, and

15 MTA fare integration. The BQX is a bold idea, and New York City lives and breathes on bold ideas. Long after the event was over, the 81-year-old Coger was still looking at the streetcar prototype, smiling broadly, thinking how it would connect residents of the Astoria Houses, which sits isolated on a derelict peninsula jutting out over Hallets Cove. It s awesome and it s beyond my most vivid imagination, she said. Really, I m glad I can actually stand here and actually see it because I know it would make such a difference in Astoria, especially on the peninsula.

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