New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is pitching a $2.5 billion, 17-mile surface streetcar to run north-south through parts of Brooklyn and Queens and parallel to the East River.
"We're now seeing explosive growth on the waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens," de Blasio said in his annual
The BQX, as he called it, "has the potential to change the lives of hundreds of New Yorkers."
Neighborhoods that parallel the East River from northern Queens to Sunset Park in Brooklyn are home to more than 400,000 people, he said, including 40,000 residents in New York City Housing Authority units; and major employment hubs including downtown Brooklyn, the Navy Yard, and the Sunset Park industrial cluster.
De Blasio said the streetcar line could generate more than $25 billion of economic activity over 30 years. He didn't elaborate about funding or any possible bond activity related to the project, which he said could open in 2024.
According to de Blasio, the city-supported extension of the No. 7 subway line is an effective blueprint. Under the administration of de Blasio's predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, the city issued $2 billion in special-purpose bonds for that project, to be repaid from revenue streams generated by real-estate development and other sources, including payments in lieu of taxes.
De Blasio is banking on development in neighborhoods such as Brooklyn's Red Hook, Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Dumbo – the latter an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass – as well as Astoria and Long Island City in Queens, all pegged for growth but now short of transit options.
Howard Cure, director of municipal bond research for Evercore Wealth Management, cited several concerns about the project, such as ongoing city expenses, cost overruns and uncertainty about the level of development. Expanded buses, he said, would be cheaper and save funds for more pressing transit needs.
"I always worry with these high-profile, glamorous projects that money would be diverted from things like track work and switch work," he said.
Cure added that since the project would operate on city streets, it may not need state approval. While de Blasio may prefer going alone given his fractious relationship with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Cure said the city could miss out on any state funding sources either directly or through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state-run agency that operates the city's subways, buses, two commuter rail lines and several bridges.
"We have had productive discussions with the private-sector leaders who have developed this idea, and we are interested in hearing more about the mayor's plan and any other proposals to improve transportation options," MTA director of external communications Adam Lisberg said Thursday night.
According to Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University, new approaches to public transit in New York are refreshing.
"This is really important from a public finance viewpoint," he said. "The No. 7 line was the first time we did this in New York. It could also work for the proposed light rail. At the waterfront, you have potential new investment – housing, hotels, light rail and other kinds of commercial and industrial development."
A key challenge, said Moss, would be winning approval from as many as seven community boards along the rights of way for the desired route.
State Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder, D-Queens, said De Blasio's proposal could "reverse the tide of isolation and neglect" in his borough, yet does little for commuters in southern Queens, notably Rockaway Peninsula. He repeated his call to reactivate the Rockaway Beach rail line, which MTA unit Long Island Rail Road closed in the 1960s.
Also Thursday night, de Blasio announced a development plan to make Governors Island – a 172-acre island in New York Harbor and 800 yards from lower Manhattan – a year-round destination featuring open spaces, a historic district and a 21st-century innovation cluster, the latter modeled after the Cornell University technology initiative at Roosevelt Island in the East River.
The city, said de Blasio, has invested more than $300 million to ready the island's 150 acres that are under its control. The New York City Economic Development Corp. would control the project.
Earlier Thursday, in a setback for de Blasio's administration the City Council shelved its scheduled vote to reduce the number of horse carriages and limit them to Central Park, a compromise the mayor had offered.
Opponents to the deal included the Teamsters, the Central Park Conservancy and several nearby community boards.
