REMARKS
Council Member Ariola advocates for QueensLink and environmental impact study
2:04:50
·
151 sec
Council Member Joann Ariola presents Resolution 59, advocating for the QueensLink project to address transportation issues in Queens. She emphasizes the need for an environmental impact study and criticizes the MTA's resistance to the project.
- Highlights Queens as a transit desert with inadequate public transportation
- Argues that QueensLink would solve current transportation challenges
- Criticizes MTA's focus on congestion pricing instead of potential riders in Queens
Joann Ariola
2:04:50
Thank you, chair.
2:04:52
I'd like to switch gears a little bit to RESO 59, which chair and majority leader, Silvina Brooks Powers, council member Bob Holden, and myself are putting forth.
2:05:01
It's well known that I have supported the Queen's Link since before I was in office and since.
2:05:08
We have been seeing the daily struggle of our communities and what they face when it comes to transportation.
2:05:18
Southern Queens is a transit desert.
2:05:21
I know that you hear that term a lot, but southern Queens and eastern Queens is a transit desert.
2:05:27
With few train lines and inadequate bus service, it is well past the time that residents of our borough receive the fast and reliable public transportation they deserve, sometimes which can easily be achieved if the Queen's link becomes a reality.
2:05:44
That's why we have been pushing for an environmental impact study to determine how this rail line would serve the communities along its route.
2:05:52
This is a key step to get the wheels turning, but we've hit quite a bit of resistance time and time again from the MTA.
2:06:01
It seems that the MTA is much more focused on
Althea Stevens
2:06:03
making life more difficult for people from my borough
Joann Ariola
2:06:04
through congestion pricing than it is millions of potential riders.
2:06:16
Without having a reliable train line like the Queen's link to get into the city, our residents are likely to use their cars forced to use their cars in order to get from one place to another.
2:06:30
And thus, they would be made to pay an unfair congestion pricing tax.
2:06:37
At the end of the day, we have to understand that we need real solutions.
2:06:43
Right now, we're having a much needed, reconstruction of, some tracks along the a train line, that will connect the the the city with with the the peninsula.
2:06:56
And council member Brooks Powers and myself are working with the MTA to try and shuffle people around, shuttle people around, get an extra bus, get a reduced rate on the l I double r.
2:07:08
That wouldn't even have to be a discussion if we had the Queen's link.
2:07:12
The Queen's link
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
2:07:13
is the answer.
2:07:14
We can wrap
Joann Ariola
2:07:14
it up.
2:07:15
That is why it's important that you really pay attention now and do what we need to have done for our residents.
2:07:21
Thank you for the time.
