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Why It's So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens

m.theatlanticcities.com

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Re: Why It's So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens

#111

Post by gpvos »

hristov wrote: post #34
paulgb wrote: post #15

There's an interesting follow-up article which attempts to debunk the "Great American Streetcar Scandal" http://m.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/06/be-careful-ho...

I do not buy that all. They say that streetcars were on their way out anyway because buses were more efficient. There is a significant hole in this reasoning because: (a) GM is not in the business of owning street car lines; (b) GM spent considerable money to buy out the street car lines, nevertheless. If the street car lines were on their way out anyways why did GM spend so much money on something very much out of t…

I haven't read that article yet, but in Western Europe (at least the Netherlands), streetcars (and regional trams and trains) were in decline in the same period, although the larger cities kept them. But you may be right that it was actually implicit subsidies that made the difference.

Re: Why It's So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens

#112

Post by jrockway »

bradleyjg wrote: post #110
rohansingh wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. If I recall correctly, three such reports within two years results in the taxi medallion being revoked.

Not the medallion which is generally not owned by the driver and worth mid six to low seven figures, but the driver's hack license is endangered by multiple violation of TLC's rules.

The guy who maimed that tourist is back on the road, so if you don't lose your license by running over someone on the sidewalk, you're not going to lose your license by not taking someone to Brooklyn.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2013/10/02/with-no-charges-from-c...

Re: Why It's So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens

#113

Post by mbubb »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #64
mbubb wrote: post #25

Heh - I used to live in Greenpoint and would reverse commute up to Queens Plaza to avoid the "G to the L to the BDFQ" into midtown... On the contrary, Hoboken - where I now live - has a wealth of options to commute into both midtown and downtown NYC. Within a few blocks of my apartment: a subway trip of less than 20 mins to either Wall Street or 32nd (Midtown); ferry (a very pleasant 40 min trip to my office in the 4…

> I used to live in Greenpoint and would reverse commute up to Queens Plaza to avoid the "G to the L to the BDFQ" into midtown... I used to live in Greenpoint too! I lived close to the Bedford Ave station. From there, it only took 10 minutes (5 stops on the L) to get to the 14 St station. I guess you lived closer to the Greenpoint Ave station?

Yup, Kent Street about a block from the water. I was there 1991-1993. And I was misremembering the subway routine - it was to go up to Queens Plaza to hit the N/R back to Manhattan.

Re: Why It's So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens

#115

Post by fennecfoxen »

jessaustin wrote: post #106
fennecfoxen wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Build it? With whose money? The city's finances have been a disaster since 2008 and they've only been scraping by with a series of unsustainable tricks. The next mayor will almost certainly be Bill de Blasio, whose top agenda item is basically to spending a lot more money on the city's unionized labor. (His next agenda item is to revive rent control, because the War Emergency Tenant Protection Act apparently hasn't d…

...spending a lot more money on the city's unionized labor. I must be misunderstanding something. Aren't big public works projects a pretty reliable method for achieving this goal?

Spending more per unit of labor achieves very, very little (well, except in campaign contributions from the labor union).

Re: Why It's So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens

#116

Post by samspenc »

T-hawk wrote: post #31
mbubb wrote: post #25

Heh - I used to live in Greenpoint and would reverse commute up to Queens Plaza to avoid the "G to the L to the BDFQ" into midtown... On the contrary, Hoboken - where I now live - has a wealth of options to commute into both midtown and downtown NYC. Within a few blocks of my apartment: a subway trip of less than 20 mins to either Wall Street or 32nd (Midtown); ferry (a very pleasant 40 min trip to my office in the 4…

Same here, I live on the Jersey City waterfront and love the ferry commute. Hoboken and Jersey City are excellent places to live for a Manhattan job. We get to take advantage of the market inefficiency created by the "eww Jersey" popular image. Bonus, we dodge the NYC income tax which runs over 3% of income.

I live in the NJ Path area as well (JC/Hoboken) ... but I personally do NOT think that this area is inexpensive ... definitely less expensive than Manhattan, and less taxes ... but you can find some awesome apartments in Queens/Brooklyn that would cost a fortune in JC/Hoboken.

Re: Why It's So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens

#117

Post by jessaustin »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #115
jessaustin wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...spending a lot more money on the city's unionized labor. I must be misunderstanding something. Aren't big public works projects a pretty reliable method for achieving this goal?

Spending more per unit of labor achieves very, very little (well, except in campaign contributions from the labor union).

Realistically, when building a public works project in the Northeast USA, one must hire union labor. I guess I'm not understanding which you personally care about more, improving public transit or balancing public budgets. My point was just that a mayor who likes unions will likely support public transit projects, which is kind of what betterunix was talking about.

Re: Why It's So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens

#118

Post by tanzam75 »

monkeyspaw wrote: post #75
sethbannon wrote: post #52

There is a delightful movie called Who Framed Roger Rabbit in which the villain is attempting just this: buying trolley lines to build "highways, as far as the eye can see". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096438/

I second the recommendation for anyone who hasn't seen this movie. It was marketed as a kids movie, but has a lot of stuff in it that adults can appreciate. It was also one of the first movies to combine significant CGI with real-world interaction.

> It was also one of the first movies to combine significant CGI with real-world interaction.

The was no CGI in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It was all traditional animation, hand-drawn on celluloid sheets.

It wouldn't be until Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park that CGI really broke through as a technique that could be used in conjunction with live-action.

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