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February 20, 2007
Will Atlantic Yards Preclude the One Seat Ride to JFK?
A MUST-READ FOR YOU PLANNING AND TRANSPO GEEKS OUT THERE (AND CITY EMPLOYEES TOO!)
Brooklyn Views wonders if the current plans for Atlantic Yards might preclude an AirTrain link from Lower Manhattan to JFK (one of the region's top priorities for transportation infrastructure):
While no one seems to know exactly how to find the holy grail of Lower Manhattan development - the one seat ride to JFK airport (or, as some say, the commuter rail link from Long Island to Lower Manhattan) – there is no shortage of ideas.
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We have no reason to believe that the current plan for Atlantic Yards is making any provision for the rail link. The MTA’s belated Request for Proposals for the disposition of Vanderbilt Yard indicated that the only operational issues that need to be considered are to provide additional storage; it made no mention of accommodating a possible future rail link. And in the Memorandum of Understanding between Forest City Ratner and the MTA, the required ongoing operational functions of Vanderbilt Yard are listed, but there is no mention of intent to provide for a future rail link. The only mention of the rail link in the EIS came in responses to questions, which basically state that the link was not studied since it will have its own EIS (Responses 29, 13-42).
While the Mayor is hotly pursuing his NYC2030 campaign and the resurrection of Robert Moses is on everyone's lips, Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan gets the right of way. Learning from Brooklyn Views and Robert Moses:
And here’s the thing: If the purpose and need of the Atlantic Yards project is that it will be so great for the region, so great that we should ignore the local neighborhood whining about density and such, why is there no transportation plan associated with it? While we’re rediscovering Robert Moses, let’s recognize what it was about big plans that helped the development of the region: Robert Moses realized that transportation was key. He opposed creating a venue event that would stop-up the flow of traffic in this area.
Posted by lumi at February 20, 2007 6:48 AM