June 14, 2020 By Christian Murray
Former Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, who represented the 30th district in western Queens from 2009-2017, is running to be the next Queens Borough President.
We spoke to Crowley last week. The focus of the discussion dealt with police reform, COVID-19, community boards and jobs.
Crowley is one of several candidates in the race. The other candidates are Costa Constantinides, Anthony Miranda, Donovan Richards and Dao Yin.
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Some people don’t want to face fiscal reality. It has been over two years since the final report was released in December 2017 regarding the reintroduction of transit service on the old Long Island Rail road Lower Montauk branch. This line ran from Jamaica to Long Island City with intermediate stops at Richmond Hill, Glendale, Fresh Pond, Haberman and Penny Bridge until 1998. Only former NYC Council member and Queens Borough President wanna-be Elizabeth Crowley refuses to acknowledge that the cost for introduction of light rail on that corridor was the last stop for this project. The study results indicated that the anticipated cost grew by 2100% from $100 million to $2.2 billion! Support from public officials, transit agencies, transit advocates, commuters and taxpayers subsequently disappeared. Neither City Hall, Albany or the MTA has offered any support or financial assistance to advance this project. Ditto for former Queens Borough President Melinda Katz along with any member of the NYC Council, State Assembly, State Senate, Congress and United States Senate. For Crowley to promise that the line would “be completed quickly” and “Albany would approve the project” along with coming up with $2.2 billion is wishful thinking. One wonders if Crowley continues to make promises which will never be fulfilled in our life time, what kind of Borough President she would make. Voters looking for realistic transportation improvements need to consider looking elsewhere for a better advocate as the next Queens Borough President.
(Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked 31 years for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for the MTA, NYC Transit, Long Island and Metro North Rail Roads, MTA Bus, NYC Department of Transportation along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ)..
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