Support remains for abandoned QueensLink proposal, poll finds
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State Senator Joseph Addabbo recently asked constituents if they support the QueensLink or the QueensWay – competing proposals for an abandoned elevated rail that runs from Central Queens to the Rockaway peninsula. Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
An overwhelming number of Central Queens residents support a transportation initiative that has been all but cast aside by the Adams administration, according to a new poll from a local elected official.
The survey, run by State Senator Joseph Addabbo, polled a little over 500 of his Central Queens constituents and asked which project pitched to be built along an abandoned stretch of rail they supported more – the QueensLink, a transportation project, or the QueensWay, a park project the mayor said the city would pursue in 2022.
But a majority of respondents to Addabbo’s poll feel the mayor made the wrong choice, and said that instead, they’d like to see the QueensLink put into motion.
In total, three-quarters of his polled constituents preferred QueensLink to the QueensWay.
The proposed QueensLink would reactivate six miles of right-of-way rail from Central Queens, through Forest Park and end on the Rockaway peninsula. Its supporters say the new transit line would drastically expedite commute times for South and Central Queens residents. But while the project has support from nearby residents, a number of elected officials and transit advocates, it’s missing support from several key stakeholders – primarily, the mayor and the MTA, which said last year that it wouldn’t likely pursue the project given its cost.
While supporters of the QueensLink and QueensWay battled it out over the past several years, Adams decided during his first year in office that the city would pursue the QueensWay, a proposed linear park similar to the Highline in Manhattan.
Despite the Adams’ administration’s commitment to the park project, advocates for the QueensLink have remained steadfast in their support for the transit project, and say that Addabbo’s poll proves that hope for the project remains.
Addabbo said he sent out the poll to constituents via email toward the end of this year’s legislative session as a way to gauge voters’ opinions on a number of proposals.
“My team and I, we were thinking about, how do we get their opinion on a quick, larger scale for some issues,” Addabbo told the Eagle.
In addition to the question regarding the QueensLink and QueensWay, respondents were also asked about a bill that would allow for physician assisted suicide, another that would expand internet gambling and one that would legalize prostitution.
No other question saw a larger split than the one about the competing projects.
In all, 75 percent of respondents said they would pick the QueensLink, while 22 percent selected the park plan. Three percent said they didn’t want anything at all, an option which was added later, Addabbo said.
Around 85 percent of respondents from South Richmond Hill, a community that currently lacks quick train trips to Manhattan, said they would support a new rail, the largest margin of support seen in the poll.
Other neighborhoods like Ozone Park and Howard Beach also registered 80 percent support for QueensLink.
At its lowest, QueensLink still received a full 65 percent support from respondents in Richmond Hill.
QueensLink’s longtime Executive Director Rick Horan said that he wasn’t at all surprised by the results.
“I think this is probably the rule, rather than the exception,” said Horan. “I think it probably is representative of the people in the district.”
According to Horan, the main difference between the projects is that the QueensLink could include both an elevated rail and a park at street level, while the QueensWay could only support a park. The Adams administration has pushed back against that assertion, and claimed that it could later activate the rail line but has given few to no details about how it would go about doing that.
Horan said that the high level of support from Addabbo’s constituents likely indicate even higher support for those who live near the abandoned rail but outside of the senator’s district.
“The people on the right-of way itself, which is essentially Senator Addabbo’s district, you would think that they have a lot to gain, but they also will shoulder most of the pain if there is inconveniences relative to construction or after the line is built, if there are any concerns about noise,” he said. “I think that this would be the toughest audience for a QueensLink opinion poll.”
With that in mind, the advocate believes that the poll is just more proof that people in Queens want the QueensLink to go forward.
However, Addabbo – the chair of the Senate’s Gaming and Wagering Committee – isn’t putting all his chips down on his own poll, which he called “unscientific.”
“If we believe every poll, Hillary Clinton would be our president,” he said. “The bottom line is, polls are polls, and they are a certain benchmark, they are a tool, but just part of the arsenal we use when making a determination or a decision on an issue.”
As for his own thoughts, Addabbo said he is staying neutral on the QueensLink, QueensWay debate.
“I have constituents on all three – QueensWay, QueensLink, neither,” he said.
However, last year Addabbo signed onto a letter calling for the MTA to conduct an environmental impact study on the feasibility of the project.
“There's a compromise you could probably do with both the QueensWay and the QueensLink,” he said. “Not all of each plan, but a part of each. We can get green space, and you can get to open up the rail.”
Doing both may be difficult, however. The city has moved full steam ahead on the park project, having conducted public input sessions earlier this year and having secured a $117 million injection of federal money for the QueensWay.
City Hall declined to comment on Addabbo’s poll on Thursday and directed the Eagle to the MTA.
But Horan said that despite City Hall’s position, he hopes Addabbo’s poll brings new life to the cast-aside proposal.
“I certainly hope that this keeps the conversation not only going, but elevates it to, ‘What's the next step to making this a reality?’” Horan said.
