Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to announce ambitious plans for a 16-mile, $2.2 billion streetcar route to connect some of the city's up and coming, but still transit-light, neighborhoods.
"In a major reimagining of the New York City waterfront, Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to propose a streetcar line that would snake along the East River in Brooklyn and Queens, linking the industrial centers of Sunset Park to the upper reaches of Astoria," reports Michael M. Grynbaum.
Mayor de Blasio's streetcar plan calls for a 16-mile rail line, "that runs on rails embedded in public roadways and flows alongside automobile traffic," according to Grynbaum.
The expected cost of the system is $2.2 billion, and "[a]dministration officials believe the cost can be offset by a revenue stream taken from the expected rise in property values along the route." As Grynbaum notes, the neighborhoods along the route, like Greenpoint and Brooklyn Navy Yard, have already undergone rapid development.
The article also credits the proposal to the "long-held fantasy of the city's urban planners…" The proposed map for the so-called Brooklyn Queens Connector can be seen below.
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