Streetcar named Fuhgeddaboudit

THE DE BLASIO administration may back off one of the mayor’s marquee transportation initiatives — a streetcar on the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront.

Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen said Tuesday key studies for the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, called the BQX, are still underway. The studies will let the city determine whether it should move forward with the 16-mile trolley from Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to Astoria, Queens. At issue is whether the streetcar can pay for itself via increased property values, one of its key selling points when Mayor de Blasio embraced the real estate-industry proposed idea in 2016.

A study from outside consultant KPMG was supposed to have already finished its analysis of how much extra property tax revenue the $2.5 billion BQX trolley can generate to cover its construction. Glen said the study should be finished soon, noting it’s an extensive “block-by-block” analysis.