Blaz trolley is folly: experts
MAYOR DE BLASIO may have earned his agenda-driving nonprofit $245,000 in real estate money before he ever embraced the BQX streetcar — but the team tasked with trying to make his signature transit project happen suggests he won’t be able to deliver.
A February memo to Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, obtained by the Daily News, laid out a brutal seven-page assessment of the construction and financial challenges facing de Blasio’s $2.5 billion trolley, even deflating his main sales pitch — that it will pay for itself.
“We think that kicks the legs out from under the whole premise,” said Jon Orcutt, director of advocacy at Transit Center and a former city Department of Transportation senior official. “If these doubts bear out, the mayor should give us all a break and cancel the project.”
The streetcar’s problems begin below the asphalt — where a maze of water mains, sewer lines and power infrastructure is buried beneath the 16-mile route from Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to Astoria, Queens. Digging up and moving utility lines “continues to be the biggest single cost factor,” according to the memo. City officials did not answer questions about the identitites of the “BQX project team” members who authored the memo.
The News reported in December that the BQX was de Blasio’s “Money Train.” Seven real estate developers with projects along the planned route cut checks totaling $245,000 to the Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit boosting de Blasio’s agenda. The contributors were big names in New York real estate; Two Trees’ Jed Walentas, Toll Brothers and Alma Realty were among the builders who kicked in checks.
The memo says the city’s method of self-funding the $2.5 billion BQX — banking on increased tax revenues from higher real estate values — may not provide “sufficient revenue to fund the entire project as originally stated.” If de Blasio needs to bail on the BQX, the memo advises a “go slow” approach that gives the city time to find another transit fit for the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront. But as the city mulls its options, the price tag would increase up to $100 million every year the BQX is delayed beyond its planned 2024 launch. If de Blasio wants to move ahead with the project, the report says the city must put up $58.5 million and make “large efforts to align city departments.” De Blasio spokeswoman Melissa Grace defended the BQX’s benefits and said the city is moving forward with the mayor’s trolley.