Joseph Tiraco

Frank Baxter is a retired, second generation railroad man. "My father immigrated from Canada and helped build the railroads in this area. I know every inch of track in Queens." His pen moved across a map sprawled out on the kitchen table. The long red lines he drew jotted across Western Queens, making an almost straight North-South line linking La Guardia Airport on Flushing Bay to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Jamaica Bay. Another line intersected somewhere in the middle and ran West, off the map into Manhattan. "A passenger could board the train at Pen. Station on 34th Street and ride above ground by the shortest possible route to Kennedy Airport without transfers. The right-of-way exists now and the track is mostly intact. Another impact study is not needed, you could start restoring this track as soon as tomorrow morning. Along this right-of-way are three East West links that could provide mass transit to sections of Queens now without service."

We were gathered at Paul Betancourt's house on Alderton Street. The back yard of Paul's house abuts the railroad right-of-way. A large, illegal landfill (belonging to the City of New York) is resting on Paul's back yard fence; water and sand from the landfill pour into his basement during periods of heavy rain. For the past twenty years, the city has rented the landfill for parking at tens of thousands per annum, yet, has stubbornly refused to yield a single red cent to correct the drainage problem. Paul has been in court with the city since the mid 80s and by now has spent many times more then he can ever hope to recover. His legendary persistence is a matter of principal. We were wondering why the city, after all these years, is suddenly anxious to settle with Paul?

"I think" said Frank, "that the city wants to free up the title, so the mayor can pass the right-of-way to his friends. Their traffic study is turning out very badly. The megastores aren't viable unless they can use the right-of-way as parking. They can flatten the railroad mounds and use this property to park another seven or eight hundred cars, but more importantly, the entrance will be at Yellowstone Blvd., that way, the traffic numbers can be defused by adding in one more broad avenue." (We are talking about the railroad property that abuts the back yards of all the homes on Alderton and Selfridge Streets from Metropolitan Avenue to Yellowstone Blvd.) A light went off in my head and my jaw dropped. You Know, like what happens when something rings true and all at once you discover that you've been really dumb not to have seen it coming.

Here was the reason the mayor wants to send passengers out to Kennedy Airport 'round the mulberry bush - by circuitous route out to Jamaica Ave where they have to transfer, and lug their baggage from one train onto another. Why he wants the city to lay track along the Van Wyck Expressway at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of millions, plus the human cost of Eminent Domain, and to squander years and more millions on new impact studies to lay out a new right-of-way.

Here was the reason Forest City Ratner, Home Depot and K-Mart forked over mountains of money to lobby the City Council and donated more then the legal limits for the Mayor's campaign. Because they are willing to trade mounds of money for the railroad mounds that constitute the legitimate right-of-way linking Manhattan and Kennedy Airport. Why the mayor, who never tires of comparing us with suburbia, insists we need suburban type megamalls, but fails to mention that suburban New Jersey has already completed a mass transit link to Newark Airport. To hell with us! To hell with an entire city! So what if you've got to hump your baggage and spend an extra hour to get out to the airport (and get ticket shock when you see the price.) And, you lose a quick and cheap way to get into Manhattan in the morning and home again at night. Can't let the peons get in the way of a billion dollar megamall. Especially when the developer's money sates so many political appetites. We wouldn't want hungry politicians, would we?

And what would you call a man who fattens his own purse at the expense of the city he's sworn to serve - a man who would hand cuff and gag New York's communities so they can't defend themselves, and their cries are muffled as his friends rape them - a cold hearted son-of-a (beep) who would trample under foot the people's rights and seize vital public property in order to feather his own nest; all to the lasting detriment of the city he falsely professes to love?

I would call such a man a (beep . .beep ..beep) . . . .

September 14, 1996