By Sarina Trangle
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica) hailed some $137 million set aside for shoring up the subway system in southern Queens, but Rockaway ferry advocates said he left the boats’ future unmoored.
Meeks and the New York City congressional delegation announced Monday they had secured billions in funding for flood resiliency projects after applying for competitive Federal Transit Administration grants two years ago.
With U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx at his side, Meeks said the city’s elected officials won about $1.9 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority in addition to roughly $200 million for the city Department of Transportation.
The congressman said $137 million was set aside for protecting the Rockaway subway line, which was shut for seven months after Hurricane Sandy washed over its tracks in October 2012. The funding will also help protect flood prone A train stops, such as the Howard Beach and Broad Channel stations.
“It’s tremendous, as I look at it, particularly with regards to the Rockaways,” Meeks said. “We had seven months without the subway system… and that crippled all of the Rockaways because you couldn’t get across the bridge.”
Another $617 million from the federal government would fund redesigns of 10 subway yards, including those in the Rockaways and Queens, to ensure their perimeter protections, drainage system and pumping equipment meets the standards expected to last another century.
Hours after Meeks touted the funding outside the Staten Island ferry terminal in downtown Manhattan, close to 30 gathered there Monday evening to rally for the funding necessary to continue running the Rockaway ferry after Oct. 31, according to Michael O’Reilly. That a portion of the federal funding was bound for the construction of ferry boats and terminals for the Staten Island service was not lost on the protestors.
“I find it interesting that our own Congressman Meeks and Sen. Schumer have been tenacious in securing $190 million to help fund the Staten Island ferry and have been silent in helping Rockaway and Brooklyn in their ferry,” said O’Reilly, a Broad Channel resident who rides the Rockaway ferry to work in Manhattan. “I was absolutely shocked — $190 million, 1 percent of that would fund our ferry for a year, or maybe 2 percent.”
Meeks said the grants only applied to capital construction projects, not operation costs, as were needed in Rockaway.
But he said he would continue trying to convince Mayor Bill de Blasio the ferry was worth funding and explore how he may be able to secure some of the remaining Sandy-related federal capital construction money for the city, in exchange for it transferring funding to the Rockaway route. Money for the ferry did not make it into the city’s budget.
“This about 10 percent of the money that was initially promised,” Meeks said of the recent allocations. “Overall, there is 10 percent to go… I’m trying to think outside of the box.”
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
