Following a standing-room-only public workshop for the Queens Bus Redesign meeting in Ridgewood on Jan. 21, Councilman Robert Holden announced that he would be hosting an upcoming public meeting on the proposed bus system from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 at P.S. 49, 63-60 80th St., Middle Village.
Community Board 5 will also hold a meeting of its Transit Committee that is open to the public and will focus on the redesign, scheduled for Feb. 25 at the Christ the King High School, but it has not set a time yet.
CB5 Chair Vincent Arcuri said that he was pleased with the large turnout at the meeting last Tuesday, and he hopes to continue to facilitate a dialogue with the MTA over the proposed bus changes with the February meetings.
“Almost every line in Community Board 5 has a problem. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” Arcuri said.
Arcuri’s goal at last week’s meeting was to explain where the redesign had disrupted connections between lines. Arcuri said he wanted to get the MTA to identify several destinations like the borough’s civil and criminal courts, shopping centers and hospitals that members of his district would need a direct route to.
At the board’s last meeting Jan. 9, many of its members commented that they were especially concerned about the service in the Maspeth, Glendale and Middle Village area, which doesn’t have many transit options to begin with.
The members expressed concerns that demographics like seniors, people with disabilities and students rely heavily on the bus system would be unfairly impacted.
MTA personnel will be present at the Feb. 12 meeting at P.S. 49. They have yet to confirm with CB5 whether or not they will attend the Transit Committee meeting.
