Kill the Q35: Another MTA Stealth Attack? 

Dear Editor:

At the terminus of the Q35 at Beach 116th St. there is a poster fastened (badly) to a pole by two zipties. The top ziptie has torn through the paper, perhaps as a result of last weekend’s storm, freeing the top of the poster to flop down and flip over so all one can see hanging there is the blank reverse side of the paper.

Curious, I lifted the loose bottom and saw the poster was an MTA notice of impending route changes (no details), stating they care and once again are seeking community input, and so are convening neighborhood meetings for feedback. Never mind that they don’t detail feedback to what. Gotta go to the web for that info.

But I do learn one of these meetings will be in Rockaway Park on April 4 although no specific time or venue is provided. Just a website one can visit to get details. That’s it: there will be a meeting but no hint as to where or when. You’ve got to dig to find that sort of information!

The poster was not pasted inside the nearby bus shelter where posters would not be subject to weather. Nor was there a copy on any on the three Q35 buses I took that day. After all, those are places and riders could learn how to react to what’s being done.

This is one more example of the MTA “fixing what ain’t broke;” pretending to care about riders and what they think (or businesses nearby that will be affected). Announce a meeting but make it difficult for the public to find out where and when to attend, affix the paper poster outside where it will be subject to the elements and destroyed by the first wind and rain…rather than inside the shelter and inside every Q35 bus.

Then they can say afterwards, when the Q35 has been mutilated: “We tried to elicit public reaction, announced a meeting, but nobody showed up.”

The Q35 is fine the way it is. Letters to the MTA explaining the flaws in their route-change plan go unanswered and NEVER get so much as a reply.

I hope this letter will stimulate a response and I trust all our political representatives and neighborhood associations will demand that the MTA better serve Q35 riders and listen to our concerns.

Stephen Keller

(Editor’s Note: The meeting to give feedback on the Queens Bus Network Redesign plan is at the Beach 116th Subway station on Wednesday, April 3 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.)