By Matt Chaban 12/04/12 12:12pm

Planes Trains & Automobiles

Blue steel! (MTA)

Male Model Joe Lhota Sports an H Train Hoody to Support Rockaways Recovery

The “I Survived the Frankenstorm” shirts had already hit street corners and Etsy shops within days of the hurricane battering New York. But here’s some Sandy swag that actually goes toward a good cause. The MTA has created a limited edition line of H train memorabilia, including T-shirts, hoodies, pins and magnets, and all proceeds go to the Graybeards, a Rockaways charity that has been helping out with the superstorm recovery. And who better to model the new line than MTA chief Joe Lhota, hero of the storm. Read More

By Matt Chaban 11/03/12 2:16pm

Planes Trains & Automobiles

The damage done. (MTA/Flickr)

Broad Channel Crossing Must Be Rebuilt, Leaving Rockaways Without A-Train for Months or Longer

The Rockaways have been one of the hardest hit areas of the city following Superstorm Sandy, with lives lost, houses destroyed, crime on the streets. It has also been a remarkably resilient place, with diehard New Yorkers beginning the daunting work of rebuilding. It will be a long time before the Rockaways returns to normal, though, and it turns out that goes for subway service to the area, too.

At a press briefing Thursday night, MTA chief Joe Lhota said it would be some time before A-train service could be restored to the Rockaways due to extensive damage to the Broad Channel crossing that carries the train between Howard Beach in Brooklyn to the Rockaways.

“The amount of destruction on the A-train over Broad Channel is indescribable,” Mr. Lhota told reporters. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/04/12 11:42am

Planes Trains & Automobiles

14 Photos

In the Way

What to Do With a Derelict Queens Trestle: Advocates Square Off on High Line v. Rail Line

The High Line has been such a staggering success, it has created impersonators across the country and the world. And who can blame them, when the project has generated an estimated $2 billion in economic activity on a public investment of only $150 million.

But what if instead of building a park, a subway or light rail line ran along the Far West Side?

It is not a ludicrous idea. Light rail has proven a boon in downtown Portland and elsewhere, and with the extension of the 7 train to Hudson Yards, the line could well have hooked up with the High Line and made a whole swath of under-developed Manhattan real estate more accessible.

A glittery park has achieved just as much, but this exact same debate is taking place in Queens, Read More

By Oliver Haydock 1/22/09 5:31am

A Housing Lesson in the Rockaways

The Rockaways are doing poorly. Home sales in the spit of neighborhoods in southeastern Queens dropped 39.8 percent annually in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Prudential Douglas Elliman. That’s a steeper drop than in any other area of Queens analyzed in the report, except for northwestern Queens, Read More