A Streetcar That’s Desired, As Brooklyn Queens Connector Is Proposed

In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois tells Mitch, “I’ll tell you what I want. Magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people.”

While this is Brooklyn, and not New Orleans, this borough could use some transportation magic. The G line is not well-versed in allowing commuters to mysteriously appear in front of their doorsteps with the wave of a wand.

The Daily News reports that a nonprofit called the Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector have commissioned a study which proposes a streetcar route that would stretch for 17 miles between Sunset Park and Astoria.

The proposal maps the streetcar route running along the waterfront, and connecting Sunset Park’s burgeoning economic hub with northern Brooklyn and Queens. The line would “jog” over to the Barclays Center area to connect to the major Atlantic Avenue transportation hub.

Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector is made up of some heavyweight names, including Helena Durst of the Durst Organization real estate firm, Doug Steiner of Steiner Studios (located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard), and Fred Wilson of the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures. Gothamist reports that it is not clear whether the Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector is the same group that commissioned the study. A search for the committee does not yield an official website.

Jill Eisenhard is the director of the Red Hook Initiative community group who is also a member of the Friends committee. She tells the Daily News that “too much of the city is underserved by our transit system, and we need to be looking at ideas like this to create a 21st century network.”

These streetcars wouldn’t resemble those of the New Orleans “Desire line” from the early 19th century. The cars would be sleek — with a price tag that shows it. Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector have tagged the development price at $1.7 billion, which does not include the estimated $26 million a year it would take to keep the route running. However, the study estimates $3.7 billion in tax revenue could come with the line.

Based on the commissioned report, ground would not break on the project until 2019.

So far, the de Blasio administration is taking the idea under consideration. Wiley Norvell, spokesman for de Blasio tells the Daily News “we’re always open to new ideas that can help build the 21st century transportation system New Yorkers deserve.”