Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s $2 billion LaGuardia Airport Air Train project as a wrong-way boondoggle that would encourage travelers to use cars instead of transit.
“It is billions and billions and billions of dollars on an infrastructure project that doesn’t make logistical sense,” Ocasio-Cortez said during a virtual town hall meeting Friday night.
The Air Train will cut through East Elmhurst, which is part of Ocasio-Cortez’s district.
AOC mocked the proposal, which goes past Citi Field to connect to the subway instead of heading directly toward Manhattan.
She actually demonstrated the proposed circuitous route with her hands, pointing to Manhattan in front of her and then turning her arm and head behind her to show where the Air Train was going, deeper into Queens.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made her frustrations clear about Cuomo’s LaGuardia project affecting her neighborhood in a video on April 23, 2021. AP“While I am a huge advocate of rail, I could not disagree more with the current Air Train project,” she said in response to constituents’ questions.
“The ultimate goal of any successful Air Train project is to help to be less reliant on cars to go to the airport. And that means making a faster and easier commute to LaGuardia, whether it’s from Midtown Manhattan or whether it’s from Queens or any other areas the air train would run through.
LaGuardia Airport’s air traffic control tower is seen, Saturday, March 21, 2020. AP“The current proposed scope of the Air Train project is way more difficult and cumbersome than taking a car,” she said. “The actual plan for it doesn’t make sense.”
She said extending the N/Q train from nearby Astoria to LaGuardia makes more sense, as does expanding bus service.
“That is much easier than doing this whole thing, where you’re doing a whole merry-go-round [through] the entire borough of Queens just to get to LaGuardia airport,” the congresswoman said.
Governor Cuomo has been wanting his proposed LaGuardia air-tran project for a long time to help boost the economy and continue to modernize the airport. APA federal review of the Air Train project accused officials of using “arbitrary” criteria to ensure the plan was chosen above all others — and concluded the railway would likely be slower than just driving there, newly revealed government documents obtained by Riverkeeper and released earlier this month.
Emails and documents found Federal Aviation Administration officials in 2019 peppered the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey with concerns about its rationale for rejecting alternatives to the pricey project — even though the feds are now poised to green-light it.
Ocasio-Cortez. referencing the documents, said the review process looked “really sketchy.”
LaGuardia Airport is the oldest in New York City and has been continued to be renovated over the past several years. AP“There were really a lot of things that were bypassed in due diligence in the authorization of this project,” the congresswoman said.
Cuomo’s office had no immediate comment. But the governor, now battling COVID and sexual harassment scandals, has defended the project as an important piece in LaGuardia airport’s renovation.
“It’ll be the single greatest economic boost that has been done in generations,” the governor said last November when asked about sticking with the expensive project despite the pandemic.
“To have the first airport that’s opened in 25 years in New York City is going to be a very big deal. And the Air Train is part of that.”
