Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration will join a panel of transit experts and officials representing cities around the world to discuss plans for the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, the mayor’s $2.5 billion waterfront streetcar plan.
The Regional Plan Association will host the panel on Tuesday evening at the Brooklyn Law School to “discuss how to create a successful streetcar,” according to event planners. Representatives from Portland, San Francisco and Budapest will attend, along with Polly Trottenberg, New York City’s Department of Transportation commissioner.
After a series of public input sessions, the city has made incremental progress in defining the streetcar’s 16-mile route. All the while experts have criticized the project, questioning whether its location is truly a “transit desert,” as the mayor claims, and whether a streetcar is the most effective and resilient way to move people through flood-prone neighborhoods.
