AP Photo/Jason DeCrow
- Amazon is building a new headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, with plans to add up to 40,000 workers to the neighborhood.
- While not Manhattan, Queens is crowded and transit-starved. Amazon could make that worse.
- We ventured to the very edge of the boroughs main arterial subway line — the 7 train — to see what a usual commute was like.
Amazon is coming to New York City’s second most populated borough.
And while it’s not quite as dense as Manhattan's famous grid, Queens has come a long way from its farming roots (it was the last of the five boroughs to consolidate and join New York City,) it’s one of the fastest-growing areas of the City.
But trains here are already packed to the brim with commuters, who are increasingly moving farther out east as rent skyrockets.
I took a ride on the boroughs main artery — the 7 train — to see just how crowded things already are, and how Amazon’s infusion of at least 25,000 (and up to 40,000) workers might affect transit around its new neighborhood.
Before we hop on the 7 train , it’s important to understand its history. The IRT Flushing Line — its official name — opened in 1915, when most of the area was still farm land.NYC Department of RecordsIt was the first service into Long Island from Grand Central Terminal, which had been completed about 50 years earlier, and rebuilt just two years before the 7 train was open for service.Hal Morey/Getty Images
At this point, the line was known as the Queensboro Line, after both its destination and the Queensboro Plaza station just on the other side of the river, which happens to be very near Amazon’s chosen location.AP Photo/Jason DeCrow
It’s also home to one of the most famous photograph spots for the subway and NYC skyline together.
But this journey isn’t starting in Manhattan. I’m going to take the 7 train from its far western terminus, in Flushing, Queens, to see how crowded the line already is — before Amazon comes to town.Wikimedia Commons
Flushing began as a Dutch colonial town in the 1600’s. By the 19th century, it had New York’s first public high school, and eventually joined the amalgamated borough of Queens in 1898, despite its original reticence to the idea. While much of Queens remained verdant farmland after the city’s incorporation, Flushing was already densely populated.
Unfortunately for my research, I don’t live in Queens. Instead, I’m starting my morning with an early Lyft ride from Brooklyn.Graham Rapier
Traffic wasn’t terrible, and I beat Google’s estimate by about 5 minutes thanks to some nifty driving.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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