Brooklyn Boro

Brooklyn job growth means more transit problems, challenges, says report

August 14, 2013 By Raanan Geberer Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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Twenty-four percent more workers both live and work in Brooklyn now than was the case just 10 years ago.

That’s one of the findings of “NYC Jobs Blueprint: Getting There Is Half the Battle,” a report released Tuesday by the Partnership for New York City.

In general, according to the report, job growth in the outer boroughs has outpaced job growth in Manhattan’s business district during the past decade. All together, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx have added more than 250,000 jobs since 2000.
The report mainly focuses on the long commute that faces New Yorkers every day – a situation that all these new jobs have made worse. On the average, it says, New Yorkers spend 48 minutes getting to work. According to the Daily News, that’s 13 minutes longer than the national average.

One particular problem that job growth in Brooklyn and Queens has given rise to, according to the Partnership’s report, is that of the more than 2 million workers who live in Brooklyn but work in Queens or vice versa.

“Due to limited transit options,” the report says, “over half of these commutes are made by car. In order to addess this problem in the short term, the city should increase its bus service between the two boroughs, potentially epxanding bus rapid transit in the area.”

The only subway line between Brooklyn and Queens, the G train, had its northern terminal cut back from 71st Street-Forest Hills to Court Square, just over the Brooklyn border, 10 years ago.

Some areas in Brooklyn where jobs have grown spectacularly have limited public transportation options. The report mentions the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a “new center of employment” that is “poorly served by the public transit system that was designed and built as much as a century ago.”

In general, says the report, the city’s transportation must be flexible, serving those who work in the new business hubs in Brooklyn and Queens as well as the more traditional ones in Manhattan.

Within Manhattan itself, “new capital projects like the Second Avenue subway line will also help ease the flow on overly crowded routes,” says the report.

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