When I think about what got me into urbanism and transit advocacy, the most direct answer would be the online urbanist movement. Youtubers such as Not Just Bikes and City Beautiful, and communities such as r/f*ckcars, helped introduce me to one of the most fascinating fields of the social sciences (if anyone’s curious, this was the first urbanist video I ever watched: a New Yorker like me loves his subway content youtube.com/watch?v=bLtmJHHqbh8). Here was a field of study that was directly applicable to everyone’s lives: the study of our cities, why they are designed the way they are, and how to improve the places we call home. But the root cause of my fascination with urbanism lies within the neighborhood I have lived in all my life- Whitestone, Queens.

Whitestone and the surrounding area

I have always called Whitestone a purgatory because it cannot decide whether it exists as part of New York City or Long Island. Legally, it’s a neighborhood of New York City. In both the New York State Assembly and Senate, it is grouped with other neighborhoods in northeastern Queens. But culturally, I’m not so sure about that. In Congressional maps, Whitestone is grouped with Long Island, which is currently part of the Nassau County-based NY-3 district. Fun fact: living in this district meant that George Santos, the diva of fraud, was my representative in Congress. Most importantly, Whitestone is not built for people or transit, unlike much of New York City – it is built for cars.

When exploring Whitestone from an urbanist perspective, what’s particularly striking is how hostile the neighborhood is to pedestrians.  The blocks surrounding my home are littered with massive cars, with some roads lacking sidewalks.  I’ve tried going on strolls in my neighborhood, only to be met with the relentless sound of whooshing cars. One aspect of living in Whitestone is the ease of access residents have to the highways. I live near the Whitestone Expressway, which connects with the Whitestone Bridge up north to the Cross Bronx Expressway. All of these pieces of infrastructure mean that Whitestone residents have continued the long NYC tradition of pumping car fumes into black and brown communities in the Bronx for the benefit of suburban commuters and anyone traveling upstate. However, I can’t put myself above my neighbors since my parents and I regularly drive north to Vermont for summer and winter vacations. (Thankfully, this year, the city will unveil its plan to improve conditions for neighborhoods around the Cross-Bronx Expressway.)

A crosswalk near my house I actively avoid. Try not to get run over at rush hour!

To live in Whitestone means not living within walking distance of the nearest subway station, which means you must embrace the lifestyle of a bus commuter in NYC.  I have to take a 20-minute bus ride on the Q15/Q15A (the 15A’s closer to my house) to get to the 7 in Flushing. However, I live within walking distance of the QM2 express bus that gives me a one-seat ride to Manhattan. I rarely use this option. It costs $7 to ride (no free rides with student Metrocards), and it takes about the same time as taking the bus to Flushing and the subway to Manhattan. (If only there were a way to reduce car congestion in Manhattan and its surrounding bridges and tunnels. I wonder if the city or the state of New York has looked into such a policy. Maybe a fee for drivers entering the most car-congested part of Manhattan?). However, the Q15/15A route gets decent ridership. According to MTA ridership statistics from last year, the Q15/A received 4,128 riders, making it the 105th most-used bus route in the network. With 325 MTA bus routes in total, the Q15/A has above-average ridership. Unfortunately, Whitestone’s buses have poor weekend service. The Q15A runs every 40 minutes on Saturdays and hourly on Sundays, with the QM2 having hourly service all weekend. While I am a generally introverted person, it would be nice to have the option of quickly going to a museum or a concert. Living in Whitestone does not give me this opportunity. 

What the Q15/A bus stop looks like when I go home from a long day at TSTC

Beyond weekend frequency, there’s the ever-present issue of living one bus and two trains away from everyone else. This translates to putting up with grueling commutes to anywhere not in Manhattan. In high school, this meant a two-hour commute home from Brooklyn Tech (in my AP Human Geography class, we did an exercise to determine commute times, and I had the longest one by far). As a student at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus, I have a more manageable hour and twenty minute commute. However, when I have courses at Fordham University’s Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx, it’s another two-hour commute from my house on the weekend by public transit. Indeed, to live in Whitestone is to love one bus and two trains away from everyone else.

My everyday commute to my university

The same commute by express bus: same commute length, more than twice as expensive

All that said, there’s a reason why I think Whitestone is purgatory and not exactly hell. Many suburban neighborhoods in America do not have the same transit options as Whitestone. I have a friend who lives in Glen Cove on Long Island, and he has no buses in his neck of the woods – just an LIRR station a half an hour walk from his home. Whitestone is not a transit hell like many communities on Long Island. Like many neighborhoods in New York City, you have multiple bus options, which tends to be the exception, not the rule, for the average Long Island or other suburban community. The bones for decent transit service exist in Whitestone – it’s the frequency that needs improvement.

Vision Zero’s recommendation for pedestrian safety in Whitestone, taken from their presentation “Cross Island Parkway, 147 Street to 154 Street” (2024, https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/cross-island-pkwy-147-st-154-st-jun2024.pdf)

What would an urbanist solution to the problems that Whitestone faces look like? In the immediate future, I‘d recommend two plausible fixes. The first would be to increase bus frequencies across the board. Transit should not exist solely to get people to and from work – people deserve lives outside their jobs. Having reliable service every 10 – 20 minutes, especially on weekends, would help get more people on the bus and improve the quality of life for people like me who don’t drive.  Secondly, Whitestone’s streets should be more pedestrian-friendly. NYC Vision Zero agrees with me and recommends extending curbs to deter reckless drivers and clearer crosswalks to help pedestrians feel safe in their neighborhoods. In a perfect world, I’d extend the 7 train up north to bring it closer to Whitestone and College Point. However, no MTA plans exist to extend the 7, despite occasional calls from transit advocates. 

I do not plan on staying in Whitestone once I graduate, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone to move here. This land of isolation bodes very poorly for one’s well-being.  However, if it weren’t for Whitestone, I wouldn’t have had the impetus to explore what better neighborhoods look like and what a brighter urban world looks like. For that, I’m grateful to Whitestone for that opportunity. 


A parting image: My councilwoman’s proud opposition to congestion pricing, which greatly entertained by interviewers during my interview for the TSTC fellowship.

A parting image: My councilwoman’s proud opposition to congestion pricing, which greatly entertained my TSTC colleagues.