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& Kew Gardens Road Photo Gallery: Queens Blvd |
 |
 This
is the most treacherous part of the Union Turnpike intersection
to cross in my opinion, although others would easily vote for
the 80th Road bus turnaround point on the other side of the Jackie
Robinson overpass.The biggest problem right here is that Queens Boulevard is forking into three different directions like a worn out toothbrush. On the left, two lanes are heading left onto eastbound Union Turnpike, while the right express lanes and left local lanes are merging for the narrower Kew Gardens-Briarwood run of Queens Boulevard, and the right local lanes veer off into Kew Gardens Road. There are so many islands to hop across for a pedestrian that you'd think you're on Survivor, and you'd be lucky to be one by the time you get to the other side. On top of all this, some of these lanes have green lights while the rest are red, and to add spice to the mix are the eastbound Union Turnpike local lanes that meet Kew Gardens Road and the boulevard at the first light on the right. |
| These cars are all about to turn left onto Union Turnpike, led by the Q46 bus, whose first stop will be a block and a half down past Borough Hall. |
| Looking west, next stop is 78th Avenue. Down about three blocks is the last apartment tower to go up on the boulevard, dating I believe from the late 1980s. The building between it and the rival yellow tower beyond was once probably king of the boulevard, but is now pathetically dwarfed by its two taller neighbors. Two blocks down on the right, just past the red brick apartment house with the horn-like phony porticos topping off its roofline, is Schwartz Brothers Funeral Home, where 83 year old Eugene Eisenberg was headed the night a Green Line Q10 bus ran him down by 80th Road. Death Boulevard claimed one of that funeral home's workers in 1997; hit by a UPS truck. |
©2001, Jeff Saltzman. All right reserved.
