In 2013, Friends of the QueensWay and the trust held a design contest for the site that drew 27 proposals from architecture and planning firms around the world. Soon, urban planning and landscape architecture classes at New York University, Cornell University and schools in Japan and the Netherlands were studying the QueensWay.
The potential has excited the children of Queens as well. In 2014, an ideas forum for students was held in Forest Hills. They ticked off their wish list: A zoo, a zip-line and a racetrack. Ms. Imas, who used to sneak onto the tracks as a teenager, has gotten her family involved in the initiative.
“They’re a little sick of me dragging them to cleanups,” Ms. Imas said. “But I think I’m instilling a sense of civic participation and how this could change the borough and the community.”
A long and circuitous commute
Although the park has gained momentum, there is a strong case for using the tracks for trains. Queens residents have some of the city’s longest commutes to Manhattan, especially those living in Howard Beach, Jamaica and the Rockaways, which have historically been neglected by a century-old subway system that was originally built to serve Manhattan.
Donovan Richards, the Queens borough president, lived in Far Rockaway from 2005 to 2012 when he worked as an aide in the City Council. It would often take him two hours to commute to City Hall in Lower Manhattan because his only subway option — the A train — would first swing through Brooklyn.
“I got to Florida quicker than I got to Manhattan,” Mr. Richards said.
The rail line, if repurposed for train or subway service, could carry commuters and other riders directly between south Queens and Manhattan as well as among Queens neighborhoods. It could also expand transit options for getting to and from Kennedy International Airport and Resorts World, a casino and entertainment complex, both deep in Queens.