Brian Laird on WNYC. All right, hold on to your steering wheels, folks.

Now we're going to talk about the BQE.

I think it's fair to say that for as long as anyone can remember, the Brooklyn

Queens Expressway has had problems, right? Major problems. Even non-drivers know this. It's loud,

it's clogged, it carries far more traffic than it was built for, and parts of it are literally

falling apart. But despite decades of studies, emergency repairs, and big

proposals from multiple mayoral administrations, there's been a kind of bureaucratic paralysis,

you might call it. No matter who's in office, the city can't seem to land on or fund a permanent

fix. So what's the holdup?

That's what we're going to spend the next few minutes talking about.

For some context, the BQE was designed way back under Robert Moses, you know, the infamous

and controversial master builder of mid-20th century, New York, who designed practically every

major city thoroughfare that you could think of

and displaced a whole lot of people in the process.

But before that legacy was cemented, when the BQE was first unveiled, it was hailed as a feat

of modern engineering in an increasingly car and truck-centric city.

Here's a clip of then-governor Thomas Dewey

at the 1950 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the BQE.

Because this business is the business of making it possible for people

who live in the city to move about in it

without being choked to death by traffic.

It's the difference between a chance to get food and vegetables

...