One look at New York City’s waterfront and it is easy to see how we became an economic powerhouse. For generations, the piers lining the rivers were home to industrial businesses of all types. Today, the manufacturing sector is once again growing and providing good-paying jobs to hardworking New Yorkers.

This revitalization is bringing back employment and commerce opportunities for the first time in decades. The proposed 16-mile BQX streetcar, running from Sunset Park to Astoria, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build off this momentum. While helping to create thousands of new industrial and manufacturing jobs, the BQX would connect hundreds of thousands of residents to economic opportunities along the waterfront.

As with all major infrastructure improvements in New York, businesses and residents want to know how the BQX would change their lives. Industrial businesses may be concerned about how a new form of public transit could affect rents or lead to greater market pressures for other land uses, such as residential development. But a successful manufacturing sector in New York City is underpinned, not undermined, with improved public transit options.

Job centers up and down the BQX corridor including the Brooklyn Navy Yard are attracting homegrown companies and cutting-edge industries at the forefront of new technologies. For these companies to remain in Brooklyn and Queens and to continue investing and growing here while providing vital employment, improved mass transit is a necessity, not a luxury. It’s needed to connect employers with New Yorkers who are most in need of good jobs.

This is why the BQX streetcar proposal is so important. The streetcar would connect five of the city’s Industrial Business Zones, 20 million square feet of city-controlled manufacturing space, with a reliable one-seat public transit option.

Without the BQX streetcar, the industrial and manufacturing areas would remain inaccessible, limiting job growth and the private investment needed to increase the number of well-paying jobs available to New Yorkers.

When it comes to the neighborhoods lining the waterfront, city policymakers are at a crossroads. They have the chance to implement policies and develop infrastructure, like the BQX, that could create millions of additional square feet of affordable, modern space for new industrial businesses. Clear industrial policy and zoning initiatives meant to preserve and grow these facilities will accelerate what a recent report from the Center for an Urban Future found: Manufacturing jobs are once again on the rise in New York City.

Today a trip from Astoria to Williamsburg takes an hour. Red Hook to lower Manhattan is about the same. With the BQX running along the streets of Brooklyn and Queens, Astoria to Williamsburg would take a mere 26 minutes, while residents of Red Hook could get to jobs in Lower Manhattan—a place many can see from their homes—in just 36 minutes. By prioritizing improved transit options and increased connectivity, we can open up more economic opportunities for residents across the city.

Improved connections between low- and moderate-income New Yorkers and job centers is a pivotal first step. There are incredible institutions and nonprofit partners along this corridor doing great work to improve their communities and the lives of their residents. With investments in the right workforce development programs, we can make sure residents not only get where they need to go, but have the job skills needed to get hired.

From parks and beautiful public spaces to burgeoning job centers, the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront is humming with levels of activity unseen in generations. Earlier times relied on piers and freighters to keep the economy growing. Today’s waterfront needs the BQX to ensure a viable future for our city’s manufacturing businesses and jobs for more New Yorkers looking to improve their lives.

Michael Spinner owns and operates industrial businesses along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront and serves on the board of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corp.