But opposition to the taking down of the Astoria El is based on solid reasoning. I personally would favor the El's replacement by a new subway line, hopefully also extended to the Bronx or the airport or East Elmhurst, which needs and wants subway service. This way, train service is maintained but the El structure goes away.
See now, that's a reasonable response. The original way it was presented by EDOG in the deleted thread to just tear down the el is what caused the outlash. Too many times in the history of the subway els were removed before they were replaced by buses, causing hardships to the riders. There is now way you can destroy the Astoria el, and expect all those passengers to squeeze into buses, on congested roadways and expect that their commute won't become a nightmare. That's a step backwards, not forwards.
Even if the original post would have been presented as, Rip down that "piece of junk el", and replace it with a subway or some other viable solution given (not cramming all the riders in to buses on already congested streets) the responses would not have been as negative. It's the way that it was presented that got the really negative responses.
In other threads it has been suggested many times to replace els with subway. Currently there is a thread going on about getting rid of the Jamaica el and replacing it with some sort of subway. I can almost guarantee that that thread will not spiral out of control like the Astoria thread did. Sure there will be people for and against the idea, but at least it was presented resonably. The Astoria thread was presented in a way similar to waving a red flag in front of a bull. The responses could have been expected to come as they did.