I guess the thing is, I'm looking at it from the side of the people who live in the El's shadow. I like Els, but that is irrelevant. You speak of the people who ride the line but you have nothing to say about the plight of the people who live and work beneath it. Walk along its length, and see how many would object to its being torn down.
It's just presented as a vendetta singled out against just that el. WHat you say is true, a lot of people who live along the el may want it gone. But at the same time, the same could be true for ANY el still in existence. It's true for the Broadway/Jamaica el, the west End, the Culver, all the Bronx els, etc. Don't you think you will find people along all of those els also wanting it's removal because it may be considered a blight?
Why just a vendetta against the Astoria el? If you feel you want to help the plight of people having to "endure" living under the Astoria el, your reasoning should apply to almost ALL the els. It would be absurd to say we have to "remove" all the els because of the "plight of the people who live and work around them". It would cripple the system. And to say, let's say the West End el, is less of a nuisance to the people around it that the Astoria el also doesn't work. The fact is an el does pretty much "ruin" a street, to an extent, but they all do, but at the same time to remove it without a replacement subway or something would "ruin" the community even more. It still does have an important use....it moves a tremendous amount of people fairly easily....much faster and easier than a replacement set of busses would.