Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has reversed itself — again — and is now proceeding with a plan to install parking-protected bike lanes on McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
The move, which the city’s Department of Transportation announced on Wednesday, is the latest twist in a saga that has featured contentious community meetings and allegations of influence by an Adams campaign donor opposed to the project.
The U-turn on the project amounts to a partial restoration of the original plan. It comes less than a week after Adams was indicted on federal charges of soliciting illegal campaign donations from Turkish nationals tied to that country’s government, who allegedly gave him more than $100,000 in travel perks. Prosecutors say Adams expedited the opening of a Turkish consulate building in Manhattan in return, though the mayor has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“This administration is committed to making our streets safer for all New Yorkers, no matter how they travel around our city — by car, by bike, or on foot,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. “I am grateful to DOT for its commitment to McGuinness Boulevard and willingness to adapt to community and elected officials’ feedback, and of course to New Yorkers for their candor.”
In 2022, the city proposed a “road diet” for the notoriously dangerous roadway feeding into the Pulaski Bridge over Newtown Creek. The plan called for eliminating a traffic lane in each direction while adding a protected bike lane.
But a coalition of businesses led by film production company Broadway Stages launched a campaign against the redesign. Last year, the Adams administration announced a scaled-back version of the redesign that left the current number of car lanes on McGuinness Boulevard. Street safety advocates fumed that Broadway Stages’ owners had donated to Adams.
The transportation department last year implemented the watered-down changes to the northern section of the street, between the Pulaski Bridge and Calyer Street. And as recently as August, officials planned to proceed with the same redesign plan for the boulevard’s southern section, up to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
On Wednesday, though, city officials said they were changing course and would remove a lane of traffic on the southern section — as the DOT had originally proposed.
Joshi gave no reason for the latest reversal, which will allow parked cars to serve as a barrier protecting cyclists.
“Credit to the Adams administration and Department of Transportation for taking the safety of Greenpoint seriously,” a coalition of politicians said in a statement, including Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
“We are excited to see safety improvements implemented on McGuinness Boulevard this month and are immensely grateful to the Make McGuinness Safe community coalition for their relentless advocacy,” they said. “We will work together with DOT to monitor and adjust to ensure this is a success for Greenpoint.”
According to agency data, three people have been killed in crashes on McGuinness Boulevard in the past 10 years. There have also been more than 220 crashes with injuries between 2015 and 2019.
In 2021, public school teacher Matthew Jensen was killed in a hit-and-run at the intersection of McGuinness Boulevard and Bayard Street. In the wake of his death, organizers in Greenpoint formed Make McGuinness Safe to advocate for a safer redesign of the roadway.
Kevin LaCherra, an organizer for Make McGuinness Safe and lifelong Greenpoint resident, said the neighborhood is rejoicing after the transportation department announced its plan to proceed with the original redesign.
“I grew up a block from McGuinness Boulevard, and when I was growing up, one of my dad’s greatest fears, he’d have nightmares in the night, that I would run out of the house and run to McGuinness Boulevard and get hit and gotten killed,” LaCherra said. “So the idea that finally, finally, finally, we’re getting the justice that we deserve, the design that we deserve … is overwhelming.”