Advocates Ask Mayor to Listen to the Data

NYC DOT resumes safety measures on McGuinness — will it be as promised?

NYS Assembly Member Emily Gallagher has been a direct witness to the tragedy that can result from this road and said, “I watched people get hit by cars. I wiped up blood from the street.” *Photo credit: Sophia Heit*

Coinciding with the third anniversary of the hit-and-run on McGuinness Boulevard that took the life of beloved teacher Matthew Jensen, the Make McGuinness Safe coalition gathered on May 17 to call for NYC Mayor Eric Adams and the administration to take action. On the corner of McGuinness Boulevard and Calyer Street, they held signs with names of lives lost on this street, two of which were at that intersection: Jimmie Bataglia and Neil Chamberlin.

Three years ago, former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio committed $39 M toward a comprehensive redesign of McGuinness Boulevard. The NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) took two years to gather data, evaluate it, and design a plan to present to the community. The end result: a comprehensive road diet that included the removal of two travel lanes, one in both directions on the corridor. However, Adams squashed this plan after some community opposition.

Instead, a compromise plan was presented last August, including a protected bike lane on part of the boulevard and four driving lanes until Calyer Street. South of Calyer Street, the road diet would be implemented. Road work using this plan began last fall on the north end of the boulevard, starting with the Pulaski Bridge. This compromise left community members on both sides of the issue unsatisfied.

NYS Senator Kristen Gonzalez said, “If the mayor chooses to kill this plan, he is saying that this community deserves to continue to hurt, that people across the city deserve to continue to hurt. And that is fundamentally unacceptable.” *Photo credit: Sophia Heit*

“Traffic safety is a key priority for Mayor Adams, and we are delivering a redesign of McGuinness Boulevard that will make this corridor safer for everyone,” NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said. “Too many New Yorkers have been injured or lost their lives on McGuinness Boulevard, and working with the community we will continue to make significant safety improvements.”

After a winter break from road work, the NYC DOT resumed on Tuesday, May 14, and expects the north end to be completed this summer. The NYC DOT says they are monitoring the project’s impacts, including new traffic counts since the prior data and their analysis will be complete soon, which will inform adjustments to the remaining road work.

However, at the Make McGuinness Safe press conference on May 17, NYC Council Member Lincoln Restler, an advocate for Make McGuinness Safe, said that the NYC DOT completed this analysis months ago.

NYC Council Member Lincoln Restler speaks at a rally to ask Mayor Adams to live up to his agreement and make McGuiness Avenue safe. *Photo credit: Sophia Heit*

“We’ve heard rumors from staff at City Hall and staff at DOT that Mayor Adams has changed his mind yet again—I think it’s the sixth time on this proposal— he is having a hard time making a decision and that he is not going to make McGuinness safe,” Restler said.

At the same gathering, NYS Assembly Member Emily Gallagher, NYS Senator Kristen Gonzalez, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, U.S. Representative Nydia Velázquez (represented by Dan Wiley, district director for New York’s 7th Congressional District), and community members called for Mayor Eric Adams to listen to the data backed recommendations of the NYC DOT.

“We are going to continue to press for the data-backed, fact-backed, street safety interventions that they are doing all around this city and all around the world,” Gallagher said.

Whitney Wolfe, a resident and owner of Last Place on Earth (a board game cafe near McGuinness Boulevard), does pick up at the local elementary school P.S. 110. Recently, Wolf said she was crossing McGuinness Boulevard with children when a car coming off the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) sped through a red light and almost hit them. Other community members at the gathering shared similar stories.

Williams shared that there is a crash resulting in a serious injury every week on McGuinness Boulevard.

“If the mayor chooses to kill this plan, he is saying that this community deserves to continue to hurt, that people across the city deserve to continue to hurt. And that is fundamentally unacceptable,” Gonzalez said.

So far, there hasn’t been any scheduled response from the opposing group, Keep McGuinness Moving. Last August, Juda S. Engelmayer, the CEO of HeraldPR, sent a statement from Averianna Eisenbach, the creator of the Keep McGuinness Moving Instagram account.

Eisenbach named a few of the group’s ideas to keep the road safe without shutting down lanes. These include installing red lights and speed cameras, curb extensions, rumble strips, speed bumps, and speed warning signs.

“To reach a workable compromise, there must be an inclusive process that engages all stakeholders. We will continue the struggle to make sure we are keeping McGuiness both safe and moving,” she said.

Since November 1, 2019, NYC DOT is required to post a checklist of safety-enhancing street design elements that the department must consider for all Major Transportation Projects (MTP) prior to implementation. An MTP is a project that, after construction will alter four or more consecutive blocks or 1,000 consecutive feet of street, whichever is less, involving a major realignment of roadway, including either the removal of vehicular lane(s) or full time removal of parking lane(s), or the addition of vehicle lane(s). NYC DOT may amend this checklist only to promote vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle safety. The checklist for McGuinness Boulevard is here.