On August 11, NYC Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez rallied with El Puente and others in the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) Environmental Justice Coalition and Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition to urge Governor Kathy Hochul and the NYS Department of Transportation to reject widening these highways.
It’s well known via several scientific studies that the communities that border these highways suffer from the pollution they generate. Increasing this environmental hazard is not in best interest of the affected communities.
El Puente’s BQE environmental justice coalition organizer, Maria Fernanda Pulido-Velosa, said, “For decades our communities across Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx have been experiencing the cumulative health and environmental impacts of living and working, next to these highways.”
From Metropolitan Avenue to Division Street on both sides of the BQE there are playgrounds and parks that children utilize.
“Why aren’t we not good enough for better air quality, Governor Hochul? Better air quality and a stronger environment is for everyone; is for every single New Yorker. We all deserve it. So when you hear her investing in highway expansions — to do what? For more cars? It is not thoughtful. It is not smart. It is not strategic. And it is outright racist to push that on our communities,” said Gutiérrez. She also added that she would like the governor to consider the 15-year-old project called the BQGreen, to create park space, which is lacking in the community, and would help mitigate some of the pollution from the BQE.
The Greenline 