Greenpoint community advocates and local pols gathered at City Hall Thursday, calling on Mayor Eric Adams to “do the right thing” and not roll back his support for the planned redesign of McGuinness Boulevard, which had been finalized after months of community meetings.
Having previously supported the road diet, which would see the removal of one vehicle lane in each direction in favor of a bike lane, the mayor this month ordered the Department of Transportation to come up with an alternative after some locals and influential members of the administration spoke against it.
Brooklyn Council Member Lincoln Restler called out mayoral advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who reportedly told Adams that local businesses opposed the plan, and that supporters of it all hailed from outside the area.
“The people who support the Make McGuinness Safe Plan are the people of Greenpoint and Williamsburg,” Restler said, holding up a map highlighting the location of the signatories of a petition to keep the redesign on track.
At least 30% of the 7,250 people who signed the petition live within 1,200 feet of McGuinness Boulevard, Restler said, while two-thirds live in Greenpoint and Williamsburg and 96% live in New York City. The council member delivered the signatures to City Hall alongside community advocates asking Adams to stand up to “powerful interests.”
“We are out here today so that the mayor can hear us in City Hall, so his staff can hear us in City Hall. It is not too late for them to do the right thing, to finally make McGuinness safe,” he said.
For years, locals have called on the city to redesign notoriously dangerous four-lane roadway — and in May, after years of meetings, surveys, and workshops, DOT unveiled their final proposal.
Weeks later, opposition group “Keep McGuinness Moving” — a coalition of local businesses led by Broadway Stages — ramped up its criticism of the plan, calling the proposed redesign McGuinness Boulevard’s…
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