A long-awaited Brooklyn street redesign was finally completed Friday, after years of starts and stops and a supporting role in the bribery case of a former top aide to Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other elected officials celebrated the changes along a one-mile stretch of McGuinness Boulevard by cutting a ceremonial ribbon under the Pulaski Bridge in Greenpoint to cheers.
The changes, from Meeker Avenue to the bridge, add protected bike lanes, shorten pedestrian crossings and force turning vehicles to slow down.
Mamdani vowed to restart the project three days into his term as mayor, and on Friday he thanked the advocates – many who lost loved ones to crashes – who kept pushing for it.
“Even as the long pattern of wealthy interests trumping those of working people in this neighborhood repeated itself over and over, today that belief is finally vindicated,” he said. “My friends, we have completed the redesign of McGuinness Boulevard.”
The ceremony marked the end to a years-long back and forth on the street overhaul, first introduced by former Mayor Bill de Blasio and then squashed by former Mayor Adams, whose top aide, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, said the plan was only supported by outsiders.
The City Reporter previously investigated the role siblings Gina and Tony Argento, owners of film production company Broadway Stages in the neighborhood, played in ending the project. The Argentos feared the reduction of traffic lanes would affect their trucks driving to and from the sound stages.
More was revealed in a series of August 2025 indictments that alleged Lewis-Martin received cash, catering and a cameo on “Godfather of Harlem,” filmed at Broadway Stages, in exchange for stopping the redesign.
Lewis-Martin and the Argentos were criminally charged over the scheme to influence City Hall.
The largest push for a redesign of McGuinness Boulevard came after beloved teacher Matthew Jensen was struck and killed as he crossed McGuinness Boulevard just after midnight on May 18, 2021.
He had just celebrated his birthday with seven friends, his cousin John Ogren said at Friday’s briefing.
“He was the happiest I’ve ever seen him. He had his dream job, he had his dream home,” he said. Jensen was struck by a speeding driver and thrown 75 feet with such a force his house keys were damaged, Ogren said, as he thanked everyone for the work to make the street safer.
“We gather as community because we care,” he said. “And because we care, we do.”
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The post The McGuinness Boulevard Redesign Is Finally Complete appeared first on The City Reporter.
