The city is moving full speed ahead on the makeover of a deadly Greenpoint street after Manhattan prosecutors charged last year that the project was slowed by political power players during the mayoral administration of Eric Adams.
Department of Transportation and City Hall officials broke ground Wednesday on work to complete the long-delayed redesign of McGuinness Boulevard, which faced opposition from influential local business owners who allegedly enlisted a top Adams aide to scrap street-safety measures that they opposed.
The overhaul is one of several street projects that have found new life under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who traveled to Greenpoint in his first week on the job to revive the redesign to add protected bike lanes along the length of the North Brooklyn corridor, from Meeker Avenue to the Pulaski Bridge.
“Every New Yorker should feel safe when they’re navigating our streets — that’s exactly why I joined the mayor right here in Greenpoint on just the third day of this new administration to commit to finishing this redesign,” said Mike Flynn, commissioner of the city transportation department. “For far too long, a critical street-safety project developed by talented public servants at DOT was set aside, even though the need was clear and the planning work was done.”
Deputy Mayor Julia Kerson recalled cycling as a kid in the neighborhood, and having to pull a U-turn any time she approached McGuinness.
“I remember the Blockbuster down the road that I was never allowed to walk to because it was too dangerous,” she told a crowd at a ceremonial groundbreaking. “And I remember running away from home and not getting very far because I knew my parents would kill me for crossing McGuinness on my own.”
Calls for a redesign date back to 2021 after the hit-and-run death of Public School 110 teacher Matthew Jensen, who was fatally struck by the driver of a Rolls Royce while crossing the street in May of that year. The motorist, Tariq Witherspoon, was sentenced in 2023 to six months behind bars.
Kerson praised neighborhood residents for pushing for the changes, billing their efforts as part of a “strong tradition of community advocacy of neighbors demanding safe streets.”
“But you also find a tradition of government failing to act, of tragedies ignored and backroom deals made by [the] wealthy and well-connected,” she said. “Well, this is a new era for New York City and no longer will we allow the whims of the few to come before the well-being of the many.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last August charged Gina and Anthony Argento, co-owners of the film and production company Broadway Stages, with paying top Adams aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin to help successfully change DOT’s plans to add bike lanes on McGuinness.
The criminal case is ongoing, a Bragg spokesperson said, with July 16 scheduled as its next court date.
THE CITY had previously reported that opposition to safety efforts along the busy corridor appeared to be tied to the politically powerful company.
In addition to the McGuinness bike lanes, the Mamdani administration has revived other street safety efforts that were shelved under the previous mayor. Those include redesigning bus lanes in The Bronx along Fordham Road, a project that faced opposition from the New York Botanical Garden, Fordham University and the St. Barnabas Hospital Health System.
Richard Davey, the then-head of New York City Transit, labeled the delay of the Fordham Road project “perplexing and disappointing.”
On Wednesday, New Yorkers walking and biking along McGuinness Boulevard backed the latest steps in the long-running saga, which Flynn said should be completed in about three months.
Pedestrian Barney Dombrowski said he’s optimistic about a plan that is supposed to reduce the number of vehicles during peak hours.
“It will be a definite improvement,” said Dombrowski, 76. “I’m glad that they’ve done it.”
Cyclist Harrison Borges, 33, called the politically wired efforts to slow the street redesign “comical levels of political meddling.”
“It just felt like this was a Batman villain mayor with all the stuff that came out,” Borges said. “Now, it feels like we’re finally getting something that we asked for, which is nice.”
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