cross-posted from: https://pawb.social/post/37485635

Mamdani Announces Full McGuinness Road Diet, Finishing a Job Halted by Adams

Mayor Mamdani chose the third full day of his tenure to announce that he will complete the full safety redesign of deadly McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint — a project that was created under Mayor Bill de Blasio, but watered down by Mayor Adams in a corruption scandal.

By reviving the originally proposed DOT plan, Mamdani said McGuinness Boulevard would be narrowed to one travel lane in each direction between the Pulaski Bridge and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to accommodate a parking-protected bike lane. Currently, only the southern portion of the stretch enjoys the benefits of a road diet; north of Calyer Street, the Adams administration maintained two car lanes in either direction of the dangerous stretch.

"The city committed to a redesign of McGuinness Boulevard ... to deliver the safety and improvements that residents had been asking for until the prior administration bowed to big money interests, leaving the project incomplete and Greenpointers still at risk. Today, however, there is a new mayor in City Hall," he said, evoking the "ax" swung by Robert Moses to widen a then-residential street into the McGuinness Boulevard highway we know today.