Mayor’s McGuinness Boulevard Plan leaves community divided

NEW YORK — For more than a decade, Brooklyn residents have been calling for changes to the design of the deadly McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint.
Years of activism and studies brought a Department of Transportation-approved plan that would narrow the four-lane boulevard to two lanes, adding a parking lane and protected bike lane.
Last year, the mayor pulled the plug on that plan and implemented a simplified version for the northern half of the roadway. In August, he announced the compromised version will be adapted to the rest of the street.
Jordana Jacobs says she and her son were almost run over by a reckless truck driver, an encounter familiar to many Greenpoint residents.
“My son and I talked about it frequently, and that’s the only reason why I don’t let him walk around the neighborhood,” she said.
Councilmember Lincoln Rester has been a stark supporter of the full boulevard redesign, a so-called “road diet” backed by more than 10,000 residents. 
“Every single city, state and federal elected official who represents Greenpoint and the surrounding area have signed on in support of the Make McGuinness Safe Plan. There is impressive consensus around this plan,” he tells CBS News New York’s Hannah Kliger.
Instead, the mayor backtracked on the DOT’s original redesign proposal last year after getting pushback from businesses tied to the neighborhood’s storied film industry. Activists waited with bated breath, until August when he finalized a new plan, billed as a compromise, which includes a bike lane and a so-called flex lane, sometimes for driving, sometimes for parking. 
“Nobody’s parking in the flex lane, which means that it’s four lanes all hours of the day and the bike lane is constantly blocked,” said Bronwyn Breitner, a coordinator behind Make McGuinness Safe, a coalition advocating for the change.
The DOT says this next phase of work is expected to begin in September, but the so-called compromised plan left both proponents and opponents of the redesign unhappy.
“This neighborhood is divided over this,” said Jacobs.
“This plan is a failure. This is not a compromise,” said Restler.
Mayor Adams addressed the disappointment after the announcement in August.
“I’ve learned in negotiation if both sides are unhappy, that’s a good negotiation,” he said during a news conference on Aug. 27. 
“There will be protected bike lanes through some of our most vulnerable hours, the evening hours, and also at our most vulnerable points, which are intersections, which a vast majority of our fatalities happen at intersections, we’ve added sidewalk extenders,” said Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor of Operations.
Since then, there have been more rallies:  on Aug. 27, dozens of cyclists rode the boulevard in opposition, and on Tuesday night, a heated Community Board 1 meeting with DOT officials allowed people to voice their grievances.
“Why are you not listening to the 10,000 people who have supported the road diet?” Breitner said.
Next Thursday, Make McGuinness Safe is planning a march in the streets to show they won’t back down. 
Activists say this resonates in the community, and they are keeping track of a string of fatalities, dating back to the creation of the boulevard in the 1950s. 
The final straw for a lot of people was the hit-and-run that killed a beloved teacher named Matthew Jensen in 2021 at the intersection of McGuinness Boulevard and Bayard Street.
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