If you look at the NYC Bike Map, you’ll notice that Eastern Queens has a string of parks with greenways and several gaps separating them. Almost all these gaps are found in a nearly 4-mile stretch in what is today Council District 20, represented by Councilmember Sandra Ung. These gaps are the result of generations of underinvestment in our community.

For over a decade our group, the Eastern Queens Greenway (named after the path), has demanded a family-safe, continuous greenway to join our parks and, thus, our community together. With the hard work of some great individuals, we’re substantially closer to that vision. Just this week, we learned of another $11.9 million secured for this project by Councilmember Ung. This funding is a significant step forward in our journey towards a safer and more connected community–a future we can all look forward to.

This is far from the first greenway funding that Councilmember Ung has secured.  She’s allocated $24 million of the $43.4 million that she’s partnership with other elected officials to dedicate. We are incredibly fortunate to have this Greenway Champion as our elected official. Her unwavering efforts and dedication to this project deserve our utmost appreciation and support.

With this latest round of funding, here is the status of the full Eastern Queens Greenway route:

We are incredibly happy that so much of this project is coming together. Getting over $43 million dedicated to improvements to our parkland is a huge achievement that could never have been accomplished without your support in contacting your elected officials. Your involvement has been crucial in making this project a reality. 

We are truly excited about the ideas put forward in the 9 Destination Greenways projects. However, we strongly believe that as advocates our main focus should be on areas where there is currently no safe car-free path. Out of all the projects proposed by Destination Greenways that meet this criterion, only one 0.4-mile section remains unfunded.

The remaining unfunded section runs alongside the Queens Botanical Gardens and is estimated to cost between $15 and 20 million. We have consistently emphasized that this section is the most hazardous and should be given the highest priority. The cost of this section may be prohibitive for an individual councilmember to fund, so we believe the mayor’s intervention is necessary.

Currently, the only “path” from the Unisphere to Kissena Corridor Park involves crossing six moving lanes on College Point Boulevard, biking up a hill on Booth Memorial Avenue (which in this section also serves as a highway on/off ramp), and then navigating a particularly busy intersection of Main Street. Remarkably, there is an existing bridge that could allow users to avoid crossing the highway-like College Point Boulevard, but the plan from the Department of Parks does not yet include adding a small ramp to this bridge to make it usable again. We believe this is more than worth the effort, since it connects the Botanical Gardens to communities both east and west of it.

Though we have implemented some protected bike lanes to the greenway and have some dedicated funding for greenway construction, we still have concerns on how and when the greenway will actually be fully connected. Now is the time to ensure that this great work isn’t watered down or indefinitely delayed.

In addition to funding the remaining pieces, what we need now is a public roadmap from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation that outlines every known step between today and the ribbon cutting. Even with this massive amount of funding, the last we’ve seen is that the project will be built “once funded.” Since most of the funding is now in place, we need the final plan.

Kissena Corridor Park, spanning 235 acres and located less than 0.5 miles from the third busiest intersection in New York City, has the potential to be a leading park in NYC. Unfortunately, it has largely remained undeveloped, with large areas of brush and grasslands and only a few developed parcels at the edges. As a result, it has become an underutilized space and a constant source of crime in our community. We have always advocated for a greenway to attract more people to the park’s central spine, increasing security through more eyes being present. The recent shocking incident of a 13-year-old child being raped in Kissena Corridor Park underscores the urgent need for positive change. While NYPD officers can be temporarily assigned to the park to show force after such incidents, they will ultimately be redeployed based on changing needs. We’ve seen this happen after a similar attack in the same park six years ago. The best long-term solution to improve the park’s safety, given this history, is to have more people using it. We firmly believe that the Eastern Queens Greenway, more than any other concept, can consistently improve the quality of life in and around this park.

On July 12th Councilmember Ung’s office sent another letter to Mayor Adams. This letter asking for a prompt completion of the greenway was also signed by Senator John Liu, Assembly Member Nily Rozic, Assembly Member Ron Kim and Congresswoman Grace Meng. It said in part:

“…your administration and Councilmember Ung funded large portions of the Eastern Queens Greenway, including the Kissena Corridor Park section. The Greenway has been envisioned as a large-scale reimagining of our parks and would provide a vital artery between our beautiful parks. However, this part of the park has a poorly kept trail that has long attracted issues. The Greenway would transform this previously neglected area into a thriving piece of green space, improving access to the park, attracting more foot traffic and eyes, and deterring potential criminals.”

As our group has been pushing this project slowly along for the past 10 years, we’ve also focused on other projects to support it. In 2017 we successfully worked with members of the Bayside and Douglaston communities to advocate for 6.2 miles of protected bike lanes along Alley Pond Park and Northern Boulevard, connecting these communities together. In 2021, we worked with Community Board 11 to unanimously propose a network of protected bike lanes. Unfortunately that plan was watered down in back rooms, and as of now, only protected sections on 53rd Avenue and Oceania Street have been painted while others have been downgraded to being unprotected.

If you’d like to help shape community development, come to the next public session on December 5th where you can help design the Kissena Park section of the greenway.

This work is highly dependent on your support. No matter where you are or when you read this, please take a few minutes to thank our city for our progress, and encourage them to keep pushing so that everyone can safely travel to and through our wonderful parkland.