A New Era for Greenpoint: Mayor Mamdani Completes McGuinness Boulevard Redesign

Deputy Mayor for Operations Julia Kerson and NYC DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn join elected officials and community members to break ground on the McGuinness Boulevard redesign on May 27, 2026.

McGuinness Boulevard is a critical cycling connection between Brooklyn and Queens, serving more than 4,000 daily riders during the summer months. The completed redesign includes one travel lane in each direction, a parking-protected bike lane in each direction and a curbside lane for parking and loading on both sides of the boulevard.

"Make McGuinness Safe started in 2021 as an outlet for our collective grief, anger and fear after the death of beloved PS110 teacher, Matthew Jensen," said Bronwyn Breitner, Co-founder of Make McGuinness Safe. "Today Greenpoint is celebrating not only a safer McGuinness Boulevard, but the power of community organizing to bring about real change on our streets. We're deeply grateful to Mayor Mamdani for keeping his promise and to all of our elected leaders for standing with us."

"I am gratified to see a full length of McGuinness Boulevard made safer from north to south," said Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. "These street improvements make pedestrian crossings and commutes by bike safer. No longer is McGuinness a highway cut-through but a more complete neighborhood street for all users. I commend the Mayor and his team for following through on promises to the community."

"I want to thank Mayor Mamdani for prioritizing street safety and for prioritizing investments to McGuinness Boulevard at the start of his administration," said State Senator Kristen Gonzalez. "For years, McGuinness Boulevard has divided the Greenpoint community. Before the redesign, McGuinness experienced a crash every other day. After the loss of beloved teacher Matthew Jensen, parents of PS 110 and the Make McGuinness Safe Coalition demanded real street safety, a full redesign, organized hundreds of Greenpointers and gathered thousands of signatures. It is thanks to them that McGuinness will be safe for generations to come. I want to thank Mayor Mamdani and DOT Commissioner Flynn for listening to our community and working with our local electeds to make the redesign a reality."

"The McGuinness redesign represents the culmination of decades of work and an uphill battle that often felt impossible. Part of why I ran for office was the perpetual inaction from local elected officials, despite years of serious injuries and deaths on McGuinness Boulevard," said Assemblymember Emily Gallagher. "If our local government couldn't respond to community demands to fix a deadly road, how could we trust them to protect us at all? This victory belongs to our community, especially the brave and tenacious Make McGuinness Safe organizers. It's a reminder that we can demand our elected representatives fight for our communities, over the status quo - and if they don't, we will step up to elect new ones. The redesigned McGuinness exists to honor the memory of Matthew Jensen and every person lost to senseless traffic violence."

"McGuinness Boulevard has dangerously divided Greenpoint for generations. Now, we finally have permanently remade McGuinness into a far safer road for our kids, older adults and all of us to navigate," said Council Member Lincoln Restler. "I'm enormously grateful to Mayor Mamdani for making the full McGuinness safety plan a top priority, and to Assembly Member Emily Gallagher, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. I'm especially grateful to the tireless activists at Make McGuinness Safe and the countless neighbors and friends for fighting to transform this dangerous mile stretch into a citywide model for commonsense street safety measures."

"After a long and arduous process of community-driven coordination, today we celebrate peace of mind for Greenpoint and Williamsburg residents to cross this corridor safely," said Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez. "Following years of stop-and-go confusion from the previous administration, I applaud Mayor Mamdani and all partners for listening to the community and following through on this long-awaited project."

"Thanks to the tireless advocacy of the Make McGuinness Safe coalition - and the Mamdani administration - this deadly street will finally be safe for everyone," said Ben Furnas, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. "After beloved teacher Matthew Jensen was killed crossing this street, families and neighbors demanded a truly safe McGuinness Boulevard. Greenpoint's decades-long battle for safety is finally a reality up and down McGuinness, and now families can safely walk to school no matter which side of the street they call home. This redesign will save lives and model just how our city will be transformed when we finally put children first.

"The speed of transformation on our city's streets continues to accelerate, and McGuinness Boulevard is the latest proof that the movement for livable streets is here to stay. It's exciting to see yet another major corridor redesigned to reflect the needs of the vast majority of New Yorkers who walk, bike and use transit to get around," said Sara Lind, Co-Executive Director at Open Plans. "We thank the administration for delivering another major corridor that's safer for everyone, and for continuing to make progress on our city's streetscape. We're only just getting started, and Open Plans looks forward to helping deliver what's next, from Low Traffic Neighborhoods to School Streets and more."

"The completion of the full redesign of McGuinness Boulevard marks a major milestone in improving street safety in New York City, as well as the fulfillment of a promise made by Mayor Mamdani just days after he was sworn into office," said Eric McClure, Executive Director of StreetsPAC. "We're grateful to the Mayor and Commissioner Flynn and their teams for pushing this project to the finish line, to Assemblymember Gallagher and State Senator Gonzalez and Council Member Restler for their unwavering support of the redesign, and especially to the advocates and organizers of Make McGuinness Safe who worked tirelessly and selflessly to get us to this day."

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