The green is there, but the greenway isn't.
The city has still not started work on nine projects to fill in gaps along the greenway in eastern Queens, despite $40 million in funding that would cover most of the key bike and pedestrian paths.
Nearly two-and-a-half years ago, the Parks Department laid out how to fix and connect the greenways in the eastern half of the World's Borough via the nine projects [PDF], but the agency never provided a timeline for actually constructing the upgrades, citing a lack of funding at the time.
Parks officials now say that six of the greenway segments have the money they need, but the agency still requires $25 million more for the remaining three pieces. The agency again declined to give any timeline for when any of the projects will happen.
Advocates called on Parks to finally take at least some of these plans off the shelf and turn the green into greenways.
"We need to know where all these pieces are," said John Kelly, one of the co-founders of Eastern Queens Greenway. "They just really need to put out a plan for all the pieces."
The advocates have for a decade pushed officials to connect the disconnected paths, which provide the only protected east-west routes for cyclists in that part of the borough, and could coherently link popular parks like Flushing Meadows Corona Park to Alley Pond Park and Fort Totten Park.
Existing stretches of the greenway continue to crumble to a point of being barely usable, and bicyclists have to mix with dangerous car traffic where the safe paths suddenly end.
The route connects several busy and beautiful parks in the northeastern section of Queens, including stretches along a former Long Island Rail Road right-of-way and a Gilded Age race course.
The Queens paths were among six greenways that Streetsblog highlighted last year for being in horrible shape.
Parks spokesman Chris Clark chalked up the slow progress to the projects involving multiple agencies, including the Department of Transportation for some on-street portions.
The agency rep said six of the projects have full funding so far (see Parks's 2022 map below for reference).
The funded projects include a new connection to Flushing Meadows Corona Park's Meadow Lake (project 2 on the map), the Kissena Corridor Park Greenway (project 4), the Kissena Park Greenway (5a), Kissena Park Swamp Forest (5b), a restroom at the Kissena Park's Velodrome (part of 6, which is also supposed to have a greenway connection), and the connection from 164th Street to Fresh Meadow Lane (7).
The projects still without funding are a greenway loop around Meadow Lake (1), a new route along the World's Fair Avenue promenades (3), and a new connection Alley Pond Park to Northern Boulevard (9).
Some of the greenways in the worst shape, such as the dilapidated stretch through Kissena Corridor Park, are in Council Member Sandra Ung's district. The lawmaker said she has earmarked more than $24 million for projects in her area during her two years in office for upgrades.
"Since taking office, I have made funding the portions of the Eastern Queens Greenway located in my district a priority in every budget cycle," Ung said in a statement to Streetsblog. "I’m proud that today nearly the entire greenway through District 20 is fully funded."
Kissena Corridor Park's paths have become so overgrown, narrow and busted up that they're barely usable, though that could change soon thanks to $11.9 million Ung and Speaker Adrienne Adams secured in this year's city budget for the Parks sub project covering that strip.
Cyclists must also navigate dangerous car traffic on roads such College Point Boulevard by the Queens Botanical Gardens, despite there being a pedestrian bridge spanning the highway-like artery.
Parks and DOT in 2022 proposed a marked crossing on the street (project number 4), and Clark cast doubt using the bridge, because the city would need to install a ramp to make it fully accessible, which he said would "impact the garden’s fencing."
Other sections are some of the best greenway infrastructure in the city, such as the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, a former private race course built by William ‘Willie’ K. Vanderbilt II in the early 1900s, before becoming a private toll road for the elites to zoom out to their Long Island estates, and finally transforming into a bike path along its Queens section in the late 1930s under then-Parks Commissioner Robert Moses.
That section, which runs through Cunningham and Alley Pond Parks, is wide, smooth, peaceful, and shaded by a tree canopy for much of its length.
Ung noted that the greenway upgrades would not only benefit cyclists, it could also draw in more parkgoers and watchful eyes to Kissena Park, where a 13-year-old child was raped last month, the lawmaker wrote a letter to Mayor Adams last Friday.
"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," the lawmaker wrote.
The advocates praised Ung for being a "greenway champion," and now called on the city get going and not let the projects gather dust.
"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," Kelly and a fellow advocate with the group, Joby Jacob told Streetsblog in a joint statement. "Now is the time to ensure that this great work isn't watered down or indefinitely delayed."
