Will the city finally put the “bliss” in Blissville?
A proposal to build a network of protected bike lanes called the “Blissville Greenway” will add vital bike connectivity to industrial, but increasingly residential neighborhoods on both sides of the Newtown Creek separating Queens and north Brooklyn — a project that area residents began calling for in 2017, but which gained momentum after the the opening of the Kosciuszko Bridge pedestrian and bike path and the tragic killing of two cyclists on Borden Avenue in 2019.
The Department of Transportation presented its plan to Queens Community Board 2 in May — and the panel was pleasantly surprised.
“We were shocked,” said Reilly Owens, the CB2 transportation chair. “It is nice when DOT presents something to us that’s just completely wonderful.”
The project would be built in three phases, all on the Queens side:
- Phase I (could start this year)
- Review Avenue between 56th Road (near the Kosciusko Bridge) and Greenpoint Avenue (which includes the eponymous bridge) would get a two-way protected bike lane.
- Southbound Starr Avenue and northbound Review Avenue between Greenpoint and Borden avenues will get a standard painted lane.
- Three short stretches (Van Dam Street and Greenpoint Avenue near the bridge) and Borden Avenue between Starr and Review avenues will get a protected bike lane.
- Phase II (could start next year)
- Borden Avenue from Center Boulevard in Long Island City to Review Avenue, which will connect the Queens waterfront to points east.
- Phase III (currently has no start date)
- 56th Road and Rust Street will get unspecified improvements.
In addition, the messy, six-way intersection on the Queens side of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge will be redesigned with curb extensions, a crosswalk, and bike lanes that continue through the intersection. But it's unclear what phase that's in.
This plan was requested by multiple area stakeholders including Council Member Julie Won, Community Board 2, and the Blissville Civic Association, according to DOT. Blissville is a small community with around 1,000 residents and includes two large homeless shelters that were opened in 2018. But there are lots of cyclists.
“After the creation of the Kosciuszko Bridge pedestrian and bikeway, all of a sudden, we saw tons of people jogging, walking, and biking down Review Avenue, and we were at first like, ‘What’s going on?’ and then we realized the walkway was leading people here, when they landed on the Queens side, they just followed the cemetery to the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge,” said Tom Mituzas, a lifelong Blissville resident and leader of the civic association.
Much of the area is zoned for manufacturing, and, as a result, large trucks help give the area the dubious distinction of being in the bottom third for safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
Between 2019 and 2023, the DOT said 178 people were injured along the roadways that are slated to get safety improvements, including 15 people who were killed or seriously injured. In 2019, cyclist Robert Spencer, 53, and Mario Valenzuela, 14, was both killed on Borden Avenue.
“The roads are dangerous and they're wide,” said Laura Shepard, Queens organizer with Transportation Alternatives. “There's a lot of trucks and other industrial activity and no protection for cyclists. The pedestrian infrastructure is sparse in places and sidewalks are not in good condition, or don't exist on one side of the street. It's not a pleasant place to walk or bike right now.”
The legnthiest parts of the project, Review Avenue from Meeker Avenue to Greenpoint Avenue and Borden Avenue from Center Boulevard to Review Avenue are lined with businessess that currently use the street as loading zones and personal vehicle parking. The two-way parking protected bike lane will leave an entire side of the street available for loading:
The plan will also add much-needed connections to newly constructed, but difficult-to-reach parks on the waterfront. And Maspeth Park has a skatepark that more people would use, Mituzas said, if they could get there safely.
Of course, it's not all smiles in Blissville; some large companies are grumbling.
A group calling itself “Long Island City Business Owners and Stakeholders” started a petition against the project, demanding a "comprehensive traffic study" and consideration of other routes. The petition has very few signatures right now, but the group is following a playbook established by a small group of politically connected business interests in Greenpoint, which successfully got the Adams administration to abandon a DOT plan to improve safety on McGuinness Boulevard.
Broadway Stages, the film studio company behind the anti-safety crusade in Greenpoint, also owns property on the Queens side of the Newtown Creek.
“I do know that some businesses aren’t thrilled with it. But, I trust the experts at DOT who I believe are speaking to them and will do the right thing,” said Mituzas. "I am just looking for some traffic-calming measures so we can cross the street safely. Our small businesses, who we generally work with, there’s no concern there."
The DOT said it always conducts outreach to local businesses before finalizing its designs.
