City Comptroller Brad Lander on Monday became the first mayoral candidate to sign a pledge to finish the redesign of deadly McGuinness Boulevard — a safety plan that was killed, then reinstated in a watered-down form, by the Adams administration after lobbying by political allies of the mayor.
In signing a pledge created by the local group Make McGuinness Safe, Lander said he would not only put all of McGuinness on a road diet — beyond the southern portion completed by the Adams Department of Transportation — but would also streamline the safety process so that it is not a matter of whim.
"With street safety, City Hall and DOT are supposed to make the assessment: 'Will this project make things safer?' And if so, go ahead and do it," Lander said. "[What happens is] that the mayor is lobbied by somebody close to him and overrules it. That's not a bureaucracy obstacle. That's a corruption obstacle. So you need to get rid of a corrupt mayor and have a not-corrupt mayor."
Once a candidate commits to that, signing the pledge should be easy, Lander added.
"This is easy," he said, adding "starting on day one" under his fresh signature on the pre-printed pledge. "It [the redesign] is already designed and ready to go." (Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani actually vowed first to complete the road diet, but has not signed the pledge formally yet. He plans to upon his return from Albany in the next few days.)
Currently, McGuinness Boulevard has a protected bike lane in both the northbound and southbound directions between the Pulaski Bridge and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The DOT had approved a plan to cut the number of car lanes from two in each direction to one — a design known as a road diet.
But after pressure from connected donors, Mayor Adams abandoned the road diet plan north of Calyer Street, leaving that stretch of the roadway an uninviting speedway.
Lander took the opportunity of signing the pledge to reflect on what he sees as a huge challenge for street safety advocates: they organize, educate the public and make presentations to community boards — and then a well-connected business owner picks up a phone to the right City Hall official. He experienced it first-hand when the Bloomberg-administration OK'd the Prospect Park West protected bike lane after residents demanded that the three-lane speedway be calmed and made safer for families just wanting to go to the park.
"There was a huge battle over that bike lane, very powerful people fought it, but when it was done, everyone quickly saw that it was working perfectly and made things safer, and the first big battle in 'Street Wars' was over," said the former Brooklyn Council member. "The same thing is happening right here on McGuinness."
He complained that the political system puts the convenience of entitled drivers over basic safety for all.
"Time and time, it takes a death on a roadway to get change — and then you hit local resistance for whatever reason."
But resistance is futile because street safety redesigns make roadways safer for all users, according to ample DOT data. The latest city data show that McGuinness is also safer since the redesign:
Crashes are down, though raw numbers are small. In the first two months of 2025, there were seven crashes and two injuries compared to nine crashes and six injuries in the first two months of 2024. That decline in injuries is 67 percent.
Lander said he hopes all his Gracie Mansion rivals sign the document, but also knows that "not all of them will," specifically referring to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for whom Lander reserved choice words.
"Andrew Cuomo, you should come sign this pledge," he said. "He may sign because he is someone who does whatever he thinks is in his interest at any time. If you build enough political power and strength, he'll come down here and sign it. And in one way, that's how democracy is supposed to work, but on the other hand, you'd like to have someone who's in it for you and not for himself. And he just has a long, long history of just being in it for himself."
"I think you know, when the Argentos would make a phone call that Andrew Cuomo will take it. ... But, yeah, my City Hall will be one where when community members organize to save lives, they're the one that the mayor is listening to, not some wealthy donor or connection."
The Cuomo campaign declined to say if the former governor will sign the pledge and engaged in a classic campaign feint.
"Brad Lander should be more concerned about his ethical lapses stemming from his anti-Israel pension fund divestment strategy and hyperventilate less about Andrew Cuomo," said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. "We ll be releasing a comprehensive transportation plan in the coming weeks."
