The city illegally turned a popular bike and pedestrian path in Silver Lake Park into a road for cars, and in doing so, "robbed the community" of safe open space, said a group of Staten Islanders as they gave notice of their intention to sue.
The Alliance to Save Silver Lake Park accused officials of quickly bowing to a fact-free push from politicians on the Rock, led by District Attorney Mike McMahon, who seized on an alleged attempted rape of a jogger in the park last month to argue that restoring cars to the park would make it safer.
"By evicting recreational users from Silver Lake Park Road, the Parks Department rendered a designated protected bike lane unusable, tore down 17 adolescent and mature trees (in a park to make way for cars), and robbed the community of an accessible recreational space for people with disabilities, including people who use wheelchairs, walkers, and other mobility devices," the group of residents wrote to the Parks Department on April 30.
"The decision was not only a policy failure, but also a process one," the missive continued.
Parks booted people from the roadway to make way for automobiles on April 24, over the opposition from dozens advocates who rallied at the park in the days leading up to the closure and the hundreds of supporters who signed an online petition.
The city's decision was based on a "baseless theory of crime prevention, and deliberately overlooks the risks that arise from putting cars in parks," the letter notes.
The return of motor vehicles in Silver Lake Park came just three weeks after the attack on the runner on April 3, marking a staggering warp speed turnaround by the city to cater to drivers.
Compare that with any effort to reclaim road space for cars, whether its Parks's transportation corridors that routinely languish in disrepair for years, or Mayor Adams yanking a much-needed pedestrian path from the Queensborough Bridge at the 11th hour.
The Alliance's letter [PDF] demanded that the Parks Department make the three-quarter-mile strip car-free again, citing the agency's borough commissioner, who told local pols the agency believes keeping vehicles out is a boon for park-goers — just look at Central or Prospect Parks for comparison!
"The Parks Department has an opportunity to, in the words of Borough Commissioner Lynda Ricciardone, 'keep our parks vehicle-free' as a 'benefit to all those who use them,'" reads the group's letter. "Failing to do so will invite litigation, and a public assessment as to how the Parks Department adopted the conclusion that cars will protect people."
The organization is considering a so-called Article 78 lawsuit, which allows New Yorkers to challenge government decisions that are "arbitrary and capricious," but an attorney for the group hoped the city would come to its senses before any formal legal action.
"We are honestly hopeful that they take a sober look at this and determine that parks are for people and not for cars," said Chris Greene, a lawyer with the bike-focused firm Vaccaro Law. "I do feel like the Parks Department was snookered here."
The pushback has already prompted one local lawmaker to backtrack.
Council Member Kamillah Hanks, who joined McMahon and Borough President Vito Fossella in supporting the return of cars to the park, last week offered the compromise of keeping the roadway car-free on weekends, while admitting that her previous position was motivated by favoring drivers.
"For many years, residents have expressed the need for greater roadway access to ease daily travel, improve connectivity, and restore the
historical use of this corridor," Hanks wrote in a April 23 letter, a copy of which Streetsblog obtained. "At the same time ... I have heard from residents who have come to deeply value Silver Lake Road as an open, car-free space for walking, jogging, cycling, and family recreation."
In 2020, the de Blasio administration banned cars from the road full-time to provide residents with more open space inside the park, which the city calls Staten Island's response to Central Park.
But after the attack on the local runner, McMahon, Fossella, and police brass rallied at a press conference saying they wanted to bring back cars to have more eyes on the green space they called "desolate."
The DA had been asking Parks and the Department of Transportation for the road to be reverted to a car sewer weeks before the attack, sending out a letter on March 14 [PDF].
The prosecutor's office did not provide any proof that cars would make the park safer; indeed, data indicate the opposite. For one, 98 percent of the borough's rapes happened outside of its parks.
Meanwhile, more space for the cars is the last thing the Rock needs, as there have been 4,727 reported crashes last year injuring 2,413 people — nearly seven every day — and killing 14, according to Crash Mapper.
The politicians's push for safety did not add up from the beginning, said Greene, saying they capitalized on the attempted rape to further their longer-standing hope of extra car space.
"It smelled from the very beginning because it didn’t make any sense," said Greene. "They had this long-held, but private, desire to reintroduce cars in the park and then they sprung it on us."
At a recent meeting of the area's community board, one local said she would feel less safe as a result, and recounted a past case where a driver sexually assaulted her.
"I’ve had people, when I was cycling, hit me from the car. One time, somebody smacked me on the butt, I was so surprised I didn’t fall," said Sarah Yuster at an April 15 committee meeting of Community Board 1. "Opening the road [to cars] is not going to make things safer."
Locals called for better lighting, surveillance cameras or more police foot patrols. A rep for DA McMahon told the civic panel that two cameras have been set up, but claimed the local 120th Precinct did not have enough cops to spare for a regular presence.
"Unfortunately the 120 [Precinct] does not have the bandwidth to support an indefinite enhanced presence in the park," Lizzie Bianco told CB 1. "Opening the road, that’s not one silver bullet, there never will be one silver bullet to solve things. But from the DA’s perspective having that vehicular traffic, having more people present, that increases the number of eyes that are going through the park."
Parks spokesperson Gregg McQueen declined to comment about the threat of a lawsuit, but did say that the agency did not remove trees, but rather did "resolve tree hazards, including the removal of dead and diseased trees."
It's unclear why the agency only tackled the arboreal dangers once motorists were set to return, and not beforehand to protect pedestrians and cyclists.
