The Bronx just made history. Despite the odds, the Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion coalition — composed of community groups, environmental advocates, and everyday residents — claimed a victory over the $900-million Cross Bronx expansion plan from Gov. Hochul and the state Department of Transportation. With support from more than a dozen elected officials, we stopped a new mile-long elevated roadway set to increase pollution and sickness for more than 64,000 people living along the expressway, including more than 3,000 residents in NYCHA’s Bronx River Houses.
This victory didn't come out of nowhere. It's the manifestation of years of relentless community organizing by the Bronx River Alliance and our coalition partners; the same community voices that advocated for the remediation, renovation, and creation of over 40 acres of new waterfront parkland for the South Bronx, and transformed a once-polluted waterway into a thriving ecosystem. From youth and families at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School and Samara Community School, to our local community garden partners, to regional groups, our neighbors banded together for an all-hands-on-deck effort. Stopping this so-called “traffic diversion structure” is just the latest chapter in our story, and real proof that people power can win.
But there’s still more work ahead.
Our next mayor has an opportunity to build a safer, more affordable, and interconnected Bronx. That work starts with pursuing a more equitable Cross Bronx Five Bridges solution — one that reimagines our neighborhoods with more green space, enhanced public transit, and pedestrian and cyclist-friendly street connections. Gov. Hochul and state DOT have already taken a step in the right direction by scrapping their proposed roadway.
Now New York City can do its part.
The Bronx needs a mayor who understands that improving mobility isn’t about building bigger highways, but instead working with New Yorkers to center lived experiences in planning. Our community has already identified the priorities that would actually improve Bronx lives: cleaner air, safer streets, and neighborhoods reconnected after a generational divide. But we’re still pushing for city and state leaders to adopt and advance our proposals, and transform the Cross Bronx corridor into the vibrant space our borough deserves.
For too long, Robert Moses's Cross Bronx has been a symbol of how powerful interests bulldozed through our neighborhoods with no regard for the Black and Brown families living here. The expressway literally cuts our borough in half. The least we deserve is high quality, reliable transit to help stitch it back together.
Over the last year, we’ve seen mayoral candidates advance a variety of transit priorities, including making buses free and fast, greenlighting street redesign projects, and improving transit safety. Bronxites share these priorities; residents along the Cross Bronx corridor continue to sound the alarm about the dangerous intersections that children, seniors, and wheelchair users — people of all ages and ability — are forced to navigate daily. It doesn’t help that we’re also long overdue for east-west bus routes that link our neighborhoods, and protected bike lanes that let parents safely ride with their children to school and parks. With 62 percent of Bronxites already living car-free — the highest rate in the city — and despite congestion pricing, we’re still waiting on the world-class public transit options other boroughs enjoy. Better transit would represent real progress for our neighborhoods, far more than a highway expansion for polluting trucks and out-of-state drivers.
Beyond these essential amenities, the next mayor has a rare opportunity to work in tandem with state officials and leverage the Cross Bronx Five Bridges Project to revamp our city’s freight transport system. All it takes is one look at Hunts Point climate-forward agenda to bring blue highways to New York City using our local waterways to move goods. Shifting to this approach has the power to relieve traffic congestion, reduce emissions, and clean up our environment — key priorities from our community’s stated goals for reimagining the expressway corridor. What’s more: by freeing up valuable space on streets, our leaders can also take advantage of restoring and expanding access to green space. The move would clean our air, safeguarding community health for families living in the heart of Asthma Alley, and dealing with some of the worst asthma rates in the city — and nationwide.
The Bronx is eager to elect a mayor who commits to investing in communities and transit. We’ve already shown what's possible when we organize and demand the infrastructure investments our community deserves. Now we need city leadership that will partner with us to turn our latest victory into lasting transformation.
The question for New York City’s mayoral candidates is simple: Will you stand with the Bronx as we reimagine our future?
