Vote for the activist of the year. The nominees are (clockwise from top left): Baruch Herzfeld, Shabazz Stuart, “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz, the activists who got Kathy Hochul to end the Cross Bronx Expressway widening and Critical Mass.
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The year 2025 had high highs and low lows for the movement to make our streets more livable, safe, bike-able and free from the scourge of cars and car dependence — but through it all, determined activists undeterred by the headwinds of opposition, be it from Mayor Adams's City Hall or their own neighbors.
For a year that started with the long-sought launch of congestion pricing on Jan. 5 followed a few months later by the long-awaited opening of the Queensboro Bridge pedestrian path, thing sure did turn sour: Mayor Adams ripped up three blocks of the Bedford Avenue protected bike lane, imposed an unenforceable 15-mph speed limit on e-bikes and had the NYPD crack down on cyclists. To top it all off, a judge ordered DOT to rip up the protected bike lane on 31st Street in just this month.
In the face of all that, But advocates were there — fighting some of the biggest battles to make our city safer and more just. Below are four nominees for our coveted "Activist of the Year" award, but remember, being nominated is itself an award. Vote at the bottom.
And the nominees are...
Baruch Herzfeld (and his teenage son Rafe)
Baruch Herzfeld
Baruch Herzfeld was everywhere in 2025: Bringing his curbside e-bike battery charging stations to in Crown Heights and Lower Manhattan. Fighting for the Bedford Avenue protected bike lane with his 13-year-old son Rafe (himself a cyclist). Advocating for the city to cut the red tape blocking more battery "swap" stations across the city and country.
Herzfeld's passion for immigrant workers and the all-too-easily ignored cyclists of the city's Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish communities inspires his advocacy and entrepreneurship have made him the top advocate and ally for two-wheelers typically demonized by the media and political class.
"I like the try new things," the self-described "gadfly" told The City's LIT NYC podcast this month. "I have 30 ideas a day."
Critical Mass
This year marked the return of Critical Mass — autonomous direct action bike rides that were a huge deal in the 1990s and 2000s. The Bike Messengers Association organized the first such ride of the year in May after Streetsblog exposed NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch's Draconian crackdown on cyclists. Other groups joined in the peaceful demonstration, including Transportation Alternatives, Los Deliveristas Unidos, Get Women Cycling and others.
That coalition came together for an even bigger protest ride in July, again in opposition to Tisch's crackdown, which continues to this day. And then again later that month to protest Mayor Adams's decision to rip up three blocks of the Bedford Avenue protected bike lane.
Shabazz Stuart will probably have mixed emotions about being on this list. On the one hand, Stuart's years of boosterism for his Oonee bike parking system and advocacy for the city to finally issue a contract to bring secure bike storage citywide. Unfortunately for Stuart and his legions of local fans, that contract went to California-based Tranzito, not Oonee.
Even then, Stuart's advocacy can't be discounted. Showing off his Oonee pods over the years, Stuart helped working cyclists, bike advocates and government officials — including Mayor Adams — see a future where parking your bike on the street didn't inevitably sooner or later lead to it getting stolen.
Oonee has appealed DOT's contract decision. In the meantime, it's got several contracts going in the region including with the Port Authority. But we're giving its CEO Stuart the advocate his flowers. New Yorkers often lack the space in their apartments to store even one bike, let alone several. Thanks to Shabazz Stuart's relentless advocacy, that's hopefully about to change.
'Gridlock Sam' Schwartz
"Gridlock Sam" Schwartz had a big year, starting with the arguable culmination of his life's work — the launch of congestion pricing on Jan. 5.
But the former head of the now-defunct Department of Traffic didn't stop there, topping that achievement off with the launch in September of Hunter College's new Sam Schwartz Transportation Research Program, housed at the former Upper East Side home of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
He promised to toast the start of congestion pricing and, finally, he did!Courtesy of Sam Schwartz
Schwartz once served as the go-to guru for car drivers in the pages of the Daily News, but in recent years he's leaned more and more into his true urbanist self. In June, he contributed to Streetsblog's "Car Harms" series with a piece on how cars transformed life in New York City for the worse.
"We have lost a great deal in our collective efforts to accommodate the automobile. We have lost so much that some can't even see it," he wrote. "Fortunately, the pendulum is finally starting to swing back, and valuable public space is being restored to the people, albeit slowly."
Highway expansion killers in N.J. and the Bronx
Two different anti-highway coalitions notched two big wins this year in the Bronx and New Jersey.
When Gov. Hochul and the New York State Department of Transportation announced plans to build a "community connector" alongside the existing blueprint of the Cross-Bronx Expressway, Boogie Down activists jumped into action — calling the plan out for what it really was: a highway expansion that would cast a giant shadow over one of the area's few parks.
"This is for drivers," Nilka Martell, the founder of Loving The Bronx, an organization devoted to environmental issues in the borough, told Streetsblog in August 2024. Martell and other Bronx groups went all in on fighting against the proposal until Hochul and NYSDOT finally abandoned it in October.
Assembly Member Amanda Septimo (D-Bronx) speaks at a rally opposing the proposed Cross Bronx Expressway expansion project.Dave Colon
In the Garden State, meanwhile, Christmas came early for anti-highway activists when Gov. Phil Murphy reneged on plans to widen the New Jersey Turnpike extension east of the Newark Bay Bridge. The highway widening had been in the works for years despite opposition from the mayors of Newark, Jersey City and Hoboken. The battle isn't over yet, though: the Turnpike Trap Coalition still opposes Murphy's plans to build a wider bridge — and plan to keep up the fight.
Siddhartha Sanchez, executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, called the Hochul's decision to scrap the Cross-Bronx plan "a massive win and a huge relief for the South Bronx." The fight continues there too, however: state DOT is still considering widening the existing highway's footprint. Advocates want greater community input in that process — specifically, a longer comment period as what the groups described as "poorly advertised public hearings" with "low attendance."
Now it's time to vote! Polls remain open until Dec. 24 at 11:59 p.m. — just in time for Santa!
David was Streetsblog's do-it-all New York City beat reporter from 2015 to 2019. He returned as deputy editor in 2023 after a three-year stint at the New York Post.
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