Danger Ahead: City To Let Car Drivers Reoccupy Forest Park Next Week

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Mayor Adams's Parks Department has put cars over people once more.

The city will allow motorists back onto Freedom Drive inside Forest Park in Queens for the first time in nearly six years starting on Jan. 5, Parks reps revealed on Monday, just one week ahead of the change.

Drivers will once have control of the 0.3-mile passage between Myrtle Avenue and Park Lane South — during what Parks officials ironically call the "off season" from October to April. The return of cars into the formerly road-violence-free space follows a year-plus campaign by area politicians and their appointed voices on the community board.

Parks spokesperson Gregg McQueen said that the agency "believes that keeping Freedom Drive closed to vehicular traffic for recreational activities is an overall benefit to the park and the neighborhood," but went ahead and restored access for car drivers after a vote by Community Board 9 "to open the road to vehicular traffic only during the off-season."

McQueen said Parks officials "are pleased with the compromise."

And the latest attack on New Yorkers who enjoy a little more open space is also a middle finger by the lame-duck Adams administration towards his successor Zohran Mamdani, who takes office on Thursday — and local advocates were incensed over the "rush job" to open the floodgates to vehicle traffic.

"It seems like a ... rush job without much consideration for public safety," said Andy Smith, a community organizer with Safer Streets Richmond Hill. "It sets a dangerous precedent, and then also invites a more dangerous atmosphere on the road.

"It takes away from the enjoyment of many of us in the community," Smith added.

The city reclaimed the strip from cars in May 2020, as part of the first tranche of open streets that then-Mayor Bill de Blasio created to provide more outdoor space for New Yorkers to gather safely during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The gated path quickly became popular and reconnected the large park that is bisected several times over by roads, such as the roaring Jackie Robinson Parkway.

Freedom Drive's demise comes thanks in large part to a push from Republican Council Member Joann Ariola, whose district includes the park, and the heads of Community Board 9, who penned a letter last year demanding Parks restore car noise and the potential for grievous injuries full time.

The issue came to a head at a public feedback session hosted by CB9 in November, when locals begged city officials to continue to bar cars from Freedom Drive so it could remain a safe haven from speeding drivers. More than 800 people also signed an online petition opposing the return of motor vehicles.

Residents in favor of resuming car traffic complained about backups and said that emergency vehicles would be delayed by the entrance gates (which can easily be unlocked), while claiming the closure was unsafe for people without the supposedly watchful eyes motorists passing through.

Parks officials gave in to the pressure and said they would move forward with a "compromise" of reopening the road during the colder "off season," if the board supported that, despite the same agency reps acknowledging at the meeting that the year-round closure was a boon.

A citywide parks advocate said the city was prioritizing driver convenience over safety.

"There’s no season where safety can be put on the back burner," said Kathy Park Price, director of policy and advocacy at New Yorkers for Parks. "We need to be looking at a strategy for systematically reducing and eliminating cars out of our parks, not going back on progress that has been made because of the minority voices of a few drivers who want to short-cut through the drive."

Prior to the closure, there had been 31 reported crashes between 2011-2019, injuring 56 people – or seven a year – including 48 people in cars, six cyclists and two pedestrians.

Ever since the city installed the gates, the one-time roadway has transformed into a space for people to safely walk and ride bikes, and for kids from the adjacent playground and the elementary school a block away, parents and educators told CB9 at the meeting last month.

It's still popular during the snowy depths of the so-called off season, Smith noted.

"All you need to do is go there and see the whole road covered in foot prints," the Queens resident told Streetsblog. "You see kids sledding down the hills onto the road, people are taking photos, it’s very picturesque."

The closure also improved safety at both ends of the street without increasing congestion, reps with the Department of Transportation told the civic panel last month.

The board's unelected members nevertheless voted overwhelmingly in favor for the so-called compromise. But their recommendation is purely advisory, meaning it remains entirely up to the Parks Department and the incoming mayor to decide what to do with Freedom Drive.

The battle to keep public space for people and not cars echoes a very similar effort by politicians on Staten Island, who earlier this year successfully lobbied Parks to bring cars back on a road running through Silver Lake Park after a pandemic-era closure.

These setbacks show the challenge of maintaining car-free infrastructure over the wishes of slightly-inconvenienced motorists, even several years after the city booted cars from park drives to great success inside Central or Prospect parks.

Ariola and CB9 did not respond for comment.