Mayor Mamdani must banish cars from two roads inside city parks where his disgraced lame-duck predecessor opened the gates to motorists, advocates demanded in a letter to City Hall this week.
At the behest of conservative politicians and complaining drivers, former mayor Eric Adams allowed automobiles inside parts of Forest Park in Queens and Silver Lake Park on Staten Island for the first time in five years.
Mamdani could easily reverse Adams's decision and fulfill his pledge to transform the streets of New York City into the "envy of the world," according to the missive signed by two dozen parks, street safety and disability advocates.
"At the very moment the city is committing to safer, more ambitious street transformations on major corridors, allowing motor vehicles back onto streets within public parks moves in the opposite direction," reads the Jan. 12 letter signed by leaders of New Yorkers for Parks, Transportation Alternatives, the Open Streets Network, Open Plans (which shares a parent organization with Streetsblog), Parks and Trails New York, and Disabled in Action.
"Reintroducing cars into spaces that had successfully functioned as car-free undermines this vision and sends a conflicting signal about the city’s commitment to safety, accessibility, and people-centered public space," the letter continued. "Eliminating these popular and successful open streets sets up a dangerous precedent and points to a pattern of rolling back street safety improvements in the service of a minority of drivers."
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio closed both streets to motor vehicle traffic during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, when New Yorkers demanded places to breathe fresh air and safely congregate. Brand-new corridors for pedestrians and cyclists flourished throughout the city, and reconnected people to park spaces that cars had scarred for decades.
But five years later, the Parks Department relented to drivers and right-wing politicians, including Staten Island's Democratic District Attorney Michael McMahon and Council Minority Leader Joann Ariola (R-Queens). Last spring, McMahon pressured Adams to reopen Silver Lake Park Road in its namesake park on Staten Island's north shore, and Ariola followed suit late last year, when she lobbied Adams to invite cars back onto Freedom Drive in Forest Park in the final days of the former mayor's term. Adams yielded to both.
Those politicians claimed, without evidence, that letting cars back in would make the roadways safer, and that the gates caused traffic backups and hindered emergency response times. But Department of Transportation officials said the closures made surrounding streets safer without delays, and Parks reps said the barriers were trivial to unlock.
Parks officials went so far as to publicly praise both projects as an "overall benefit" for locals, and wrote in a letter that they "believe keeping parks vehicle-free is a benefit to all who use them." But the agency still gave in and reopened both roads to traffic, with Freedom Drive returning to cars during the so-called "off-season" from October to April, and Silver Lake Park Road going back to year-round traffic.
Residents of Richmond Hill, Queens, who have enjoyed a car-free Freedom Drive for years, have repeatedly warned that many of Forest Park's visitors remain unaware of the change and continue to walk in the street due to insufficient signage to warn them that cars have returned.
In Silver Lake Park, the return of cars has pushed pedestrians to the margins, while cyclists and children have "all but disappeared from the park drive on weekdays," the letter continued. NYPD reported at least one crash with three injuries since Silver Lake Park Drive reopened to cars in April.
In both Queens and Staten Island, online petitions to once again remove cars from the parks have gathered around 900 signatures.
The reinstatement of car traffic represents a regression from the city's Streets Master Plan, because it de-maps nearly a mile of safe cycling and pedestrian infrastructure — or nearly two miles under DOT's practice of double-counting two-way bike infrastructure.
DOT failed to meet the annual requirements for new bike and bus lane mileage every year under the Adams administration, and the new agency commissioner Mike Flynn has emphasized the need to aim higher than his predecessor.
"We urge the city to immediately reverse these decisions and restore these park streets to safe, people-first, non-vehicular use," the letter reads.
A spokesperson for Mayor Mamdani said officials will "monitor conditions" at the two parks.
"We will make a determination for next steps once we have enough data to do so," Dora Pekec said in a statement.
