Hey, Zohran, take a walk on the highway side.
Advocates against highway expansion in the South Bronx invited Mayor Mamdani and Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn to tour the Cross Bronx Expressway and listen to their ideas for creating a safer and more humane environment around the hulking highway.
Siddhartha Sanchez, the executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, sent a letter on Wednesday to Mamdani and Flynn, in which he asked the pair to take a stroll with advocates and hear their suggestions for the state-led effort to rehabilitate the highway without enlarging it.
"At this critical moment before the project moves to construction this Spring, our coalition welcomes your administration to meet with residents, learn about our community’s fresh vision for the area, and explore how the City can help advance our community’s vision," Sanchez wrote. "We share the goal of repairing our aging infrastructure through a standard repair, which should not needlessly expand the footprint of the highway."
Sanchez and other advocates waged a multi-year fight against Gov. Hochul and the New York State Department of Transportation over the state's original plan to repair an elevated section of the Cross Bronx Expressway. Officials wanted to build a diverter road to carry highway traffic while it replaced six bridges that support the highway, and later convert the new structure into a "community connector" with a general travel lane, a bus lane and a shared path for pedestrians and cyclists.
Residents and elected officials heavily resisted the plan, which they viewed as a de facto highway expansion. State DOT canceled the diverter road project last year.
But Sanchez and other advocates still object to the state's remaining plans for repairing the expressway. While the state agreed not to build any new lanes, it still wants to widen the shoulders of the highway's elevated sections, and is contemplating the addition of a shared path for walking and biking. That would create a valuable east-west connection in the borough, but advocates have criticized any arrangement that encourages New Yorkers to walk and bike directly next to loud and polluting car traffic.
State DOT is the only entity in charge of repairing the Cross Bronx. But Sanchez noted that New York City can still limit the structure's traffic volume by creating a better streetscape near Starlight Park, a 13-acre green space that sits beneath and south of the highway. The surrounding area is riven by wide roads that connect to a tangle of entrance and exit ramps.
The city is making some headway already. Nearly two decades after DOT officials proposed a redesign of the notoriously dangerous intersection at East 177th Street, East Tremont Avenue and Devoe Avenue, the department finally broke ground late last year. But other aspects, such as an unprotected bike lane on nearby East 174th Street, still need improvement.
Sanchez wants the Mamdani administration to think even bigger, from "investing in blue highways to move freight, to enhancing existing public transit options, to building safer walking and biking routes — [these are] actions aligned with your administration’s goals," he told the mayor.
