Friday Video: It’s AOC! On A Bike! With Streetsblog!
A lot of people want Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028, but she’s still the congresswoman representing the Bronx and Queens. And how does AOC get around her sprawling outer borough district? By bike, of course.
Streetsblog got wind of Ocasio-Cortez’s new cycling kick earlier this year when she did an entire Instagram Live while navigating her East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights neighborhood on two wheels. Members of Congress are rarely seen riding bikes in big cities.
We immediately knew we had to see AOC biking IRL — and find out how navigating around cars parked in unprotected New York City bike lanes shapes her perspective on transportation policy. So last month, the week before the June Democratic primary (she won 90 percent of the vote), she took us on a ride around the Queens part of her district.
Despite all the attention on Ocasio-Cortez’s political rise, little is ever said about its bike lane origins: When she first ran for Congress in 2018, Sunnyside and Woodside were embroiled in a contentious battle over the 43rd Avenue and Skillman Avenue protected bike lanes. The incumbent, Rep. Joe Crowley, opposed the project through his proxies on the local community board, while the upstart DSA challenger Ocasio-Cortez supported it.
She won, and a few weeks later, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio shrugged off Crowley’s opposition and advanced the redesign.
Eight years later, Queens has a lot more bike lanes and pedestrian infrastructure than it did when Ocasio-Cortez first got elected. The crown jewel is probably the 34th Avenue Open Street — which the congresswoman described to us as quintessentially American.
“The freedom of movement is something that is so core to just being a person and being an American. But also, our freedom to move is also our freedom to connect with each other, ” she said. “You can see [how] this one Open Street brought people together. … Being able to be brought out with each other is part of what helps us fight for one another. The more we fight for infrastructure like this, the better we get at raising our wages, the better we get at fighting for each others’ rights, and the better we get at seeing past our differences and fighting for everyone’s ability to live a dignified life.”
Watch Ocasio-Cortez pedaling around with our own Managing Editor David Meyer below:
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