The Hangover: Mamdani Continues Adams Policy of Allowing Cars on Park Drives
Drivers have retaken previously car-free drives in two outer-borough parks, under car-friendly rules imposed by former Mayor Eric Adams — and Mayor Mamdani has not only failed to reverse his predecessor’s decision, but actually brought cars back into one of the parks several weeks ahead of schedule.
“To me it’s baffling, the silence from this administration,” said Andrew Smith, who organizes for a car-free Freedom Drive with the group Safer Streets Richmond Hill. “They’ve had nine months to look at this.”
In the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, city leaders banned car traffic from Freedom Drive in Forest Park in Queens and Silver Lake Park Road in Silver Lake Park on Staten Island. Both corridors belonged to a larger batch of open streets that gave more New Yorkers places to recreate outdoors without risking infection. Then-Council Speaker Corey Johnson celebrated the move as “an exciting day for an entire city starved of adequate open space.”
Five years later, in April 2025, Adams personally ordered cars back onto Silver Lake Park Road. And in December 2025 — the final month of his tumultuous mayoralty — his underlings reopened Freedom Drive, too.
Silver Lake Park Road reverted to its pre-Covid schedule of going car-free only on during weekends and public school holidays, and Freedom Drive went back to allowing car traffic between October and April. Parks officials describe this six-month-long period as the department’s “off-season,” even though many New Yorkers continue to use the city’s outdoor spaces in the colder months.
In both cases, Adams pandered to his fellow car-first politicians and overrode officials within his own Parks and Transportation departments, who said the pandemic-era road closures provided more safe open space to residents of the World’s Borough and the Rock.
Cars returned to Freedom Drive on Oct. 7 without any warning — several weeks before the city’s official schedule, which bans car from the corridor through October. “There was nothing, it was just open for business and come what may,” Smith said. “We were all surprised.” The New York Times first reported the drive’s reintroduction of cars on Friday.
Parks spokesperson Judd Faulkner said that the agency “initially anticipated reopening” Freedom Drive “near the end” of October, but “were able to open the road on October 7.” But Faulkner did not clarify why officials chose to cut the car-free schedule short by nearly a full month.
“Our parks are our backyard, and we will continue to work with our partners to explore additional opportunities for New Yorkers to enjoy the outdoors while listening to the specific needs of each community,” the rep said.
Smith has repeatedly documented the dangers of drivers whizzing back on the roads where pedestrians had enjoyed free rein just days prior.
The depredation of Freedom Drive traces to an earlier push from local Republican Council Member Joann Ariola and the chairwoman of Queens Community Board 9. Two years ago, the pair signed a letter that claimed the closure created a “constant headache” for constituents.
On Silver Lake Park Road, the city caved to Staten Island District Attorney Mike McMahon, Council Member Kamillah Hanks and Borough President Vito Fossella. The bipartisan trio wrote a letter with a similar request in March 2025, and supercharged their effort after a man attempted to rape a jogger in April of that year.
One advocate and attorney argued that motorists simply wanted to reclaim a convenient shortcut and looked for pretexts to do so.
“They had always wanted to do this,” said Chris Greene, a lawyer with Vaccaro Law. “It was a real loss and one that was conducted, in my view, on the basis of a false pretense.”
In a letter sent to Mamdani at the beginning of his term, advocates begged the new mayor to re-pedestrianize the two drives and keep his promise to transform the streets of New York City into the “envy of the world.”
“You would think he would bring that same line of thinking to parks, which should most obviously be for people,” said Rose Uscianowski, a Staten Island resident who advocates with Transportation Alternatives. “Return them back to recreational spaces. Parks are for people, not for cars.”
Adam Ganser, the executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, said Mamdani could effectively double size of the two parks by barring car traffic on interior drives, which were originally intended to carry New Yorkers riding horses and carriages.
“When you have a drive through the park, it really halves the size of the park,” Ganser said. “When those drives are closed, people can meander back and forth. It doubles the size of their park experience.”
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio reclaimed park drives from cars to great success in Central and Prospect Parks in 2018. The Parks Department describes Silver Lake Park as Staten Island’s answer to those iconic green spaces. Frederick Law Olmsted, the firm that designed both parks, also designed Forest Park.
More New Yorkers are pushing to unite car-free outdoor spaces divided by car traffic. One example is McCarren Park, on the border between Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Nearby residents have publicly pushed the city to close a stretch of Driggs Avenue that bisects the park. “When you enter into a park, you shouldn’t feel like you’re competing with cars, it should be the exact opposite,” Ganser added.
City Hall did not respond for comment.
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