Activists Protest City's Inaction On Queens Boulevard Redesign

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — More than 500 days after a city transportation official called finishing its Queens Boulevard redesign a "mayoral priority," with no progress in sight, street safety activists are calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration to finish what they started.

About two dozen activists gathered in MacDonald Park this past weekend for yet another rally demanding the city move ahead with its plan to redesign a portion of Queens Boulevard from Yellowstone Boulevard to Union Turnpike in Forest Hills.

The Forest Hills redesign is the last step in the Department of Transportation's four-phase plan to make the notorious "Boulevard of Death" safer by adding crosswalks, slip lanes and other safety measures.

DOT Queens Deputy Borough Commissioner Albert Silvestri referred to the project as a "mayoral priority" in May 2018, according to Streetsblog.

But it stalled after the local community board voted against it, in large part because the plan would replace more than 200 parking spots with bike lanes.

City Hall spokesperson Will Baskin-Gerwitz told the New York Daily News that the city is "moving forward with the redesign and working with the community" and that officials "will continue working through this last, most challenging section."

For months, city officials have declined to share with reporters any timeline for the project.