Mayor Mamdani and the Department of Transportation weren’t kidding when they said they intended to reintroduce the Astoria 31st Street bike lane project after it was stopped by a judge.
What once was a six-block proposal now is planned for 2.5 miles between Northern Boulevard and 20th Avenue. All but the northernmost few blocks lie beneath the elevated N/W subway tracks.
Deputy DOT Commissioner Jason Banrey and Chris Brunson, director of safety programs, offered a detailed presentation on the new plan Tuesday evening at the meeting of Community Board 1 in Astoria.
About 60 residents spoke during the public portion of the meeting, with proponents enjoying about a four-to-three majority over opponents.
CB 1 afterward voted to send the DOT a letter of approval for the project, with only four members opposed.
The DOT reasserted its position that bike lanes are proven to lower deaths and injuries for all users of city roadways.
“This is not just a bike lane project — it’s a public safety project,” Brunson said. The DOT said 31st Street is one of the city’s top 10 safety priority corridors, with 502 injuries, including 23 classified as serious, along with three deaths, from 2021 to 2025.
The DOT’s slide show presentation can be viewed online at tinyurl.com/26kcy4wz.
Daylighting will be added at intersections not only to increase sight lines, but to give the FDNY easier and closer access to burning buildings, the DOT said.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Cheree Buggs back in December considered assertions by unions for the city’s firefighters and fire officers that the bike lanes would greatly impede the efforts to fight a fire when she stopped the first plan.
Pedestrian-friendly street markings will allow for shorter street crossings along the corridor. Numerous traffic-calming changes also will be made.
The plan for now also calls for the elimination — or repurposing, in DOT vernacular — of 169 parking spots, or about 20 percent of the total spaces on the corridor.
The DOT also said there will be metered parking to encourage turnover in front of businesses, commercial loading zones and residential pickup and dropoff areas.
Safety was on the mind of both supporters and critics of the bike lanes.
Martha Valenzuela of Astoria was in tears making reference to her late son, Mario Valenzuela Jr., who was 14 when he was killed by a truck on Borden Avenue in 2019.
“My son loved riding his bike,” she said. “Bike lanes save lives.”
Carl Bosley was one of two speakers who was a friend of cyclist Amanda Servedio of Astoria, who was killed in October 2024 at 34th Avenue and 37th Street when she was struck by a driver who allegedly was attempting to flee from police.
“We had just finished a ride,” Bosley said, saying he said goodbye right after crossing the Ed Koch Queensboro bridge.
“She would have loved to be able to ride 31st Street [in a bike lane],” he said.
But Firefighter Michael Schreiber talked about public safety, too.
Schreiber is the health and safety officer for Uniformed Firefighters Association Local 94, the union representing rank-and-file firefighters.
He also lives and works in Astoria.
“I am here to tell you that the redesign will jeopardize the lives of residents,” Schreiber said. “The proposal will put trucks 20 feet from the curb. We will not get [ladders] above the third floor. Someone has to tell residents along 31st Street that this is putting them in danger.”
He said it would be very difficult to maneuver a 43-foot ladder truck into a bike lane to attack fires from the curb; and that in any case the Jersey barriers forming a protected bike lane would prevent firefighters from extending their outriggers, the hydraulic support legs that extend from a ladder truck to keep it from falling over.
The DOT said the new plan increases channelization around fire hydrants and adds structures that discourage parking but would be easily cleared by firefighters.
Schreiber said that arrangement still would keep ladder trucks partially parked beneath the train tracks from getting to a building’s third floor.
“And to hope that somebody’s not going to be parked in one of those spaces is not how we do public safety,” he said. “This is going to cause big problems.”
Banray said earlier that the changes will allow ladder trucks to get where they need to be.
“This project improves access,” he said.
The Fire Department, in an email, said it is in the loop.
“We have undertaken all the necessary consultations with NYC DOT and will continue to work with the agency on this project,” the FDNY said.
Joseph Mirabella of the 31st Street Business Association, which was a party to the lawsuit that stopped the first plan, remained unimpressed Tuesday night.
“A judge ruled against them, and ruled that it adversely affects public safety,” Mirabella said.
In a Tuesday press release, the association said it is conducting a fundraising campaign to continue its legal battle.
“We have already proven in a court of law that the DOT’s plan is a safety threat to our neighborhood,” the group said. “But winning in court isn’t enough when the City decides to use its vast resources to steamroll the very people it’s supposed to serve.”
In other board business, eight liquor licenses were recommended for approval. They included Liberty Beer and Grocery at 38-35 B Crescent St.; Porta 23 at 24-17 23 Ave.; Ritmo’s 60 Bar at 32-23 Steinway St.; Vite Vinosteira at 31-05 34 St.; El Vaquerito Restaurant at 54-11 Northern Blvd.; The Last Word at 31-30 Ditmars Blvd.; Coffee Ave at 34-56 33 St.; Ayy Chihuahua at 36-16/18 Ditmars Blvd; and Mrs. Georgia at 37-10-31 Ave.
The board also voted to send a letter to the Parks Department supporting its effort to place a bubble over some of the Astoria Park tennis courts.