Advocates praise decision to make McGuinness Blvd. safer

GREENPOINT — TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES, FAMILIES FOR SAFE STREETS, AND MAKE MCGUINNESS SAFE released statements on the mayor’s recent promise, with the city Department of Transportation, to complete the redesign of McGuinness Boulevard, known as a dangerous traffic corridor. A beloved P.S. 110 teacher, Matthew Jensen, was killed in traffic on McGuiness five years ago.

Transportation Alternatives’ Executive Director Ben Furnas, said, “Today, families across Greenpoint can breathe again. Ever since McGuinness Boulevard was built, parents have held their children’s hands a little tighter as they crossed the street. A highway masquerading as a neighborhood street has torn Greenpoint in two, demanding that thousands of our youngest and oldest risk their lives just to reach the other side. That ends today. We will no longer have to explain to our children why they can’t cross the street alone, why they must be careful, or why their favorite teacher isn’t at school today.” Thanking elected officials, parents and local businesses who helped push for the project’s completion, Furnas said, “Today’s decision will save lives for generations to come.”

Several elected officials serving the northern Brooklyn neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg also praised the redesign, including Borough President Antonio Reynoso, City Councilmember Lincoln Restler, D-33, State Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, D-50, and Congressmember Nydia Velázquez, D-07.

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