\u201cThat\u2019s something I\u2019m going to follow up with and get back to you on,\u201d Mamdani said when asked about the advocates\u2019 request. \u201cI want to take very seriously the request from Staten Islanders themselves and also get you an answer that I can hold myself to.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Mamdani decides to shutter the road to cars, it would be a win for the advocacy group in line with Mamdani\u2019s less car-centric approach to city roads but would also put a thumb in the eyes of three of the Island\u2019s top elected officials.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Michael McMahon, Borough President Vito Fossella, and Councilmember Kamillah Hanks have all called for the road to remain open to car traffic during the week and closed on weekends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reached a compromise, and we know that there\u2019s two sides to every story, and we had…residents and constituents that let us know that they would like to keep the road open,\u201d Hanks, a Democrat representing the North Shore, said Thursday. \u201cThis has been something that\u2019s fairly recent because of COVID, and we wanted to expand our public realm and our public open space due to the pandemic. However, everybody has to compromise, and I think that we rightfully made a decision to close it on weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Silver](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/US2R6GPLF5G3RILPCJB3REVB2Y.jpg\")
Cars drive on the recently reopened Silver Lake Park Road on Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Silver Lake.(Owen Reiter for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s administration shuttered the road in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic as a way to promote the usage of open space. Before its COVID closure, the road had generally been open to vehicle traffic.<\/p>\n
Adams reopened Silver Lake Park Road last year in the final months of his administration, in part as a safety effort after an attempted rape of a woman in Silver Lake Park on April 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n McMahon penned a series of letters to city officials and his Silver Lake opponents at the time laying out his position on the road\u2019s reopening during work week hours Monday to Friday tying it to safety efforts in the park.<\/p>\n Rose Uscianowski, a Staten Island activist with the Transportation Alternatives organization and an opponent of vehicular traffic in Silver Lake Park, said last week that an actual park safety investment would come with more funding.<\/p>\n \u201cBringing cars into a park is not going to make it safer,\u201d Uscianowski said. \u201cBringing better facilities in the park and better lighting to the park and up-keeping the trails in the park, that\u2019s to me, a much better way of making the park safer.\u201d<\/p>\n