{"id":247381,"date":"2026-05-29T05:07:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247381\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T05:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:07:57","slug":"more-than-100-astoria-residents-join-protest-against-31st-street-redesign-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247381\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 100 Astoria residents join protest against 31st Street redesign \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 100 local residents gathered in Astoria Wednesday, May 27, to renew protests against the DOT\u2019s<\/a> planned redesign of 31st Street, which would install parking protected bike lanes along a 2.5-mile stretch of the corridor from Northern Boulevard to 20th Avenue.<\/p>\n

The DOT has proposed a massive redesign of the corridor, mostly underneath the N\/W elevated subway tracks, after identifying 31st Street as one of the most dangerous corridors in Queens, pointing to three deaths and over 500 injuries along the corridor over a five-year period between 2021 and 2025.<\/p>\n

The plan has not been without controversy, however.\n<\/p>\n

DOT expands redesign plans<\/p>\n

Last month, the Mamdani administration launched an expanded proposal for the redesign after Queens Supreme Court Justice Chere\u00e9 Buggs ordered the DOT to halt original plans for the redesign in December. Buggs sided with a number of local businesses and residents who said the plan would present a hazard for pedestrians and motorists while also reducing access to local businesses and inhibiting emergency service response times.<\/p>\n

In its initial proposal, the DOT called for curbside protected bike lanes along a mile-long stretch of 31st Street from 36th Avenue to Newtown Avenue. The agency\u2019s expanded and updated proposal calling for a much larger redesign, stretching from Northern Boulevard to 20th Avenue, a distance of roughly 2.5 miles.<\/p>\n

Queens Community Board 1 voted<\/a> overwhelmingly in favor of recommending the new redesign following a packed and impassioned monthly meeting in April, backing proposals for curbside protected bike lanes,\u00a0painted pedestrian islands to\u00a0shorten\u00a0pedestrian\u00a0crossings, hardened daylighting and reorganized travel lanes.<\/p>\n

The DOT also asserted last month that it has addressed the issues that Buggs raised in her initial ruling.\n<\/p>\n

Opponents continue to raise concerns<\/p>\n

Opponents of the plan, however, gathered in a parking lot near the intersection of 31st Street and Ditmars Boulevard Wednesday to rail against the redesign.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

The rally, organized by the 31st Street Business Association, argued that the planned redesign \u201cwon\u2019t work,\u201d arguing that 31st Street is one of the most congested streets in the neighborhood and that the plan would siphon vehicular traffic to smaller, surrounding streets. Attendees also argued that 31st Street is too dangerous for bike lanes.<\/p>\n

George Delis, a former district manager for CB1, told the crowd that the redesign \u201cmakes no sense whatsoever.\u201d Delis pointed to part of the planned redesign aiming to convert a section of the street between 20th Avenue and Ditmars Boulevard into a north-bound one-way corridor, which the DOT says would reduce turning conflicts at three major intersections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are the trucks going to go? If you live on 29th Street, if you live on 33rd Street, they\u2019re going to be going down your street,\u201d Delis said. \u201cIt\u2019s a stupid plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not against bike lanes, but there are places where they belong and places where they don\u2019t belong. Putting a bike lane down 31st Street, which is the most congested street in our community, doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GeorgeGeorge Delis speaks at Wednesday\u2019s rally. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

Joe DiPietro, a long-term Astoria resident who holds Italian-American cultural events at Athens Square Park, made a similar argument during a speech, calling on the DOT to look elsewhere for a home for protected bike lanes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBike lanes are nice, but there\u2019s a place for everything. Do you put your toilet in the middle of the living room?\u201d DiPietro said. \u201cTry to put them in an area that doesn\u2019t interfere with traffic. 31st Street is a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the redesign, the DOT plans to install 8-foot-wide parking protected bike lanes on either side of the street and reduce moving lanes in both directions from 14 feet to 11 feet. The proposed redesign mostly applies to the section of 31st Street beneath the elevated N\/W subway tracks.<\/p>\n

Attendees at the rally held signs outlining their opposition to the bike lanes, claiming the redesign would make the corridor more unsafe for seniors and children as well as pointing to alleged concerns from firefighters over the project. In her ruling, Buggs cited concerns raised by the FDNY after the Fire Department informed the DOT in July that the street redesign would not permit it to operate at \u201cfull capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DOT told CB1 last month that the FDNY has certified the latest proposal for the redesign, stating that the Fire Department has welcomed the improved access to fire hydrants that the plan will create. The DOT further stated that emergency vehicles will be able to use the eight-foot-wide bike lanes and three-foot-wide buffer zones to respond to emergencies.<\/p>\n

Still, protesters raised concerns about the impact that the plan would have on emergency response times, arguing that narrowing the moving lanes in both directions removes space for cars to give way to emergency vehicles.<\/p>\n

Anthony Meloni, a member of the 31st Street Business Association who helped organize the protest, admitted that the current design of 31st Street is not ideal for emergency response but added that the proposed redesign would make the corridor worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not great now, but it\u2019ll be much worse later,\u201d Meloni said.\n<\/p>\n

Meloni told the crowd that a judge had rejected the DOT\u2019s first redesign and said the 31st Street Business Association is \u201cback in court\u201d to fight the new proposal.\n<\/p>\n

Supporters cite safety data<\/p>\n

Some supporters of the redesign turned out at the rally to hear the arguments presented by the group, leading to some terse exchanges between opponents and advocates.<\/p>\n

\"AA cyclist watches on as residents protest against the redesign. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud.<\/p>\n

Josh Brewer, an Astoria resident who was not involved in any such exchanges, said he \u201ccame out to see the circus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brewer said current conditions along 31st Street make it difficult for the Fire Department to access the curb along the corridor.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a ton of double parking along 31st Street, so they (the Fire Department) would have to literally be in the travel lane,\u201d Brewer said.\n<\/p>\n

He also countered against arguments that the redesign would make the corridor more unsafe for seniors and children, pointing to DOT data asserting that bike lanes make corridors safer for the most vulnerable road users, including seniors and children.<\/p>\n

\u201cInjuries and deaths go down when bike lanes are installed for those two groups, and yet you look around here and you have a bunch of seniors saying it\u2019s going to make things somehow more dangerous,\u201d Brewer said.<\/p>\n

The DOT said last month that similar redesigns have resulted in an 18% reduction in pedestrian injuries and a 29% reduction in deaths and serious injuries for pedestrians. Similar redesigns also resulted in a 19% reduction in injuries to drivers and a 15% reduction in injuries to cyclists, the agency said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand by this safety project and outreach process and look forward to defending our work in court. We are grateful for FDNY\u2019s continued collaboration in keeping New Yorkers safe,\u201d a DOT spokesperson said after the protest.<\/p>\n

Agency officials also said the DOT completed all legally required consultations ahead of restarting the public engagement process for the redesign, including adapting the project based on FDNY feedback after site visits.<\/p>\n

The DOT said it also obtained feedback from 150 businesses within the project limits to address concerns from local businesses. As a result, the new project now includes measures such as truck loading zones that will allow businesses to load and receive deliveries from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and expanded two-hour metered parking that the DOT says will increase turnover for short parking periods and increase customer access.<\/p>\n

At last month\u2019s community board meeting, supporters of the project outnumbered opponents by more than two-to-one, arguing that the current dangerous condition of the corridor is no excuse not to add protected bike lanes.<\/p>\n

Manuel Diez noted that service along the N\/W subway line is often \u201cspotty\u201d on weekends, pushing many straphangers onto Citi Bikes on the street below.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou find yourself in this chaos of 31st Street, where there\u2019s columns along the way, there\u2019s cars turning left and right and there\u2019s double-parked cars,\u201d Diez said. \u201cTo those that say lifelong residents know to avoid 31st Street because it\u2019s horrible. I say, let\u2019s fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The redesign was proposed in 2023 as part of the Western Queens Street Safety Plan, put forward by Council Member Tiffany Cab\u00e1n, State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, Assembly Member Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas and then-Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez said in a statement that it is now \u201cpast time\u201d for a redesign of the corridor.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been over 500 injuries and three deaths on 31st Street over the past five years,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cIt is past time for a redesign of this corridor that prioritizes street safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike\u2026 Relying on the status quo is not an option when lives are on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 100 local residents gathered in Astoria Wednesday, May 27, to renew protests against the DOT\u2019s planned redesign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[43988,43989,13930,128,96684,6157,3946,36424,9,24,63,129,131,130,33850,43992],"class_list":["post-247381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-31st-street-business-association","tag-31st-street-redesign","tag-bike-lanes","tag-bronx","tag-daly-newsletter","tag-dot","tag-kristen-gonzalez","tag-mamdani-administration","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-tiffany-caban","tag-western-queens-street-safety-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}