McGuinness Advocacy Groups Clash During Rally

The McGuinness Boulevard redesign has been a controversial issue for over a year now, and tensions between members of two opposing advocacy groups—Make McGuinness Safe and Keep McGuinness Moving—rose this past Tuesday during a march and rally hosted by the latter group.

As previously reported, Keep McGuinness Moving—in favor of keeping the boulevard as is with four-lane traffic and parking on each side—hosted a march and rally outside Key Food on Tuesday, September 12, with the goal of sharing their dissatisfaction with the recently amended compromise plan with the NYC Department of Transportation, Assembly Member Emily Gallagher, and Council Member Lincoln Restler.

During the march, around 20 Make McGuinness Safe members also showed up to counter protest, holding signs bearing the names of those who had been killed on McGuinness, including PS 110 teacher Matthew Jensen, Neil Chamberlain, Nicole Detweiler, and others while joining the crowd.

“We had no intention of disrupting their rally, we’ve attended many of their events. It’s important to hear what people are saying from the other side,” Bronwyn Breitner, a Greenpoint resident of 18 years, PS 110 parent, and co-creator of Make McGuinness Safe said of the group’s presence at the march. “We didn’t publicize our attendance and did not intend to engage with any of the rally attendees, but we felt it was important for people to know that we are certainly not going to stop fighting for a safe street.”

It was at this point that the groups began to clash, with Keep McGuinness Moving supporters grabbing and tearing signs of the opposition while supporters of Make McGuinness Safe reportedly shouted while Christine Holowacz—51-year Greenpoint resident and local activist—gave a speech opposing the redesign (this was also corroborated in a direct message from a Key Food shopper who wishes to remain anonymous).

“This is about more than just bike lanes and shrinking the road. This is about our community’s well-being. This is about forces that want to change our community forever,” Holowacz said, according to journalist Christopher Robbins with Hell Gate NYC. “This is about forces that want to change the village-like neighborhood into Manhattan. And we won’t allow it.”

Monica Holowacz, Christine’s daughter, Broadway Stages (the Greenpoint-based film production company and significant supporter of Keep McGuinness Moving) community relations director, and lifetime Greenpoint resident, voiced her displeasure with how the evening unfolded, citing what she considers a lack of respect from counter protesters.

“It was just entirely inappropriate,” Holowacz said. “It just didn’t seem cool that they would come over and do something like that. Nobody gave any concern to the constituents or members that were there for that reason. They had a motive to make sure their photo was taken and their posters were seen and to make sure that they disrupted, which I think is unfair and inappropriate for all the people that actually took time who believe in this cause.”

If there’s one thing both sides of the aisle can agree on, it’s their unhappiness with the newest redesign plan, at least, though the path forward remains unclear.

“The compromise plan is a real disappointment,” Breitner said. “I feel like the idea that traffic will build up on McGuinness is a knee-jerk reaction—that was my first reaction when somebody told me what a road diet is—so I get that, but when you do a little research and work for two and a half years as we have to understand what it is and what the precedents and implications and numbers and benefits are. So this whole thing is this is is just this false choice between them and us, and we really can have it all.”

“This needs to be a new plan,” Holowacz said. “We all want to make the street safe and functional, we wish that everybody could work together, but it just seems that there’s certain people that are advocating for it not to be that way.”