Amidst allegations that bribery from local business owners halted the McGuinness Boulevard redesign, elected officials and street safety advocates are calling for the project’s completion.
Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani joined Greenpoint elected officials on Monday morning to call out the corruption widely seen as endemic to Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, specifically in relation to the McGuinness Boulevard redesign project.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office indicted several Adams allies, including Broadway Stages owners Tony and Gina Argento, on corruption and bribery charges last Thursday. The Argentos allegedly bribed Adams’ closest advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, in order to stop the McGuinness Boulevard redesign from moving forward, rewarding her with $2,500 and a cameo on one of their production company’s shows.
Elected officials held a press conference at the corner of Calyer Street and McGuinness Boulevard, flanked by community members holding signs of those killed on the street over the past 60 years. After local teacher Matthew Jensen was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2021, local activists mounted a campaign to call on the city’s Department of Transportation to make the boulevard safer. The DOT came up with a redesign that would remove a lane of traffic in each direction, set to be implemented in 2023, before Adams suddenly directed them to go back to the drawing board.
“That promise was stolen from us, and now we know why,” said Make McGuinness Safe activist Bronwyn Breitner. “It has been devastating. It has been maddening to confirm, in the DA’s indictment last week, what we long suspected—that the Adams administration sabotaged our safety plan because of bribes from Broadway Stages. Instead of protecting families, the mayor protected money, and he protected power.”
“We’re here today, in front of McGuinness Boulevard, to tell a story that has been told time and time again in the Adams administration. A story where they put corruption over community,” said State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, pointing out that 10,000 local residents have signed the petition in support of more safety infrastructure on McGuinness Boulevard.
“I am so grateful that we are finally going to have a mayor in City Hall who gives a damn about our safety,” said City Council Member Lincoln Restler. “Who’s going to make Ashland Place and Fordham Road and every damn inch of McGuinness Boulevard safe for our community,” invoking other street safety projects quashed by the Adams administration.
“Andrew Cuomo doesn’t have a street safety plan. He doesn’t have a plan to create a network of protected bike lanes. He doesn’t have a plan to speed up buses! He only cares about driving his muscle car around,” Restler continued.
Assemblymember Emily Gallagher highlighted that the fight to make McGuinness safer is far from a recent phenomenon. Community members have worked for decades to make changes to the street.
“I started to realize that unless we pushed really hard, we weren’t going to get anything. We pushed and we pushed and we pushed, and the most we could get after multiple deaths and countless people being maimed, blinded, and permanently injured was a few countdown clocks,” referring to fights to improve McGuinness in the mid-2010s.
“After a while, I started to think that maybe the problem isn’t the advocates—maybe it’s the politicians,” said Gallagher, before introducing Mamdani, the first of the mayoral candidates to sign onto a pledge to implement the full design if elected mayor.
“We stand here at McGuinness Boulevard, understanding that this is far more than simply a highway. This is a living, breathing testament to a political system that ignores the needs of working people,” the Democratic nominee said. “And evidence that the politics of the past, that we so desperately want to put in our history books, continues to live amongst us today.”
“The history of this neighborhood of Greenpoint is also a history of industrial extraction. It’s a history of Superfund sites, it’s a history of devastating fires, it’s a history of an underground oil spill. And that extraction was deemed permissible by people in power for far too long, precisely because of who called this neighborhood home.”
“This doesn’t just have meaning here in Greenpoint—it sets a model for the rest of the city,” Mamdani continued. “For too long, that has been a model that has said, if you have enough money, you can buy your way. But what this model represents, is that working people can and must be safe, no matter if they drive, if they bike, if they walk, if they ride the bus, if they take the train, they must be safe across the city, and we will make decisions with safety as the imperative.”
Mamdani called the project a “day one” priority. He also committed to the full implementation of other dashed street safety projects, such as the Bedford Avenue bike lane.
The Argentos had thrown their support behind the campaign to “Keep McGuinness Moving,” even using one of their soundstages to host a neighborhood town hall (redesign supporters were blocked from entering the building). Reporting from THE CITY also found that two-thirds of the businesses listed as Keep McGuinness Moving supporters were actually LLCs with ties to Broadway Stages and the Argentos. Soon after the meeting, Gina Argento allegedly paid $2,500 to Ingrid Lewis-Martin through Zelle.
Lewis-Martin also allegedly texted Gina Argento that Make McGuinness Safe supporters “can kiss my ass.”
A truncated version of the redesign was finally allowed to go through last year, shortly after authorities had subpoenaed Lewis-Martin in another corruption case.
The Argentos and Lewis-Martin have denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
McGuinness is a traffic nightmare since the redesign. Trucks and cars are always backed up and causing more problems. It was fine the way it was. People need to be more aware of their surroundings rather than on a phone or walking whenever they feel privileged. This way cars and trucks would not have to hurry in order to make a turn and avoid getting stuck at the light again.
the fight for working people – brought to you by the invading comfortable classes
Zohran Mamdani has more integrity, honesty & genuine concern for the needs of the working people of this city than ALL of the sleezebags, self-serving bullies & clowns running for Mayor put together. We need a Mayor who’s on OUR side for a change, and Zohran is that change, and that person.
As a member of the community for over 3 decades I can tell you that speed cameras have helped to slow down traffic enormously & countdown lights positively effect many people’s decisions whether to walk or wait. However, during this time there has been zero effort to Vision Zero to educate the public on HOW TO CROSS A STREET so here goes: 1. Stop looking at your phone and pay attention. 2. When the sign says “walk” it doesn’t mean to leisurely stroll or to stop to talk, text or to take selfies (I see this every-single-day). 3. When the crosssing signal says “Don’t Walk” ….. DON’T because that’s when it’s the car’s chance to turn. Remember what you were taught in Kindergarten, sharing is caring. Cars & pedestrians need to respect eachother & follow not only the rules of road signs, but that of common sense as well. *Note: I know people who live on the 4 streets that are parallel McGuinness (Leonard & Eckford on one side with Newel & Diamond on the other) and they all say there is a lot more traffic on their previously quiet streets since the redesign.
I’m all for Mamdani and safety for all and bicyclists should have bike lanes, but I wish he would try crossing McGuiness Boulevard without dodging bicyclists running red lights in both directions. It’s rampant. I cannot even recall the last time I saw a bicycle stop for a red light. Some don’t even slow down for baby strollers. They ring their bell to let you know to get out of their way. Say what you will about cars (and I don’t drive, so Zim not partial), but I’ve never seen a car blow a red light on McGuiness. McGuiness is not safe and will never be safe until someone finds a way to hold bicyclists who break traffic laws accountable. Licensing and even insurance would be a good start and would raise much needed money to pay for street redesigns.
I’m all for Mamdani and safety for all and bicyclists should have bike lanes, but I wish he would try crossing McGuiness Boulevard without dodging bicyclists running red lights in both directions. It’s rampant. I cannot even recall the last time I saw a bicycle stop for a red light. Some don’t even slow down for baby strollers. They ring their bell to let you know to get out of their way. Say what you will about cars (and I don’t drive, so Zim not partial), but I’ve never seen a car blow a red light on McGuiness. McGuiness is not safe and will never be safe until someone finds a way to hold bicyclists who break traffic laws accountable. Licensing and even insurance would be a good start and would raise much needed money to pay for street redesigns.
You won’t accept my post because you say it’s a duplicate of one I sent, what, two years ago? It’s not. It just contains the words, “bicyclists running red lights,” which you obviously don’t want to remind people of. Great journalism!
Moderation. Is that the new euphemism for censorship?
Kathleen, we have to manually approve comments, which we are unable to do 24/7. You left four comments in 16 minutes.
LOL! This is what happens when you let boomers use the internets.
Most of the community isn’t in favor of the new traffic jam redesign. It’s loud, creates SO MUCH MORE AIR POLLUTION, and traffic backup on the side streets. Scamdani is a shill for Uber, Lyft, and Seamless.
This paper never provides the other side of this debate. Not everyone thinks this is a good idea. In fact, anyone who lives and drives in this neighborhood knows the changes have done nothing but bring car traffic to a halt in favor of practically unused bike lanes. There are plenty of other parallel streets that already have bike lanes or would make more sense to add bike lanes to. Sharing the road goes both ways.
Please PLEASE LEAVE MCGUINESS ALONE! it’s fine! What else do you guys want to do to it, it’s already one lane on each side! There’s so much backed up traffic it’s actually worse than before, LEARN how to cross the street and cyclists should stop going through red lights, this is completely unreasonable and unfair.
Seems like, besides the initial DOT work on assessing community needs for McGuinness, there were also two races in 2024 — one for Assembly, one for State Senate — where the McGuinness redesign was effectively on the ballot. In both races, the incumbents won overwhelmingly and the challengers who were opposed to bike lanes there lost. So if there is a secret majority of Greenpoint residents who are vehmently opposed to the redesign, they’ve opted to keep very, very, very quiet about it.
Well put, sir.