by Emma Davey In recent years, the redesign of McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint has emerged as a neighborhood flashpoint, sparking deep-seated debates about car culture, public space, gentrification, and environmental issues. Changing Lanes, a new documentary from Ben Wolf, traces the journey to implement the redesign and the impact it has had on Greenpoint.
Shot with only the gear Wolf could transport on a bike, the film situates the McGuinness fight within the context of city-wide transportation…
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BEFORE ….we only had to worry about being run over by an errant car or truck on McGuinness. NOW ….we need to worry about cars and trucks AND irresponsible bikes AND speeding e-biked AND souped-up semi- motorcycles, all zooming past us …or into us. This is progress? At least we can usually see hulking cars & trucks coming at us and try to avoid them. And usually we can expect them to obey traffic signals, have proper lights and be licenced. But ubiquitous, unregulated, unlicensed. unlighted, and often irresponsible e-bikes are upon you before you know it. They speed crazily down the boulevard, all too often with little regard for either traffic reflations, pedestrians or even cars. There’s a recent ridiculous City Council proposal to greatly expand street dining sheds (and reverse many sensible current regulations placed on them). Why not plant those new dining sheds all along McGuiness so that NOBODY moves? We could then play musical chairs, using real chairs, as we try to cross the boulevard. Vulnerable pedestrians are the vast majority. In a sane political world their safety & interests should be paramount. Stop playing to the special interests, those with the loudest bullhorns. Instead, move bikes & e-bikes someplace where they will only smash into each other, not into us.
I am on the fence re this. I am all for safety but bikes and vehicles of all types conventional and electric zipping down the bike lane is not exactly safe.
Here is what I have observed since the change.
1-At peak times McG. has now became the LIE, ie the longest parking lot. It can take 15 minutes to go from one end to another whereas it only took a few minutes.
2-There was a ton of parking taken away. Any spots left are mostly confusing re how to park.
3-Tranfering the B62 to McG. is now a moot point since it is as congested on McG as Manhattan Aves.
4-Any type of stoppage with one lane could back up the area for hrs.
5-Since there is no parking, it is hurting businesses.
However Casanova and the cold ice cream stores did open. It remains to be seen if safety has improved.
All the mouth-breathing dullards complaining about the changes have themselves to blame. If you didn’t treat McGuinness Blvd. like a freeway, there wouldn’t be a need to change it.
I was involved in this community issue from the start, way before 2023. I hope (but doubt) the film talks about the way our elected officials chose to align themselves with Make McGuinness Safe instead of de-escalating what was becoming a highly divisive and toxic community issue. I hope the filmmaker mentions how the McGuinness redesign was awarded $39 million dollars — a nauseating amount of money for an already well-heeled part of the city that could have certainly gone to grossly underserved neighborhoods. Surely the movie mentions how community members who were opposed to the stated redesign — not opposed to improving pedestrian and cyclist safety — were gaslighted and harassed. The McGuinness redesign is a fascinating study of hyper local politics, community activism and gentrification, but it sounds like this film is just one more mouthpiece for the Make McGuinness Safe organizers instead of a truly objective look at a unique community flashpoint.
The filmmaker says listen to experts but the experts got us into this mess. Very poorly designed and executed roads are a DOT’s specialty. Cities in Europe and Asia have superior designs. Since the pandemic there has been little or no traffic enforcement on cars trucks and bikes of all types. The city has let Uber Lyft and GrubHub clog the streets with”independent contractors “ so the mega corporations have no responsibility for the drivers behavior. Experts have no practical experience in the streets. They have the same one size fits all play book that they apply to every situation. It looks very neat on paper but it just doesn’t work. Plus who funded this “documentary “? Always follow the money!