There’s been a lot of change on McGuinness Boulevard, and we don’t just mean recently. 62 years ago, then-Councilman Joseph T. Sharkey put forward a proposal to rename the stretch of road connecting the Pulaski Bridge and BQE once known as Oakland Street to McGuinness Boulevard.
The renaming was proposed in honor of late alderman, district leader, county sheriff, and assistant borough commissioner Peter J. McGuinness, a local legend often dubbed the “King of Greenpoint” who proudly referred to our little neighborhood as the “Garden Spot of the World.” A colorful figure, McGuinness was one of 13 children and a man (and boy) of many jobs, starting with being an officer boy for a printing-press manufacturer to middle-weight boxer to eventually—and finally—Greenpoint Democratic leader.
‘Of his years of success in the role, he’s quoted in The Greenpoint Weekly Star as saying, “The trouble with some people who write books now is that they go to school and to college and they don’t understand neighborhoods. When you grow up with people in overcrowded sections and you know everything they have got to be going through, you know they have learned a lesson on their mother’s and father’s knee that was never learned in any college.”
Reportedly, he only missed two meetings in his 12 years as an elected. He went on to be the assistant borough commissioner of public works, which he held until his death on June 10, 1948. During his time in office, he lobbied to have G train service diverted north to Greenpoint.
Within a week, the Greenpoint Civic Council unanimously endorsed the name change.
More recently, the boulevard and its ongoing redesign battle has been the star of a new documentary (Changing Lanes by Ben Wolf), at the center of a bribery scandal among the Adams administration and local business owners, and inspired a speech from new Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.