Plan to Reconnect Neighborhood and Mitigate Toxic Vehicle Pollution Would Bring Flower Garden, Playground, Baseball Diamond, Barbecues, Grassy and Wooded Areas, Indoor Pool, and Water Play Zone to Williamsburg
Community District 1 Ranks 48 Out of All 59 City Districts in Park Space Relative to Total Land Area
BROOKLYN, NY (June 20, 2023) – Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez today were joined by Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez, Council Member Lincoln Restler, State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, and community groups St. Nick’s Alliance, Los Sures, and El Puente to call on Governor Hochul and New York State to advance BQGreen, a more-than-decade-in-the-making plan to platform over a portion of the BQE that runs below street level in Williamsburg, combining and expanding Marcy Green and Rodney Park into 3.5 acres of green, open space. The expanded park would be outfitted with a flower garden, a playground, a baseball diamond, barbecues, grassy and wooded areas, an indoor pool, and a water play zone. Then-City Council Member Diana Reyna, for whom Borough President Reynoso was serving as Chief of Staff, came up with the project in 2010. After succeeding Reyna in 2014 as the Council Member representing the 34th district, Borough President Reynoso has continued to champion the project with the support of the Williamsburg community.
Courtesy of Sasaki. Work completed while at DLANDstudio.
“For over a decade, our Southside community has rallied around the BQGreen as a chance to bring beautiful parkland to Williamsburg, reconnect our neighborhoods, and finally move forward from the racist legacy of Robert Moses’s BQE,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.“Now the stars have all but aligned – the funding is there, the support of the people remains strong – but still the State chooses to dig in its heels and turn a blind eye to the harms of the past that remain alive and well here in Williamsburg. By co-applying for the billions of federal dollars currently up for grabs, the State has an opportunity to finally show up for our people. The BQGreen is a chance at environmental justice and a critical first step toward a completely re-imagined BQE. We won’t let the State get away with letting that slip away.”
“From high asthma rates to heavy traffic and noise pollution, the BQE has imposed terrible costs on Brooklyn communities for decades” said Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. “With BQGreen, we can begin to repair this legacy by reconnecting communities and creating a vibrant green gathering space that all Brooklynites can be proud of. The federal infrastructure funding currently available presents our State with a critical opportunity to finance BQGreen and address numerous environmental justice and public health issues in the process. We can’t let this moment slip by. That’s why we are calling on the State to join us in this fight and do everything at their disposal to make BQGreen a reality.”
For decades, the BQE has burdened low-income communities and communities of color with heavy traffic and toxic pollution, resulting in fractured communities and high rates of asthma. And for decades, the community has rallied for a City, State, and Federal partnership to answer for these crises in public health, neighborhood isolation, and street safety. In April of 2010, then-Council Member Diana Reyna funded the St. Nick’s Alliance to commission DLANDstudio to explore whether portions of the BQE in Williamsburg that traveled below street level could be covered over and used as a public greenspace. Since it was developed, BQGreen has seen widespread community support but no buy-in from the State, who has jurisdiction over the project area.
Borough President Reynoso, who in 2014 succeeded Reyna as the Council Member representing the 34th district, continued to champion the plan while in office. In 2016, Reynoso revived the plan for BQGreen as part of then-City Council Parks Chair Mark Levine’s call on the city to commit $200 million for parks. Now nearly a decade later, Reynoso is standing with Congresswoman Velázquez to renew the call once more – as billions of federal infrastructure funding is up for grabs and earmarked specifically for projects that seek to address racist infrastructure and reconnect communities.
The BQE’s stain on Brooklyn began during the 1940s, when the infamous urban planner Robert Moses tore through working-class neighborhoods in Brooklyn to build the BQE, cutting communities in two and sentencing largely Black and Brown, Latino, and AAPI New Yorkers to decades of toxic pollution. While New York State owns the majority of the BQE’s 20-mile Brooklyn stretch, New York City owns the 1.5-mile triple cantilever known as BQE Central.
Over the years, the City-owned cantilever has rapidly deteriorated, weakened by road salt, moisture, and overweight trucks. To prolong BQE Central’s imminent collapse, NYC DOT has limited traffic on the cantilever while they develop a permanent redesign. Brooklynites from all over have called on New York State to partner with NYC DOT, identifying this moment as an opportunity for the City and State to take advantage of once-in-a-generation federal infrastructure funds and work hand in hand to reimagine the BQE entirely, addressing the infrastructure’s legacy of harm to the environment and our health.
Despite the clear dangers to Brooklynites, the NYC DOT’s urgent efforts to repair the City-owned crumbling cantilever in Brooklyn Heights, and the window of opportunity presented by this once-in-a-lifetime federal funding, the State DOT told Streetsblog in February they have “no plans” to “redesign the State-owned portion of the BQE” that runs through communities to the north and south of Brooklyn Heights.
In response to the State’s neglect of Brooklyn’s environmental justice communities, Borough President Reynoso, Congresswoman Velazquez, and 16 fellow elected officials issued a joint statement calling the State’s refusal to commit to participating in NYC DOT’s visioning process for their portions of the BQE “completely unacceptable and irresponsible.” Just days later, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso; Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez; Council Member Lincoln Restler; representatives from the offices of Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, Assemblymember Maritza Davila, State Senator Kristen Gonzalez; and community advocates from St. Nicks Alliance and the United Jewish of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn joined together at the Jaime Campiz Playground in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to publicly condemn New York State for rejecting community calls to partner with the City to re-envision the BQE.
The need for more parkland in Brooklyn Community District 1, which includes Williamsburg and Greenpoint, remains a top priority – identified by the community board as one of ‘the three most pressing issues’ to be addressed in Fiscal Year 2024. With only 5% of the total district area parkland, the district ranks 48 out of all 59 city districts when it comes to park space relative to total land area. BQGreen would add more greenspace, help mitigate the public health harms of toxic pollution, and reconnect communities, demonstrating that re-envisioning the BQE is possible when the political will is there.
“In the wake of yet another climate emergency that blanketed New York City in hazardous air, it was a stark reminder that communities like Williamsburg have been plagued with deteriorating air quality for decades,” said Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez. “The same discriminatory city planning that carved up and permanently shaped our communities also left us with some of the highest asthma rates in the city. The need to advance the BQGreen Plan has never been more profound: by embracing the plan that this community has developed for years, we can restore unity and environmental justice, and give this community the green space and clear air it deserves.”
“The community in the Southside of Williamsburg coalesced around a vision for its stretch of the BQE highway many years ago,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler. “The BQGreen Plan would reduce emissions, create much needed green and recreational space, and reunite a neighborhood long divided by this Robert Moses relic. I join my colleagues in calling on New York State to provide funding for this vital project and am deeply grateful for their sustained leadership.”
“For far too long, the toxic fumes from the BQE have imposed high rates of asthma and related negative health outcomes for southsiders,” said State Senator Kristen Gonzalez. “BQGreen presents us with an opportunity to not only address the environmental justice issues caused by the BQE but also grant much-needed green space to a community that has historically been starved for open space. I fully support this proposal as it holds the potential to improve health outcomes, reduce noise pollution and truck traffic in the neighborhood, and unite a community that has long been split up by this highway.”
“The innovative BQGreen offers the creative adaptation of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway right away to offer badly needed greenspaces and ball fields which will benefit children and all community residents,” said Michael Rochford, Executive Director of St Nick’s Alliance.