Mayor Mamdani says a long-stalled street safety redesign on McGuinness Boulevard is officially back on track — after the previous administration put the brakes on the Greenpoint project.

For decades, the stretch of McGuinness Boulevard has been flagged as dangerous—with a history of fatalities and serious car crashes becoming all too common.

However, after a DOT redesign finally broke ground in 2024 under former Mayor Adams, the community was hopeful change was coming. That is until the plan was put to a stop, once again.

“This is now our third mayor at city hall that we've had to get,” said Bronwyn Breitner, a advocate with Make McGuinness Safe. “To get this to actually be completed. there's been a lot of work.”

A single lane of traffic, a single parking lane, a parking-protected bike lane in each direction, that's what Greenpoint residents were expecting along McGuiness Boulevard.

The design has already been completed across much of the southern section of the corridor. While the northern parts have been left mainly untouched.

Back in August, Mayor Adams’ chief advisor Ingrid Lewis–Martin was indicted for allegedly accepting bribes to axe the project.

A move Mayor Mamdani promises to undo.

It was at the intersection of McGuinness Boulevard and Bayard Street where local teacher Matthew Jensen was killed in a hit-and-run back in 2021. Now, this boulder now sits here—meant to slow drivers and prevent the kind of reckless speeding that took his life.

“When Mr. Johnson was killed it opened up a lock box of people's stories of trauma and near-misses on McGuinnes Boulevard,” said Breitner. “What Matt’s death did was prompt the community to acknowledge that it does not have to be this way.”

Even with a promise to resume work on the redesign once the warmer weather arrives, advocates are still looking forward to what's next — a complete capital redesign of the entire boulevard.