Behind Stalled Queens Boulevard Redesign, A Fight Over Parking

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — City Council Member Karen Koslowitz has spent nearly two years pushing the city's Department of Transportation to change their redesign plans for a portion of Queens Boulevard that runs through her district. Now, her alternative proposal could jeopardize the agency's plans to resume work this summer on the long-stalled project.

During a Feb. 19 town hall with Mayor Bill de Blasio in Forest Hills, Koslowitz asked the mayor to consider an alternative to the Department of Transportation's own redesign plan for the 1.2-mile stretch of Queens Boulevard from Yellowstone Boulevard to Union Turnpike in Forest Hills, which would preserve parking slated to disappear under the DOT plan.

"I am not against bike lanes. What I am not for are the bike lanes along Queens Boulevard that are taking away hundreds and hundreds of parking spots," Koslowitz said during the town hall. “We cannot afford, because of our businesses, to lose all of these parking spots."

In response, de Blasio charged the DOT to formally review Koslowitz's alternative: "I want to see both proposals, and I will make the ultimate decision," he said during the town hall.

The day after the town hall, de Blasio told WNYC's Brian Lehrer that was the first time he had heard Koslowitz's proposal.

But the councilwoman has kept pushing her plan B on the Department of Transportation for nearly two years — even after officials insisted it wasn't possible.

Asked if Koslowitz's opposition played a role in the stall, Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg admitted it was a factor: "I mean, yes, but not just her," Trottenberg told Patch in an interview last week. "It’s a controversial project."

"It remains a project with a lot of folks supporting it and a lot of folks opposing it and there’s been, I think, continued efforts to find middle ground," Trottenberg said.

Since at least spring 2018, Koslowitz has been pressing the DOT to revisit their plans for phase four and find a way to add bike lanes while preserving the boulevard's parking spaces, according to her spokesperson, Michael Cohen.

On Oct. 2, 2018, a DOT official reached out to Koslowitz's office to say that work on the final phase of Queens Boulevard would proceed that week, according to emails obtained by Patch through a public records request.

A week later, representatives from Koslowitz's office and the Department of Transportation met to discuss the Queens Boulevard redesign, records show. It's unclear exactly what happened during that meeting, because a Department of Transportation planner's email listing notes on what transpired was almost entirely redacted.

What's clear is that the project stalled: By March 2019, the Department of Transportation was telling reporters that the final redesign phase would still happen, but that there was no updated timeline to share.

Meanwhile, Koslowitz was holding up the redesign until the Department of Transportation could find a way to install protected bike lanes while preserving the 200-plus parking spots on that stretch.

According to Cohen, her spokesperson, the councilwoman specifically pitched a proposal that would eliminate the concrete medians between the boulevard's center lanes and service roads and put protected bike lanes there, rather than where the parking lanes are now — but the agency insisted that would cause subway ventilation issues.

The explanation didn't deter Koslowitz, according to Cohen, who previously told Patch the DOT needed to "become more flexible" in its approach to the redesign.

"The council member would get behind a plan that would do the things that she envisions," Cohen said in a phone interview Thursday, adding that there are already such examples in Manhattan, like on First Avenue.

"This is not about preventing bike lanes," Cohen said. "If we're going to do something on a permanent basis, let's do it right."

Koslowitz's parking crusade is popular among at least some of her constituents, including Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce President Leslie Brown, who started a petition against the redesign in 2018 and reiterated her stance during this month's town hall.

The proposal to eliminate parking spots was also the impetus for Queens Community Board 6 to vote down the project in June 2018.

Now, the Koslowitz can add the mayor to her corner.

"The town hall meeting was an opportunity for the Mayor to hear directly from the community and the Council Member their views on bike lanes," Cohen said, "and, after listening to the community, the Mayor announced that DOT will revisit the issue."