Overview
- The city opened the redesigned McGuinness Boulevard on Friday with a ribbon-cutting that added parking-protected bike lanes from Meeker Avenue to the Pulaski Bridge and set one travel lane each way plus curbside parking and loading lanes.
- City Hall says the changes shorten pedestrian crossings and force turning vehicles to slow, steps aimed at reducing the corridor’s longstanding pattern of deadly crashes for pedestrians and cyclists.
- Advocates pushed for the overhaul after the 2021 hit-and-run death of teacher Matthew Jensen and the de Blasio administration pledged $39 million for a full redesign.
- The project was scaled back under Mayor Eric Adams in August 2024 following local pushback, and prosecutors later charged a former Adams aide and others in an August 2025 bribery case tied to those changes that remains pending.
- Family members of Matthew Jensen attended the opening and supporters say the finished design should make daily cycling—more than 4,000 summer riders on the corridor—safer while signaling City Hall’s broader focus on street-safety projects and the continued legal scrutiny of past decisions.