New Yorkers in the South Bronx will get their first formal say next week on a planned 15-mile greenway stretching from Randall's Island east to SUNY Maritime, as the city's transportation department opens public input on four multi-mile greenway projects across the outer boroughs. Two workshops are set for Hunts Point, one in person and one virtual, marking the start of a community-engagement push that will stretch into 2027.
According to amNewYork, the first Bronx workshop will be held Nov. 4 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Banknote Building, 1231 Lafayette Ave. in Hunts Point, followed by a virtual session Nov. 5 during the same hours. Bronx residents can register online for either session, the outlet reports. Three more greenway projects, covering eastern and southern Brooklyn, the northern Staten Island waterfront and the southern Queens waterfront, will get their own public workshops starting in 2027, per the same account.
A greenway, as the city defines it, is a continuous path linking roads, greenspaces and waterfronts, designed for safe walking, running and biking away from vehicle traffic. The planned South Bronx route would improve access to industrial job centers like Hunts Point and strengthen connections between waterfront parks in Soundview and Throggs Neck, the station's report notes.
A Commissioner's Pitch for Community-Driven Planning
DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn framed the effort as both practical and civic-minded. Greenways, he said, connect New Yorkers to parks, jobs and neighborhood destinations with safe paths for walking, running or biking. Flynn added that the agency is conducting community-driven planning to gather New Yorkers' vision for neighborhood public space upgrades, according to the same outlet.
The South Bronx project is one of six early-action plans that are a joint effort of DOT, the Parks Department and the city's Economic Development Corporation, and together they're expected to add more than 40 miles to the city's greenway network. Two other plans in that group, covering the northern Queens and western Bronx Harlem River waterfronts, are further along: the northern Queens plan is underway and the western Bronx Harlem River plan is already complete, per the same account.
Tracing the Funding Back to a 2022 Federal Grant
The roots of this expansion go back to August 2022, when New York City received $7.25 million through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant program, according to Inside Climate News. The following year, the city announced a plan to build more than 40 miles of greenways in the outer boroughs, along with upgrades to 20 miles of existing greenway, the outlet reported.
That 2023 blueprint, detailed by the NYC Mayor's Office, laid out the South Bronx corridor as a 15-mile route from Randall's Island Park to SUNY Maritime, intended to improve safety for commutes to industrial job centers like Hunts Point and improve connections between waterfront parks in Soundview and Throggs Neck. Inside Climate News separately reported the grant-funded network also includes a 16-mile Queens Waterfront route, a 12-mile Brooklyn route from Coney Island to Highland Park along the Historic Brooklyn Greenway, a 10-mile Staten Island route between the Goethals Bridge and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and a seven-mile South Queens route. The work has been described as a collaborative effort among DOT, the Parks Department and the NYC Economic Development Corporation, according to silive.com.
What Brooklyn's Greenway Shows About Demand
If the South Bronx corridor sees anything like the traffic logged on Brooklyn's waterfront path, it could become a heavily used piece of infrastructure. A multiyear study conducted from 2019 through spring 2024 by the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, the Regional Plan Association, Numina and DOT found that sensors on the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway counted an average daily high of 23,500 bicycles and 36,000 pedestrians during the peak month of July, according to the Regional Plan Association. Even in January 2024, the least active month, the path still saw 7,400 cyclists and 16,500 pedestrians per day.
More than 23% of bike trips on that greenway and 12% of all trips were for commuting, amounting to 3,000 to 7,000 trips a day in spring and summer, the study found. Extreme weather cut usage by only about 30% for pedestrians and 42% for cyclists, and just 2% of users said they would have driven instead if the greenway didn't exist. The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway is slated to run 29 miles when finished, with seven miles still unbuilt when the study was released, and researchers recommended completing it in the immediate short term and improving its transit connections.
Beyond moving people, greenway advocates point to environmental upsides. Foliage and landscaping along these paths can ward off summer heat, reduce stormwater runoff and erosion, and encourage urban biodiversity, Inside Climate News reported. Citywide, DOT says more than 380 miles of protected paths and lanes have already been built, many linking to over 60 miles of planned or completed waterfront public space, according to NYC DOT Projects. The Jamaica Bay Greenway alone, a planned 28-mile network with more than 10 miles already built, draws roughly 100,000 local and regional visitors a year by that agency's count.
For now, the South Bronx plan remains in the public-input stage, with DOT gathering resident feedback before any further steps are announced. Hunts Point residents who want to weigh in can do so at next week's in-person or virtual workshop, while the three other outer-borough projects await their turn starting in 2027.
