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Queens residents and business owners are fighting a city plan to plop bike lanes onto 31st Street in Astoria, calling it a “recipe for disaster” that will crush commerce and threaten safety.
The city Department of Transportation is proposing to narrow parking lanes from 13 to 8 feet and traffic lanes from 14 feet to 11, and move the parking lanes away from the curb, to make way for bike paths between 36th and Newton avenues.
While the proposal has the full-throated support of car-hating, socialist lawmakers like Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán, Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas and state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, merchants told The Post the blueprint would make it nearly impossible for trucks to reach businesses.
“We’ll be forced to shut down because we will not be able to load and unload the materials and products,” said Panos Adamopoulos, who owns Pilates Designs, a pilates equipment manufacturer on 31st Street since 1984, with his wife Sylvia Fuster.
“It’s asphyxiation,” he said, adding that his 16 employees’ jobs are on the line.
Even if a driver finds a parking space – not easy with steel columns of the overhead N/W subway line in the way — they’d have to cross an eight-foot bike lane and a three-foot buffer zone to get to the sidewalk.
King Souvlaki, a food truck operating at 31st Street and 31st Avenue since 1979, would be forced to hit the road.
“There would be no other space on that intersection for us,” said owner Lampros Tsampas.
“Some people have said, ‘You can just park in the floating parking area and serve into the bike lane,’ but that’s not safe at all,” he said.
The DOT said the redesign aims to improve safety, as 126 vehicle occupants, 33 pedestrians and 24 bikers were injured — and two vehicle occupants killed — along the mile-long stretch between 2020 and 2024 — making it “one of the most dangerous streets in Queens,” according to a department spokesperson.
Astoria native Joseph Mirabella said the new road configuration would be a nightmare for his 90-year-old amputee grandmother.
“Getting her in and out of the car and her wheelchair and having her cross these bike lanes is a huge safety concern,” said Mirabella, 25. “The DOT is calling this a safety and accessibility improvement plan – and that’s preposterous.”
The proposed bicycle lanes would also interfere with the current pick-up and drop-off zones for pre-school- to high school-aged students enrolled in St. Demetrios School near 31st Street and 30th Avenue.
The school was among 50 businesses and institutions that signed onto a June 3 letter to DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodríguez begging him to reconsider the scheme — which could be implemented as soon as this summer.
“Multiple instances of children being struck by heedless bicycle traffic have been documented across the city . . . until this problem is adequately addressed citywide, we cannot be expected to absorb the consequences,” reads one section of the seven-page letter.
As of Friday, more than 4,200 people have signed onto a Change.org petition against the proposal – which also cited increased traffic congestion, pollution and delayed 911 responses as concerns.
The roadway is an “industrial conduit” that connects the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge to the 59th Street Bridge to the Midtown tunnel, noted Nancy Esposito, whose family owns Brothers Supply Corp., an HVAC company on 35th Avenue and 31st Street.
“This would have an unbelievable ripple effect,” said Esposito. “We’re very, very concerned for the safety of our community and the wellbeing of our companies because of this plan.”
A DOT spokesperson said that redesigns like this one “successfully improve safety and support local businesses while keeping traffic moving.” The department has met with dozens of business owners on 31st Street “to adjust our proposal based on their feedback,” they added.
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