What We Could Lose

Right now, the City of New York is moving ahead with an alternative plan for this land. Called Queensway, this is a High Line-style park that was developed with the goal of blocking transit restoration. QueensLink was designed to show that both rails and trails are possible on this 3.5-mile-long right-of-way. The first phase of the Queensway, called “Met Hub“, was funded by former Mayor Eric Adams. If built as designed, adding transit later would require demolition of the park, wasting $43 million in taxpayer dollars, and would face strong pushback from local residents.

In their public scoping meetings, the NYC Parks Department said flat out that their design would not take future reactivation into consideration. We are calling for Mayor Mamdani to halt funding and development of Met Hub and promote our vision for how rails and trails can coexist. The Met Hub should be redesigned with the path off to the side of the embankment, which would allow for a continuous connection over the LIRR tracks while leaving space for future transit.