Hunts Point

So far, City Hall has watched passively as New York State DOT plows forward with a plan to cut off Hunts Point from the Bronx River with new Bruckner ramps. But the mayor still has leverage at his disposal, if he cares enough to use it.

The NYS DOT plan will exacerbate air pollution in a neighborhood where asthma rates are already sky high.

State DOT nixed neighborhood advocates' preferred plan, which would have routed trucks bound for the Hunts Point Market away from the residential part of the neighborhood.

The public has until Wednesday, October 18, to tell the New York State Department of Transportation to alter a plan for new Bruckner Expressway ramps that would cut Hunts Point off from the Bronx River.

South Bronx advocates are raising the alarm about the Cuomo administration's plans for the Sheridan Expressway, saying the state DOT is rushing ahead with a project that ignores years of advocacy for safer neighborhood streets with less truck traffic.

The Cuomo administration intends to decommission the Sheridan Expressway, which cuts off South Bronx neighborhoods from the Bronx River. But will it turn the Sheridan into a walkable street or a wide, rumbling arterial for trucks?

Yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he's moving forward with the removal of the Sheridan Expressway, a 1.25-mile Moses-era highway that cuts off South Bronx neighborhoods from the Bronx River waterfront.

After years of wrangling, advocates, businesses, and elected officials have gotten behind a city plan to convert the Sheridan Expressway into a boulevard and take trucks off local streets by building direct ramps from the Bruckner Expressway to Hunts Point. Now it's up to the state to turn the plan into reality, and the first step is funding an environmental impact statement for the new ramps. For help, Bronx advocates are looking to similar projects across the state.

After nearly two decades of advocacy and planning to transform the Sheridan Expressway, South Bronx residents and businesses have a plan they agree on. The next step: Governor Cuomo's State DOT must launch an environmental review to begin implementing the plan. The State Senate included $3 million for the review in its budget proposal [PDF]. With a unanimous 10-0 vote this afternoon, the City Council transportation committee urged the state to follow through and conduct the study. The full City Council is expected to endorse the request tomorrow.