Department of City Planning Announces Multiagency “Walkshops” Along the Cross Bronx Expressway

 

These public walking tours are the latest in the City’s ongoing collaboration to tackle negative impacts of the highway while promoting residents’ health and well-being. 

The events will take place in several Bronx neighborhoods throughout September and October. 

Department of City Planning (DCP) Director Dan Garodnick announced a series of “walkshops” with the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), and the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) as part of the community-driven study to reimagine the Cross Bronx Expressway. These walking tours will offer opportunities for the public to look at existing conditions around and underneath the highway as we study ways to reconnect communities divided by it and improve public health.  

“For too long, the Cross Bronx Expressway has been a destructive divider of communities. These walkshops will give New Yorkers an opportunity to witness and speak to the on-the-ground conditions and harmful impacts the Cross Bronx Expressway has on those who live and work nearby. I encourage everyone to join us for these tours and get involved in planning for a healthier, cleaner, and safer future for the Bronx,” said DCP Director and City Planning Commission Chair Dan Garodnick. 

“These walkshops are perfectly named opportunities for the communities along the Cross Bronx Expressway to directly observe the issues that contribute to our re-envisioning of the span,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “I encourage everyone to sign up for these events to be held in September and October as the City moves forward with the community-driven study to improve these neighborhoods in an equitable way.”  

“Working directly with New Yorkers to support healthier neighborhoods is the key to making our entire city a healthier place,” said Dr. Ashwin Vasan, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “Walkshops are an opportunity to continue learning from the most credible experts we have – who are community members.  The health Department has been proud to work with partner agencies and community members on this important process and look forward to seeing how these initiatives shape a new Cross-Bronx Expressway corridor.” 

“The Cross-Bronx Expressway walkshops, led by the Department of City Planning, give Cross-Bronx corridor residents a say in how the city rethinks infrastructure,” said Victoria Cerullo, Acting Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice. “This project results from the tireless commitment of environmental justice advocates who have long called attention to the expressway’s health and safety impacts. These participatory walkshops will elevate solutions to improve both open space and public health, which are interconnected.” 

These walkshops all take place on Saturdays at 10 am in September and October, with each of them lasting around one-and-a-half hours and led by city agencies, community organizations, and elected officials. Covering multiple neighborhoods, the tours will examine conditions in the west, central, and east portions of the expressway.

RSVPs are required for each of these events. 

On Sept. 9, the walkshop will start at Bridge Playground and end where the expressway meets Jerome Avenue. Taking place in the west Bronx neighborhoods of Morris Heights, Highbridge, Mt. Eden, this tour will walk by playgrounds and bridges along the corridor.    

On Sept. 23, the walkshop will start at Prospect Playground and end at Webster Avenue, providing an opportunity to walk over a covered portion and under an elevated portion of the expressway. This tour will cover the central Bronx neighborhoods of Crotona and Claremont. 

On Oct. 7, the walkshop will start at Hugh J. Grant Circle and end at Devoe Avenue. Taking place in the east Bronx neighborhoods of Parkchester and Unionport, this tour will walk near the Bronx River intersection and Noble Playground. 

The outreach series will conclude with three simultaneous events on Oct. 14. These include a bicycle tour starting at the intersection of University Avenue and Ogden Avenue by Bridge Playground, a Spanish-language tour starting at the intersection of E 174th Street and Webster Avenue, and an event for those with limited mobility at Prospect Playground. 

Funded by a $2 million U.S. Department of Transportation Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant submitted by DOT, DCP, DOHMH, and NYSDOT, this planning effort will identify strategies to lessen the negative health and safety impacts of expressway, explore opportunities for new open space, and reconnect communities north and south of the current highway. 

Constructed largely in the 1950s and 1960s, the Cross Bronx destroyed the homes of tens of thousands of residents in the borough. With an average of 300 diesel trucks using the roadway every hour and tens of thousands of cars per day traveling in each direction, the 220,000 New Yorkers who live near the highway are regularly exposed to elevated levels of noise and air pollution as well as excessive heat. Communities in the Bronx experience elevated rates of respiratory disease, including asthma, and other chronic disease. The Cross Bronx also has some of the highest crash and fatality rates. Between 2014 and 2018, an average of 159 injuries occurred each year on streets adjacent to the expressway.