A working-class immigrant neighborhood in Queens banned cars along a major road

A working-class immigrant neighborhood in Queens banned cars along a major road. The new park is a ‘superhighway of kids and families and neighbors.On a recent sunny Friday afternoon in Jackson Heights, Queens, dozens of migrants filled out applications for asylum at folding tables set up in the street outside a local elementary school. Former Manhattan prosecutor Nuala O’Doherty-Naranjo, who operates the free legal clinic three days a week, sat nearby answering questions

In good weather, she and her team — all volunteers — hold the clinic in the street, which was recently transformed into a car-free public plaza. Steps away, kids played soccer, a little girl tested out the training wheels on her bicycle, and a neighbor led a free crocheting class.

Just a few years ago, that same road — 34th Avenue — was a traffic-clogged artery. But a years-long, grass-roots effort has turned a 1.3-mile-long, 26-block stretch of the avenue — which the city council renamed Paseo Park — into the crown jewel of New York City’s embattled Open Streets Initiative.

As New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reverses the city’s attempt to reduce congestion in Manhattan, Jackson Heights has managed to cement its open street into a feature the community isn’t willing to give up.

Read the full news here

Recommended by Luisa Bravo