QUEENS — A group of cycling enthusiasts is pushing for a greenway that would connect portions of Brooklyn with parks in Southeast Queens.
The proposed 32 mile route was initially envisioned by the city in 2000 and sought to connect Highland Park in Cypress Hills, on the Brooklyn-Queens border, with Brookville Park in Rosedale and Alley Pond Park in Bayside.
When completed, it would allow cyclists, joggers and pedestrians to move between the parks along Conduit Avenue, the Belt Parkway, Laurelton Parkway and the Cross Island Parkway, according to the plan.
But so far only small portions of it have been built — most of them in Highland and Brookville parks.
Now the group wants the city to build the rest of the proposed Southern Queens greenway.
Daniel Solow, 24, a Long Island cyclist who is spearheading the efforts, initiated a petition promoting the project on change.org.
“15 years is too long for this great plan to sit on the shelf," the petition reads. “Help us tell NYS and NYC agencies to get this trail on the map.”
As of Friday morning, the petiton had gathered 87 signatures.
Solow, who hopes to get support for his vision from local elected officials and community board members, said that at some point he is planning to ask the city to conduct a feasibility study.
In its 2000 plan, the city said that the route would connect “some of the most scenic and significant destinations in eastern Brooklyn and southern and eastern Queens.”
It would also provide “improved access to spectacular waterfront vistas and major employment destinations, such as John F. Kennedy International Airport, Creedmoor Psychiatric Center and Queensboro Community College.”
Solow, who lives in Woodmere, Long Island, and works in Rockaway as a reading coach, cycles to Queens every day, where he also collaborates with the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance.
His dream, he said, is to be able to bike safely from Long Island to Manhattan and other parts of New York.
He also believes that Queens needs more cycling options.
"The Manhattan waterfront and the Hudson River trail, as well as the area around Brooklyn, are really nice but I think Manhattan and Brooklyn, they have enough,” he said.
“Let’s start sharing that same enthusiasm in Queens."
Peter Beadle, of Transportation Alternatives' Queens Activist Committee, called Solow's initiative a “great idea."
The greenway, Beadle said, “would be a huge boon to what isn’t, but should be, a more robust bicycling network in Queens, and Southeast Queens especially.”
The proposed route would also connect Southeast Queens with the existing portion of the Queens greenway, which links Alley Pond Park with Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
There are also efforts to connect the Queens greenway with a trail that is currently being built in Nassau County.
Department of City Planning spokeswoman Rachaele Raynoff said that the agency is a “planning agency, not an implementing agency,” and referred questions to the city's Department of Transportation and Parks Department. The two agencies did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
To get more information about the campaign, go here.
