City Hall is playing with fire.
The Mamdani administration is rolling out bike lanes in Queens that fuming Bravest say flagrantly ignore safety concerns and put residents in danger.
At a heated community board meeting Tuesday night, about 20 FDNY members packed the room to try to throw cold water on the city Department of Transportation’s protected-bike-lane plan for 31st Street in Astoria.
The bike lanes will have the curb on one side of them and a protective concrete median on the other. A row of car parking spaces will then be next to the median, pushing firetrucks even further into the street if a blaze erupts in the area.
The firetrucks will be so far from the sidewalk that their ladders won’t be able to reach third‑floor windows and above, the firefighters said.
“Putting bike lanes in that area is going to jeopardize the lives of residents living along 31st Street because our ladders will not reach the third floor,” said Astoria firefighter Mike Schreibner, also an avid cyclist.
“We will not be able to put our ladders up to rescue people above.”
Despite the firefighters’ flare‑up, the board gave the project a green light, and the DOT insisted Thursday it had cleared the plan with FDNY headquarters, which consulted local firehouses as the law requires.
“DOT worked in close collaboration with our partners at FDNY, including on all legally required consultations to advance this redesign,” a DOT rep said.
A Fire Department representative added, “The FDNY reviewed and signed off on DOT’s proposal for 31st Street in accordance with the legal process.”
But union leaders said City Hall is using smoke and mirrors to get the bike lanes put in.
“No fire officer in any of the affected firehouses has been notified by DOT of the revised plan,” said Michael Tracey, vice president of the Uniformed Firefighters Officers Association.
Bobby Eustace, the legislative director for the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said FDNY leaders will do whatever City Hall wants since the commissioner is appointed by the mayor.
“The commissioners are children of the mayor — they will not disagree with him,” Eustace said. “They are not civil servants anymore. They are appointees. So you’re not getting an honest answer out of them.”
He said DOT’s flagrant disregard for fire safety has gotten out of hand.
“The DOT is like the KGB. They’re able to run free, and no one is able to check them. They do whatever they want,” Eustace said.
“We’re being pushed to the point where there’s going to be blood on the hands of DOT if they keep this up,” he said.
Queens City Councilwoman Joann Ariola sponsored Local Law 6 that stipulates local firehouses should sign-off on bikes lanes.
“Local firefighters are the people who know the streets best,” she said. “It is mind‑boggling to me that the administration and the DOT are continuing to put public safety aside in pursuit of their anti‑car agenda.”
The battle is a repeat after last year when Queens Supreme Court Justice Chereé Buggs torched an earlier 31st Street redesign, ruling DOT acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” by barreling ahead with protected bike lanes without proof it had conferred with local firehouses.
The city is appealing that ruling.
“This is absolutely mind‑boggling how the city can come back with the same plan and say that it’s safe after a judge ruled against it,” fumed Joe Mirabella, president of the 31st Street Business Association, which sued over DOT’s first bike lane scheme on 31st Street.
He said his group of mom‑and‑pop shops and neighborhood residents can’t match the legal muscle and funding of the city in the ongoing dispute.
“We’re not some bunch of corporations or mega‑property owners,” Mirabella said. “It’s cost us a lot of money to bring this into court. We won and now the city refiling. Sidestepping the ruling just shows how little they care about the impact this is having on us.”
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