Tensions flare at DOT greenway meeting, with controversial pol at the center
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It was a raucous scene at a meeting concerning the planned Queens Waterfront Greenway on Thursday night. Councilmember Vickie Paladino/X
By Ryan Schwach
A Department of Transportation workshop in Eastern Queens about a waterfront greenway went down a rocky path on Thursday night.
People both in support of and opposed to the DOT’s plan to build a waterfront greenway that connects one side of Queens with the other lost their tempers at the DOT meeting.
At one point, local City Councilmember Vickie Paladino, who blasted the plan well before the meeting, stood atop a chair and addressed the crowd. Some attendees said her remarks only made matters worse.
One local resident alleged the Republican councilmember’s son, Thomas Paladino, who also works on the lawmaker’s staff, told a constituent to “f— off” during a particularly heated moment.
The meeting Thursday night, held at the Alley Pond Park and Environmental Center in Douglaston, was the third neighborhood workshop organized this month for the proposed 16-mile Queens Waterfront Greenway, which will stretch from Gantry Plaza State Park to Fort Totten. Like other greenways in the city, the path would be open to pedestrians and cyclists.
Paladino, whose district includes the eastern-third of the greenway, has criticized it from the get-go, claiming the project was a “non-starter.”
The controversial lawmakers argued that the new path – which locals were invited to give their input on Thursday night – would exacerbate traffic issues and be a general nuisance to the community.
The meeting on Thursday began chaotically, attendees told the Eagle. Arguments quickly broke out between those in favor and those against.
“Last night was kind of wild,” said Queens transportation activist Laura Shepard, an advocate of the greenway.
Like the previous two meetings, the DOT had planned Thursday’s event to run as a community workshop, featuring small breakout groups where attendees could discuss the specifics of what they hope the project will look like.
But Paladino and others opposed to the project felt the format didn’t address their desire to advocate against the project altogether.
“It was bedlam in there, absolute bedlam,” the councilmember, who did not respond to the Eagle’s requests for comment, said in a video filmed after the meeting that was posted to social media.
Pro-greenway attendees argued that the only reason the meeting began the way it did was because Paladino incorrectly mischaracterized the nature of the meeting to her supporters.
“Councilmember Paladino had put out her own misleading flyers characterizing it as a public hearing,” Shepard said. “As soon as breakout groups started, she started jumping in, then she took the microphone back and stood up and basically said some inaccurate and misleading information.”
Paladino herself said that she believed the meeting was billed as a public hearing, where locals would be able to get up and share their thoughts in front of the room.
The Queens Waterfront Greenway aims to bring 16 miles of new paths for Queens’ cyclists and pedestrians. Photo via Department of TRANSPORTATION.
“We thought tonight was going to be a public hearing of sorts, it turned out to be quite the opposite,” Paladino said in the video. “I want you to know right here, right now, that anybody who objected at that table was not listened to.”
At one point during the meeting, Paladino allegedly claimed that the greenway could be used as an escape route for criminals in the area and said that adults don’t ride bikes as a form of transportation.
Eventually, Paladino grabbed a microphone and stood on a chair to address the group in an attempt to calm everyone down.
While Paladino was speaking, local resident and activist Jaslin Kaur told the councilmember that the meeting was always intended to be a workshop, and not a hearing.
At that point, Paladino’s son – who has been the subject of controversy several times in the past – asked Kaur where she was from, Kaur said. He then allegedly told Kaur to “f– off,” insinuated she didn’t live in the area and called her a “piece of s–.”
It’s not the first time this week a Paladino has implied that native New Yorkers have more of a right to give their opinion on city policy than those who moved to the five boroughs later in life.
“Transplants who just arrived in New York don't have the right to insist we redesign our entire city according to their agenda just because they hate people who own cars,” the councilmember said on X on Tuesday following a marathon public hearing on the mayor’s controversial City of Yes housing plan, which Paladino also opposes. “Sorry we're not Barcelona or Amsterdam. Go be a transplant there if it's so great.”
Kaur said that Paladino’s comments were “disappointing.”
“That is extremely disappointing to see from the councilmember,” she said.
At one point during Thursday’s meeting, Paladino urged all attendees opposed to the project to leave the workshop. About half the room emptied.
“We are open to discussion, but they didn't want to hear discussion,” Paladino said in the video.
In a statement, the Department of Transportation said the agency “will always strive to ensure we’re hosting respectful, inclusive meetings as we develop this historic greenway expansion hand-in-hand with local residents,” and said they ultimately gathered a wide-variety of feedback in Douglaston.
“This greenway plan could better connect residents in Northeast Queens to the beautiful parks in their neighborhoods through new bike paths and pedestrian spaces, creating welcoming areas for cyclists as well as families in need of safer streets to walk with their children and grandchildren,” a spokesperson said.
A fourth meeting to discuss the greenway is scheduled to take place on Zoom at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
