Locals celebrate opening of controversial Astoria bike lane as court battle continues

Community members and elected officials in Astoria celebrate the 31st Street bike lane on Saturday. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach

By Ryan Schwach

Astoria locals and elected officials celebrated the opening of the controversial 31st Street bike lane over the weekend while several local businesses continue to fight it in court.

Supporters called the bike lane on the busy Astoria thoroughfare a hard-fought win – the new lane has even won over some businesses that at first fought the street design change. But others have continued to push a lawsuit over the bike lane against the city.

Nonetheless, the Mamdani administration moved forward with a longer version of the bike lane than the one proposed by his predecessor. It’s been open for several weeks.

“This is an incredibly proud day,” City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán told the crowd in Astoria on Saturday at a celebration of the bike lane’s opening. “Very few things as contentious as a bike lane or a street infrastructure change, but when you get down to the brass tacks and you talk about safety and lives, it becomes very, very simple.”

“If it saves lives, it is worth doing,” the progressive councilmember said.

Cabán, whose office sits along the bike lane on 31st, said that the street is safer now, but that it remains dangerous along northern stretches of the road where there is no bike lane.

“I would venture to say, we could use some changes up there too. It goes back to being chaos,” she said. “You see the double and triple parked cars. It is very dangerous to cross the street.”

Stacey Eliuk, a local cycling advocate and community board member, said that the bike lane is a product of the community’s efforts.

“There was a moment when we thought that this bike lane wasn't going to happen, but the community answered,” she said. “We organized, we testified, we rallied. We went to community board meetings. We refused to let this street become another story about what could have been. And today we're standing here because of that.”

“These aren't streets that belong to cars,” she added. “These are streets that belong to communities.”

Local businesses along 31st have long opposed the bike lane, and even got a judge to block it last year before it was ultimately pushed through by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who formerly represented the area in the state legislature.

Several of those businesses filed a new lawsuit in mid-July arguing against the bike lane and seeking to have the city return 31st to how it looked before the lane was constructed.

The businesses have long argued the bike lane would negatively impact business, increase traffic, and would not ultimately make Astoria safer.

“The DOT plan has ignored all of these considerations for the ostensible purpose of accommodating cyclists,” the lawsuit reads. “The City and [Department of Transportation] have turned a blind eye to thousands of pedestrians, commuters, and diverse community members and are causing irreparable harm to local residents, seniors, disabled individuals, children, and businesses located along 31st Street, in favor of a relative handful of cyclists, (who could easily be accommodated on nearby streets), while ignoring steps that could be taken if the true objective was to make 31st Street safer for everyone.”

However, at least one of the vocally anti-bike lane businesses along 31st has switched teams.

The transportation outlet Streetsblog reported last week that King Souvlaki, a famous food truck that has parked on 31st for decades, is happy with the bike lane after previously pushing to stop it.

“It’s a good setup and we get to stay in the spot we’ve been at since 1979,” truck owner Lampros Tsampas told Streetsblog. “It’s a great bike lane, I like it.”