“Real families were counting on that money, because the QueensWay is desperately needed in our community. It would provide a green space for kids in 28 schools—many of which, like the school where I work, have very little outdoor space, and most of it covered in asphalt.”
City officials announcing funding for the QueensWay proposal in 2022. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)
Have you ever made a promise to a child and taken it back? How about 100,000 children?
That’s exactly what the federal government has done in Queens. They made a promise to fund the new QueensWay, a project to transform 47 forgotten acres—a railway that hasn’t been used in 60 years, a public eyesore and dumping ground—into a lush greenway running through the middle of Queens.
The QueensWay would serve 245,000 people, a vibrant system of parks and trails that would make it safer for kids to get to school and easier for adults to get to work. It would create jobs and expand tourism dollars in Queens, and would provide desperately needed green space for tens of thousands of children.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the city $117 million to make this dream project into a reality. And then Congress took it back.
I’m a community school director at a public school here in Queens, which means I work to connect students, parents and teachers with community groups and government agencies to give our kids the resources they need for the best possible chance of success.
The QueensWay project came about in exactly the same way: 20 years of local advocacy, hundreds of meetings with community stakeholders, and a decade of thoughtful design and planning to create a greenway that will best serve the people of Queens: Our quality of life. Our health. Our economy.
Twenty years of hard work paid off. But using the so-called “clawback” provisions of President Donald Trump’s new spending bill, Congress rescinded the funding this past summer, leaving Queens in the lurch.
Real families were counting on that money, because the QueensWay is desperately needed in our community. It would provide a green space for kids in 28 schools—many of which, like the school where I work, have very little outdoor space, and most of it covered in asphalt.
This is no coincidence: Public schools in Queens lack resources that schools in other boroughs have, because Queens gets the least public investment per child of any borough in New York City. In Queens, our kids grow up with fewer safe parks, hotter asphalt schoolyards, and riskier walks to green space—while children in other boroughs benefit from billions more in new amenities and safer access.
I’m a mom of two young children, so this funding clawback affects my kids too. I don’t want my children to have to walk across a highway to get to a park, or be forced to play in areas that feel unsafe. I work hard every day to help my own children and the kids at my school have their most basic needs met, like food, dental care, and eye exams. These kids need and deserve a beautiful place to play, just as parents like me need and deserve a safe place to bring our kids.
Here’s the good news: New Yorkers know how to fight, and our battle for the QueensWay is far from over. If Queens were its own city, it would be the fifth largest in America, and there’s a lot of power in numbers. Just as we fought to win this grant in the first place, now we must fight to win back the funding that was promised.
So if you’re reading this, send an email to Mayor Eric Adams—and your city councilperson, your state representatives, your members of Congress, and Gov. Kathy Hochul while you’re at it. Tell them that we care about the QueensWay, and we need our leaders to fight for our kids just as hard as we do.
Because here in Queens, we keep our promises. And we demand that the government keep its promise to us.
Amy Kui is Forest Hills resident and and Community School Director (CSD) for United Community Schools at PS65Q The Raymond York Elementary School.
The post Opinion: Fighting for the QueensWay We Were Promised appeared first on City Limits.
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