Bronx River Alliance Invites Mayor Mamdani to Visit Proposed Cross Bronx Expressway Expansion Site

BRONX, NY (01/16/2026) (readMedia)-- This week, the Bronx River Alliance sent a letter to City Hall inviting Mayor Mamdani and NYC DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn to tour the proposed expansion site for the state's 900-million Cross Bronx 5 Bridges project, and explore opportunities for city officials to advance the community's priorities. The invite comes days after Senator Gustavo Rivera and 1,000 Bronxites opposing NYSDOT's expansion plans sent a petition requesting more time to assess the project's environmental impacts.

Read the full letter here and below.

With construction set for this spring, Governor Hochul and NYSDOT are still looking to expand the Cross Bronx Expressway by 50 feet, right over Starlight Park and the Bronx River. Despite successful community pushback against a new, mile-long polluting roadway along the Cross Bronx, NYSDOT's remaining proposals threaten significant environmental and public health impacts for at least the next 8 decades - just steps away from 3,000 residents at the Bronx River Houses public housing complex.

In the letter, Bronx River Alliance Executive Director and Transportation, Climate, and Infrastructure Mayoral Transition Committee member Siddhartha Sánchez writes, "We want to work with subject matter experts and government officials to solve longstanding traffic and by extension air and water pollution still plaguing our neighborhoods, including the Bronx River, Starlight Park, and surrounding natural landmarks."

Bronx communities continue to battle some of the highest rates of childhood asthma and respiratory illness in the nation. For the 64,000 local residents living along the expressway, including families at Bronx River Houses suffering from toxic air quality, a standard bridge repair would help shore up the Cross Bronx without exacerbating its carbon footprint. Community members have previously shared a variety of priorities for city and state officials to improve the corridor, including investing in blue highways to move freight, enhancing existing public transit options, and building safer walking and biking routes.

"We're asking Mayor Mamdani and DOT Commissioner Flynn to come stand in our parks, walk our streets, and hear what Bronx residents are facing," said Siddhartha Sánchez, Executive Director of Bronx River Alliance and member of the Transportation, Climate, and Infrastructure Mayoral Transition Committee. "After decades of sickness from pollution, Bronxites can't afford a bigger Cross Bronx that comes at the expense of our health, environment, and quality of life. This is an opportunity to lead by listening, and to support a vision that heals our communities. We look forward to partnering with city and state officials to reimagine the corridor for future generations."

Letter

Hon. Zohran Mamdani

Mayor, New York City

City Hall

New York, NY 10007

Hon. Michael Flynn

Commissioner, New York City Department of Transportation

55 Water Street, 9th Floor

New York, NY 10041

Re: Invite to Tour the Cross Bronx Expressway Corridor – Proposed 5 Bridges Project Site

Dear Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Flynn,

We write to invite you to tour the Cross Bronx Expressway corridor with local community leaders to view the proposed site for the State's upcoming Cross Bronx 5 Bridges project. As environmental and racial justice face mounting attacks across our nation, this project represents a once-in-a-lifetime chance to right the wrongs Robert Moses imposed on the Bronx decades ago. Along with our entire borough, 64,000 frontline residents live with the daily impacts of the choices we make today: to either expand the highway that has sickened generations or reimagine and remediate the Cross Bronx's environmental footprint for generations to come.

As Governor Hochul and the State Department of Transportation advance this $900-million project, officials are still considering widening the Cross Bronx Expressway by 50 feet over critical park space and sensitive ecosystems still in recovery. Current NYSDOT proposals threaten substantial environmental and community health impacts for at least the next 80 years, compounding existing racial health disparities for Bronx communities burdened with the highest asthma rates and worst health outcomes statewide. Simultaneously, expanding the Cross Bronx further endangers Bronx River Houses, home to 3,000 public housing seniors and families and one of the birthplaces of hip-hop. This frontline community continues to battle toxic air quality which will be compounded as this dense low-income, immigrant housing development sits directly across the street from the project site. This past fall, a groundswell of local advocates and electeds came together at Bronx River Houses and other sites near the project area and halted the state's plans to build a new, mile-long polluting roadway along the Cross Bronx. At this critical moment before the project moves to construction this Spring, our coalition welcomes your administration to meet with residents, learn about our community's fresh vision for the area, and explore how the City can help advance our community's vision.

We share the goal of repairing our aging infrastructure through a standard repair, which should not needlessly expand the footprint of the highway. Beyond this goal, we want to work with subject matter experts and government officials to solve longstanding traffic and by extension air and water pollution still plaguing our neighborhoods, including the Bronx River, Starlight Park, and surrounding natural landmarks. Community alternatives to expanding the highway span from investing in blue highways to move freight, to enhancing existing public transit options, to building safer walking and biking routes - actions aligned with your administration's goals.

Bronx River Alliance staff, board, and partners strongly support your administration's bold vision for our city's transit future. The future of the Cross Bronx is part of that future, and as such, we trust that you recognize the immense opportunity before us and the need to act decisively. In the coming years, Bronxites will look to the new administration to govern our city with the same ambitious spirit embodied by your historic campaign: by showing up, listening deeply, and investing in the communities that have been overlooked for far too long.

We look forward to partnering with city and state officials to ensure that the 5 Bridges project reunites communities, and ushers in a new path to environmental justice for future generations.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha Sánchez

Executive Director, Bronx River Alliance

Member of the Transportation, Climate and Infrastructure Mayoral Transition Committee

BACKGROUND

The New York State Department of Transportation is currently proposing the Cross Bronx "5 Bridges Project," a $900-million plan (including $150 million of federal funding for reconnecting communities harmed by highways) that threatens to exacerbate environmental inequities facing the South Bronx. Despite heeding community concerns and scrapping four of its most noxious plans - including a new mile-long polluting roadway - Governor Hochul and NYSDOT are not reducing traffic and are still proposing expanding the Cross Bronx by 50 feet.

The Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition is urging NYSDOT and Governor Hochul to conduct the needed standard bridge repair without expanding the highway, and work with community members toward more equitable, environmentally just traffic and air quality solutions for the corridor.

Why Expanding the Cross Bronx Isn't Viable

The Cross Bronx's enormous environmental footprint has only worsened over the years. In the U.S., fossil fuel-powered vehicles are a major source of air pollution and heat-trapping emissions, releasing more than 50% of the nitrogen oxide found in our air. Nearly 150,000 vehicles, including 18,000 trucks, use the Cross Bronx daily, a figure that will increase if state DOT proceeds with its planned expansion of the structure.

In 2022, NYSDOT illegally dumped pieces of the roadway directly into the Bronx River after demolishing a Cross Bronx entrance ramp during a similar rehabilitation project. Even if the state files permits, local residents are still concerned that DOT's project may similarly impact the river, under the current "5 Bridges" project. Thanks to sustained remediation efforts, wildlife has slowly returned to the river following the incident, including threatened birds such as herons and dolphins. But during ongoing river clean-ups with local volunteers, residents continue to find construction waste tossed from the expressway into the recovering waterway. State DOT's remaining plan threatens to reverse this hard-won progress and drive worsened air quality, increased pollution, and more chronic illness in an already overburdened community.

Community Alternatives for the Cross Bronx

Since the 1970s, community members have long advocated for investment in safe, dignified, and simple improvements for South Bronx neighborhoods. Residents successfully advocated for the expansion of Starlight Park, which has doubled in size after years of organizing to transform the space into a vital community resource. But existing east-west corridors along the Cross Bronx, including some of its most dangerous intersections on 174th Street, 177th Street, and East Tremont Avenue have been ignored and neglected for decades.

In 2014, City Council awarded NYCDOT the funds to create signalized crossings at five intersections around E 177th St. and E Tremont Ave. Over a decade later, the project still hasn't been completed, depriving local residents of accessible pathways. The state's planned expansion ignores the rest of E 177th St and other proposed connections along the highway, in a departure from residents' top priorities. As outlined in the community's visioning process for the Cross Bronx, Bronxites are seeking alternatives that reduce traffic, restore community access to green space, and reconnect riverside neighborhoods along the expressway.

About the Bronx River Alliance: The Bronx River Alliance serves as a coordinated voice for the river and works in harmonious partnership to protect, improve, and restore the Bronx River corridor so that it can be a healthy ecological, recreational, educational, and economic resource for the communities through which the river flows.

About the Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition: The Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion coalition is composed of Bronx grassroots groups, environmental justice organizations, and advocates for safe and healthy transportation. Together, we are fighting to implement a positive community-led vision that reverses the harms done to the public health, environment, and social and economic life of the Bronx by the Expressway. To realize this vision requires stopping new highway expansions along the Cross Bronx – beginning with New York State DOT's current plan to widen the CBE.

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