NYers to DOT: Nix A Bigger Cross Bronx + Extend Comment Period to 90 Days

BRONX, NY (12/18/2025) (readMedia)-- Today, Bronx community members and citywide advocates urged Governor Hochul and the New York State Department of Transportation to eliminate remaining plans for a bigger Cross Bronx, and grant a 90-day public comment period for the environmental review phase of the 5 Bridges project. Just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, Governor Hochul and the New York State Department of Transportation released its long-awaited Cross Bronx environmental assessment, leaving community members to review nearly 6,000 pages of material during the holiday season. Following a series of poorly advertised public hearings and low attendance, Bronx River Alliance and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYPLI) have co-launched a social media campaign to alert more than 64,000 local residents about the review period and backfill NYSDOT's lack of outreach.

Watch a recording of the Zoom conference here.

For many community members, Bronx River Alliance and NYLPI's joint campaign will serve as the first introduction to the state's public comment period, as the January 9th deadline looms. On top of families celebrating Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Day, this year children at NYC public schools have a 12-day winter break - giving Bronx families only a month to weigh in. In between busy schedules, residents are sifting through state design plans that could widen the Cross Bronx, bringing long-term health and environmental impacts for the next 80 years at minimum. But upstate, NYSDOT is taking active steps to remove highways like Albany's I-787, and even launching a dedicated online hub to engage Buffalo and Western NY residents in reimagining the Route 33 Expressway.

Bronx electeds have already joined forces with local residents and advocates calling for standard bridge repairs, stronger engagement and more time to assess the environmental impacts of the state's remaining design plans. Shortly before Thanksgiving, Senator Gustavo Rivera, Councilmember-elect Justin Sanchez, Bronx River Alliance, Transportation Alternatives, and a coalition of Bronx community groups and citywide advocates led a virtual press conference requesting a 90-day public comment period and enhanced outreach to source meaningful feedback. A week later, Congressman Ritchie Torres sent a letter to Governor Hochul and the New York State Department of Transportation echoing community voices and urging officials to extend the public comment period.

"In stark contrast to the state's transformative engagement efforts upstate, Bronxites got digital road signs and a nearly 6,000-page environmental assessment dropped right before Thanksgiving. We are at a final decision point for what happens with the Cross Bronx Expressway. But thousands of Bronxites are currently missing out on the chance to shape a project that will impact our health and neighborhoods for generations," said Siddhartha Sánchez, Executive Director of the Bronx River Alliance and member of the Stop the Cross Bronx Expansion Coalition. "We're not asking for special treatment, just the tools and time necessary to correct decades of highway harm. For us, that means a planning process that's equitable and efficient, and solutions that actually reduce traffic and pollution - not a bigger Cross Bronx."

"Releasing a nearly 6,000-page environmental assessment right before the holidays and giving Bronx residents just weeks to respond is not meaningful public engagement, it's exclusion. Communities that have already borne decades of harm from the Cross Bronx Expressway deserve real time, real access, and a real say in decisions that will shape their health and neighborhoods for generations. At a minimum, that means a 90-day public comment period and alternatives that repair existing infrastructure without widening the highway or locking in more traffic and pollution," said Damon Gilbert, Equal Justice Fellow - EJ, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI).

"As Bronx residents, we've witnessed our neighborhoods suffer through decades of devastation from the Cross Bronx Expressway. It is imperative that the Cross Bronx's next stage of life be shaped in the most thoughtful way possible: engaging local residents and mitigating any potential for further harm to Bronxites' health and livelihoods. We call on Governor Hochul and the New York State Department of Transportation to eliminate any remaining plans that would expand the Cross Bronx, and grant a 90-day public comment period for the environmental review phase of the 5 Bridges project. Only the most thorough and careful planning can right the wrongs of the Cross Bronx against our borough, and improve the quality of our lives," said Bronx Jews for Climate Action.

"Bronx families have borne a disproportionate environmental health burden from the Cross Bronx Expressway since its construction under Robert Moses," said Dr. Charles Moon, MD FAAP, Chair of the New York State Chapter 3 of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health & Climate Change. "The CBE communities did not have a say back then, and as a result they suffer from some of the worst childhood asthma complications in New York City and across the nation. We fully support the calls for an extended comment period to allow for greater input from affected community members, and urge the state to address the Cross Bronx Expressway's toxic legacy, not expand it. These are essential steps towards justice for the Bronx and building healthier communities."

"We ask Governor Hochul to extend the public comment period to 90 days. Working families deserve the time and opportunity to meaningfully engage in decisions that affect their health and daily lives. Our communities want safer streets, cleaner air, and stronger connections, and that requires a thoughtful process and solutions that truly reduce traffic and pollution," said Paloma Hernández, President and CEO, Urban Health Plan.

"When it comes to the doorstop of an environmental study, New Yorkers simply aren't reading all that over the holidays," said Riders Alliance Policy & Communications Director Danny Pearlstein of the doorstop assessment. "But as far as expanding the shadow of the Cross Bronx Expressway, history's most notorious highway, we cannot afford to throw up our hands and say, 'I'm happy for you tho...or sorry that happened.' We need a serious study across the I-95 corridor, a set of alternatives that do not bring congestion and pollution closer to homes, parks and schools, and an end to clever diversions, like the cancelled diversion structure, all but designed to distract from the grave harm to the surrounding community."

"Releasing a 6,000-page draft environmental assessment on the eve of the holidays and expecting Bronx families to respond in a matter of weeks is exclusion, not public engagement. Communities that have borne the harms of the Cross Bronx Expressway for generations deserve real time and a real say, not a rushed process for the remaining options that'll lock in decades of damage. We continue calling for a 90-day public comment period, better-timed public hearings, and plans that actually reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and pollution," said Adrian Cacho, Senior Organizer at Open Plans.

"The Cross Bronx Five Bridges project should be laser-focused on righting the wrongs of past decades, laying the groundwork for a community- and climate-friendly future rather than re-creating and exacerbating a 1950's-style approach to road-building. We join the people of the Bronx and our colleagues in environmental-justice and transportation advocacy in demanding that Governor Hochul and New York State DOT extend the public comment period to 90 days, not a rushed month-long window that overlaps major holidays and the school break. We need to get this project and process right," said Eric McClure, Executive Director of StreetsPAC.

"From the very beginning of the 5 Bridges repair project, we've asked NYSDOT and Governor Hochul for meaningful community engagement. A rushed comment period over the holidays to review a nearly 6,000-page Environmental Assessment isn't it," said Jaqi Cohen, Director of Climate and Equity Policy at Tri-State Transportation Campaign. "After 70 years of harm caused by the Cross Bronx Expressway, we deserve a full 90-day comment period to properly review this assessment, along with solutions that repair the bridges without widening the highway or locking in more traffic and pollution."

"We need a project that yields less traffic and new, better ideas about how to move people and goods. This project does not accomplish those goals," said Dart Westphal, Board of Directors of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality.

"For decades, Bronx families and transit riders have lived with the health, safety, and mobility consequences of the Cross Bronx Expressway," said Natasha Elder, Regional Director for Equity & Resiliency Projects at the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign. "Releasing nearly 6,000 pages of technical environmental documents during the holiday season - and giving communities just weeks to respond - is not meaningful public engagement. The Bronx deserves the same thoughtful, community-centered planning the state is pursuing elsewhere: a full 90-day comment period and alternatives that reduce traffic, pollution, and vehicle miles traveled rather than repeating the mistakes of the past."

"The Cross-Bronx Expressway has long been a major generator of lung-damaging air pollution, a roadway that uprooted a vibrant working-class community, and a national symbol of environmental injustice. Now, the State Department of Transportation has released a 6,000-page Environmental Assessment of the 5 Bridges Project affecting this sensitive transportation corridor," said Eric A. Goldstein, New York City Environment Director at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). "Governor Kathy Hochul must extend the comment period to 90-days, so that community residents and other interested members of the public can have sufficient time to review and comment thoughtfully on this significant proposal."

"Community engagement is key to ensuring projects can truly benefit residents rather than further entrench environmental harms, and it requires timely, transparent and accessible information. Releasing a 6,000 page technical document during the holiday period misses the mark on being timely, and the ReThink Route 17 Alliance stands with Bronx residents in requesting an extended comment period to thoroughly review the environmental assessment," said Taylor Jaffe, Program Manager of Catskill Mountainkeeper.

"The Bronx River neighborhood has been on the frontlines of environmental harms of 20th-century highway development and the subsequent community-led solutions for environmental improvement. We know, and have known, what we want and need in our community: safer streets, cleaner air, and less traffic and pollution. A wider Cross Bronx Expressway won't help us get there. Neither will a rushed public comment period amidst the busy holiday season. We want solutions that address our needs and enough time to evaluate their environmental impacts," said Reece Brosco, Brownfield Program Manager, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Inc. (YMPJ).

"Currently, the air pollution from the Cross Bronx Expressway is so toxic that those of us who live in Bronx River Houses cannot safely open our windows. So imagine our surprise to learn that our families get ONE month to review this project's environmental impacts. We quite literally can't even come up for air," said Norma Saunders, president of the Tenant Association for Bronx River Houses. "The Bronx has waited decades to reimagine the Cross Bronx - we deserve more than a rushed process. Governor Hochul and Commissioner Dominguez must extend the public comment period to 90 days and increase their outreach, so all Bronxites get the chance to weigh in."

"The Bronx River is too important to jeopardize with added runoff and pollution. We need solutions that reduce stormwater impacts, not create new ones -- and that starts with giving Bronx residents more time to review this proposal. Extending the comment period is essential to protecting the river and the communities that depend on it," said Julie Raskin, President & CEO, Waterfront Alliance.

"At Bronx River Art Center, we work with young people who live and learn in the shadow of the Cross Bronx Expressway," said Akia Squitieri, Executive Director of Bronx River Art Center. "Asking families to navigate thousands of pages of technical documents over the holidays is not equity - it's exclusion. We're calling for a 90-day public comment period and a future for the Bronx that prioritizes health, connection, and community over highway expansion."

"Given the longstanding impacts of the Cross-Bronx Expressway on some of the most overburdened communities in the state, at the very least NYS Department of Transportation must allow sufficient time for the affected community to respond to the complex Environmental Assessment of the Five Bridges Project. But more importantly, the state must take seriously the air pollution and climate impacts of this project, and use this opportunity to consider and implement bold solutions to provide relief from highway pollution," said Rachel Spector, Deputy Managing Attorney, Northeast Regional Office, Earthjustice.

"Expansions to the Cross Bronx Expressway threaten the health and lives of New York families, students, and children," said NY Renews Executive Director Stephan Edel. "Bronx community members demand-and deserve-standard bridge and highway repairs with investments that will improve air and water quality in the borough, and to be treated with the same level of detailed care that residents of other regions of the state receive. Bronx residents demand a full 90-day public comment period, better-timed public meetings, and infrastructure plans that reduce traffic and pollution."

"Whether it's in Albany or here in the Bronx, New York needs to move away from bigger highways and toward repair-first, community-centered solutions. The Bronx has some of the highest asthma rates in the nation. While NYSDOT has eliminated its worst proposed option, all the remaining alternatives will widen the corridor and push traffic and pollution closer to communities that have suffered from air pollution for nearly 70 years," said Kevin Garcia, Senior Transportation Planner with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. "NYSDOT must extend its comment period to review the nearly 6,000-page environmental assessment and advance alternatives that reduce traffic and pollution, rather than locking communities into almost another century of pain."

"The Cross Bronx expansion would bring the highway closer to some of the most vulnerable members of our community: people who live in public housing, young children, elderly and disabled people, and users of a heavily used park. Like our friends in the Bronx, we support bridge and highway repairs and other investments that'll improve our air, our water, and quality of life by moving us where we need to go in the cleanest, most efficient way. We don't need to expand this highway; the Bronx residents should not have to put up with another 70 years of highway harm from the Cross Bronx. It's time to reimagine our transportation system and move away from bigger highways; the Bronx residents deserve a transformative - and accessible - planning effort. We join our friends in the Bronx in asking Gov. Hochul and NYSDOT to consider a fresh alternative: one that doesn't WIDEN the Cross Bronx and one that does not add traffic and pollution around Starlight Park and the Bronx River. Residents deserve safer streets, cleaner air and increased connectivity for their neighborhoods; a wider Cross Bronx doesn't get us there," Anhthu Hoang, General Counsel and Deputy Director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice.

As a global retail operator, Patagonia understands this time of year very well. People are taxed, tired, attention is everywhere, and bandwidth is limited. So let's be clear: giving Bronx residents only 31 business days-amid holidays, longer school breaks, and the hard work they do every day to keep this city running-to read, digest, and comment on 5,000 pages of technical material? That sounds like something out of a Dickens novel. Scrooge would be proud, and the Grinch even more so. Worse, it harkens back to the days of Robert Moses, when decisions were made without regard for the people whose lives were upended," said Leticia de Mello Bueno, Activism Lead at Patagonia. "We can do better-together. Extend the comment period to 90 days. Give people the respect they deserve: a real chance to participate in a crucial project that affects their lives. That's how New York demonstrates leadership, goodwill, and a clean break from the past's dirty ways."

About 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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