NYC Gazette

QUEENS, NY – To mark Earth Week 2024 and encourage the use of one of the borough’s most unique open spaces, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards will host a community bike ride along the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway in Eastern Queens this Thursday, April 25, at 2pm. The jaunt will begin at the Alley Pond Park entrance to the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, located at the intersection of Union Turnpike and Winchester Boulevard, and end approximately 1.5 miles west at the 209th Street entrance to the parkway, just north of Richland Avenue.

Prior to the start of the bike ride, Borough President Richards will unveil his office’s second annual report on resiliency efforts in Queens compiled by Operation Urban Sustainability — a working group comprised of local leaders across the spectrum of resiliency that the Borough President formed in April 2022. Included in the report are status updates on existing efforts put forth by the Borough President to address historic environmental inequities facing various Queens communities and proposals for future sustainability projects to support a healthier borough, as well as a call to better connect the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway to Queens’ series of bike lanes through needed land transfers.

Members of the public who wish to join the Borough President on the community bike ride are asked to RSVP by clicking here. Members of the media who wish to attend the community bike ride are asked to RSVP by emailing [email protected].

Representatives from Transportation Alternatives and open space activists, along with community members, are expected to join Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. in this initiative aimed at promoting environmental awareness and sustainability within the borough's communities.