Council Member Won seeks community use for city-owned land under the Queensboro Bridge. Photos from The Office of Council Member Julie Won
May 20, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
Council Member Julie Won has joined Queensbridge Houses residents to call on the city to convert roughly 370,000 of city-owned space into publicly-accessible community space as part of the OneLIC neighborhood plan.
Won has called on the city to include sites owned by the Department of Transportation and Parks Department underneath the Queensboro Bridge to be restored to publicly accessible open space.
Won outlined the proposal ahead of a joint Community Board 1 and 2 hearing on the OneLIC neighborhood plan at LaGuardia Community College on Wednesday, May 21 as part of the ULURP process.
The majority of the sites are located adjacent to Queensbridge Houses and include lots originally used as part of “Queensbridge Baby Park”, an extensive play space for children that opened alongside Queensbridge Houses in 1939.
The Parks Department is currently carrying out extensive renovations at Queensbridge Baby Park to transform the site into an open green space with a seating area, ping pong tables, a paved plaza and improvements to landscaping.
Won, however, said the Parks Department is only renovating a small portion of what was formerly Queensbridge Baby Park and stated that a number of lots that used to form part of the park are currently being used for agency parking and storage.
Queensbridge Baby Park (Credit: The NYC Municipal Library and Archives, 1941). Queensbridge Baby Park in 2025 (Credit: The Office of Council Member Julie Won).
She is calling for numerous other lots under the Queensboro Bridge to be transformed into open space for the local community as part of the OneLIC plan. In total, Won is calling for nine lots under the Queensboro Bridge to be converted into open space, stretching from the East River waterfront to 23rd Street.
Won’s Queensbridge Baby Park proposal incorporates six lots, stretching from Queensbridge Park to the eastern side of the Queensbridge Houses complex on 21st Street.
Meanwhile, she is also calling for six of DOT-owned lots underneath the Queensborough Bridge ramps to be converted into open space.
The lots under the ramps are located near the LIC Ramps project, which will transform two lots under the ramps into open spaces near Dutch Kills Street and Jackson Avenue. Officials close to Won said the transformation of a further six lots under the ramps would compliment the LIC Ramps project and bring much-needed public space to the Court Square area.
City-owned lots underneath the Queensboro Bridge and Queensboro Bridge ramps that Won is proposing for 370,000 square feet of open space. Photo courtesy of Council Member Julie Won.
She said the majority of lots are currently being used for agency parking and storage and urged the city to return the spaces to the public. Won also drew comparisons to the space under the Brooklyn Bridge and how that has been reclaimed for public use in recent years.
The Space Under the Queensboro Bridge in 2025 (Credit: Council Member Won’s Office). The Developed Space Under the Brooklyn Bridge (Credit: Brooklyn Bridge Park Instagram).
“The lots underneath the Queensboro Bridge must be restored to publicly accessible open space for residents of Queensbridge and the wider community. For far too long, the city has occupied the lots that were originally meant for Queensbridge residents and used the nearby spaces for agency storage and parking,” Won said.
She added the current fencing around many of the lots under the Queensboro Bridge essentially splits Long Island City into two halves and said it was “unacceptable” that the city does not make the space available to the public.
“Only a small fraction of this publicly-owned land is accessible to the public and even less is used as park space,” Won said. The present use of these spaces creates a wall separating two halves of LIC. It is unacceptable for City agencies to continue to occupy a space equivalent to 6.5 football fields, right next to the nation’s largest public housing development and in the country’s fastest growing neighborhood.”
Queensbridge Baby Park (Credit: The NYC Municipal Library and Archives, 1941). Queensbridge Baby Park in 2025 (Credit: The Office of Council Member Julie Won).
Won cited widespread community support for converting the lots into public space, pointing to a Department of City Planning Draft Environmental Impact Statement scoping hearing in August 2024, when almost 100 local residents issued calls to return the sites to the public.
Similarly, Won said 253 Queensbridge residents responded to a survey on OneLIC priorities between October and November 2024, calling for new community spaces for youth and active sports in addition to calls for a new affordable grocery store and repairs for the Jacob A. Riis Community Center.
Daniel L. Taylor, a Queensbridge resident who has long advocated for the restoration of Queensbridge Baby Park, described the former open space as a “vital lifeline” to the local community.
Taylor said the park offered an outlet for his parents, who would take him there when he was a child to play in the sprinklers and use the park’s play areas.
“I learned how to ride my bike and roller skate outside of Baby Park,” Taylor said. “It makes you wonder why the City decided to take away a vital community space and use it for storage.
“We have petitioned and shared our vision at countless meetings. Now it is time for these spaces to be transformed into a dog park, recreational space, additional resident parking, open space, or other uses that benefit everyone in this community.”
The OneLIC neighborhood plan aims to introduce up to nine acres of new open space to Long Island City in addition to nearly 14,700 housing units—4,300 of which would be affordable.
The Department of City Planning said the plan would create an estimated 14,400 new jobs, over 3.5 million square feet of commercial and industrial space, and expanded access to the East River waterfront. It would also bring thousands of new school seats and other infrastructure to the area.
The OneLIC proposal covers 54 full or partial blocks from Gantry Plaza State Park to the Queensbridge Houses and north to the Long Island City Industrial Business Zone. The eastern boundary extends to Court Square and 23rd Street. The plan aims to revise outdated zoning regulations to allow for more mixed-use development, increase housing supply, and improve neighborhood infrastructure and resiliency.
The plan will go before Community Boards 1 and 2 on Wednesday as part of the city’s ULURP process, which began on April 21.
The boards must issue advisory recommendations within 60 days of the start of the ULURP process, followed by a non-binding recommendation from Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. The CPC will then hold its own hearing and binding vote, before the proposal goes to the City Council for final approval. The mayor can veto the plan within five days of the Council’s vote.
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