Tiny Hell's Kitchen Avenue Could Be Reshaped By Biden's Bill

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — A long-held dream of sealing over a small avenue flowing from the Lincoln Tunnel that tore apart much of Hell's Kitchen could inch closer to reality thanks to President Biden's infrastructure package, according to a local community board.

Dyer Avenue, a 12-block thoroughfare between West 30th and 42nd streets, was constructed in the late 1930s to accommodate traffic from the giant tunnel.

To build it, the city used eminent domain to seize several blocks of dense tenement housing that once occupied the site, displacing low-income residents and leaving "a deep tear — both physical and social — in the [Hell's Kitchen South] neighborhood," Community Board 4 wrote in a letter this week.

For years, residents have put forward plans to seal over the below-ground parts of Dyer Avenue and top them with green space. Such proposals were included in the city's 2003 Hudson Yards Master Plan and again in a 2019 neighborhood plan, but neither has been realized, as the busy thoroughfare continues to bisect the neighborhood.

Now, advocates have gotten a new infusion of hope thanks to the Reconnecting Communities Act: a provision of Democrats' $2 trillion infrastructure package that would include billions in funding to "reconnect and revitalize areas that were harmed by the construction of the Interstate Highway System."

Describing Dyer Avenue as "a textbook example" of a harmful highway, the community board is now requesting meetings to discuss the legislation with the offices of Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney.

In a statement, Nadler said the Lincoln Tunnel expressway has "left a deep scar in Hell’s Kitchen" and said the bill would "help communities like Hell’s Kitchen recover from these poorly conceived highways—like the construction of Dyer Avenue—that devastated vibrant neighborhoods."

"I’ve been discussing this idea with Community Board 4 and I welcome their letter as we consider how to make our neighborhoods and our City a more livable, pedestrian-friendly community," Nadler said.

Besides reconnecting the neighborhood, covering up Dyer could improve Hell's Kitchen's air quality, which ranks among the worst in the city, improve pedestrian safety and increase its below-average amount of green space, the board argues.

If the bill passes and the neighborhood gets a grant, Community Board 4 would partner with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to design and install platformed parks atop the avenue "to properly reconnect the two halves of the community."