“You can fight City Hall. And win.”

After nearly a year-long battle with the New York City Department of Transportation, Assemblyman Hikind celebrated a victory for his community with the removal of 35-ft.-long pedestrian islands along Fort Hamilton Parkway. Hikind, a vociferous critic of the islands, had long advocated for the removal of the medians because they impeded the work of ambulance crews rushing to Maimonides Medical Center, firefighters, and sanitation personnel, and had negatively impacted business owners and local residents.

“Everyone told me I was crazy to even get involved with this issue—that these islands would never be removed because the installation had cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Hikind. “They said it couldn’t be done, that I was wasting my time fighting. My message to all those naysayers is that the removal of these medians proves you can fight City Hall and win. This is a great victory for the residents of this community and New York City.”

Hikind recalled all of the efforts undertaken not only by him, but by so many concerned and outraged members of his community. “We really stopped at nothing to get these islands removed,” he noted. “We wrote letters to the Department of Transportation, we collected over 1,100 petition signatures, we threatened to file a lawsuit, and we took our case to the media. The DOT finally relented in June and gave Fort Hamilton Parkway back to its rightful owners—the people of this community and of this City.”