Community Board 8 Launches Broadway Corridor Initiative to Address Quality-of-Life Issues

Community Board 8, or CB8, is responding to mounting quality-of-life complaints along the Broadway retail corridor, where cluttered bodegas, family-owned Latin eateries and small 99-cent shops line the strip.

The board’s Special Committee on Racial Equity, or SCRE, launched its Cross-Committee Broadway Corridor Initiative, aimed at improving safety, transportation and sub-par sanitary conditions between W 225th and 238th streets. As part of the initiative, the board hosted a walking tour along Broadway between West 231st and 238th streets. 

Chairs and board members surveyed the 13-block strip in groups, speaking with business owners to learn what concerns are in most need of attention.

At the forefront of the campaign is Margaret Della, CB8 treasurer and SCRE chair.

“It kind of started off as just a frustration,” she explained. “Oftentimes, communities like Kingsbridge get the short end of the stick or lack resources. So, I think about any new businesses that want to come into the area and just supporting long-standing businesses that have done so much in the community, it just feels like they deserve a voice.”

Della was joined by chairs and members of the Public Safety, Environment & Sanitation, Economic Development and Traffic & Transportation Committees. The groups made their way uptown from 231st street, weaving in and out of shops to offer their keepers a chance to be heard. 

Many echoed the complaints of their neighbors — from occasional petty theft to dumping. However, an ongoing Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, construction project drew the most frustration.

Along Broadway, the MTA is repairing the elevated 1 train line in Kingsbridge and Marble Hill between West 225th and 242nd streets for the first time in nearly 40 years. The $50 to $100 million project, which will run through 2027, involves steel replacement, repainting and concrete repair. 

But for several merchants, the noise, barriers, and reduced visibility are driving away customers.

“It’s the busiest hub in our entire district,” Della said. “So [this initiative] is an enormous lift.”