City Council Speaker and Democratic mayoral candidate Adrienne Adams announced $50,000 in city funding to improve conditions along the Liberty Avenue corridor during a press conference Tuesday morning.
Adams was joined by Community Board 10 Chair Betty Braton, local business owners, and city agency representatives at the Queens Public Library’s Lefferts branch on May 6. The cleanup initiative will begin at Liberty Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard, extending to Rockaway Boulevard in Ozone Park.
Tyrell Hankerson, Adams’ district chief of staff and a City Council candidate for District 28, led the meeting and outlined the next steps.
The new funding is part of a five-part initiative developed in collaboration with Adams’ office, the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), Community Board 10, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY), the NYPD, the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP).
The multi-agency initiative is designed to address long-standing quality-of-life issues that have affected residents and businesses along Liberty Avenue for years—particularly overflowing sidewalk trash, illegal vending, and chronic traffic congestion.
“This corridor is so vital to the social and economic fabric of our community life, but it still faces a multitude of challenges that impact our small businesses, our residents, and pedestrians along Liberty Avenue,” said Adams.
Adams represents District 28, which includes portions of Richmond Hill, Jamaica, South Ozone Park, and Rochdale Village.
The City Council approved the $50,000 funding package during its Stated Meeting on April 24. As part of the first phase of the plan, CEO began corridor walkthroughs this week to assess cleanup needs and will begin providing supplemental cleaning services five days a week through June 30.
Adams noted that her office is working to secure additional funding in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget to continue providing the service at least three days a week next year.
The initiative also includes a coordinated enforcement effort by an interagency task force, comprising the NYPD, DCWP, and DSNY, that will focus on sidewalk accessibility and vending regulation enforcement.
Adams’ office and Community Board 10 are jointly advocating for the DOT to install “No Standing” zones along the corridor and to increase street sweeping activity.
Additionally, plans are underway to partner with the Queens Chamber of Commerce to provide business-support workshops and to establish a new Liberty Avenue merchants association. The proposed group would bring together local businesses, community organizations, and the Chamber to promote sustainable development and economic growth in the area.
Hankerson called the initiative long overdue for residents and business owners in the area.
“The merchants’ association, as the speaker mentioned, has been part of our fight for a long time. These conversations started back in 2019 before the pandemic… to see this coming into fruition is amazing,” Hankerson said.
Sarma Haider, President and CEO of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), emphasized the organization’s role in supporting individuals reentering society through workforce training and community-based employment. CEO employees provide supplemental cleaning and beautification services across New York City.
Haider noted that such efforts often have a lasting impact beyond physical improvements. “When our community members and returning citizens help to beautify their own neighborhoods, it not only helps them, it creates safer and stronger communities,” she said.
For Braton, the quality of life initiative is a welcome change. A CB10 member since 1990, Braton said these issues have plagued the area for decades. She credits Adams’s collaborative effort to her optimism towards progress. “All the pointing figures at each other saying it’s this, it’s that, that points out issues, but it doesn’t solve them. We’re taking positive steps,” she said.
Danny Persaud, owner of Tropical Isle Roti Shop and Knockout Clothing Store, said he is eager to see tangible results from the city’s efforts. A business owner along Liberty Avenue for over 20 years, Persaud opened Tropical Isle in 2021. He said some of the most persistent challenges he faces include the constant need to clean trash in front of his stores and competition from illegal street vendors.
Persaud noted that he often has to sweep up garbage multiple times a day just to maintain a welcoming storefront.
“No one wants to jump over garbage to go into a place to eat, so I need to keep it clean because it’s hard. Usually five, six, seven times a day to make sure it’s clean,” he said.
He also expressed frustration over what he sees as unfair competition from unlicensed vendors operating nearby.
“There’s a food truck ten feet away [from Tropical Isle], there are people that literally make things in their kitchen and bag them and sell the same snacks that I sell,” he said. “We must pay property tax, business insurance, building insurance… these people pay nothing, so it’s ridiculous. I have to probably sell 100 times more things than they do to actually make a profitable business, it’s ridiculous.”
Persaud said he is especially hopeful about the formation of the proposed merchants’ association. He believes the group could become an essential platform for addressing the shared concerns of business owners operating along the Liberty Avenue corridor.
