As of this week, 17 community boards around the city, representing more than two million residents in the densest neighborhoods, have passed resolutions seeking the implemention of the so-called “Sammy’s Law,” which passed the state legislature in 2024, but has only been implemented in one neighborhood, beyond speed-limit reductions on a handful of street segments.
The most recent board to pass such a resolution was on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Tuesday. “It shows that there’s a real groundswell of support for making this happen,” said Ken Coughlin, chair of the Manhattan CB7 Transportation committee.
“It’s sweeping the city, community board by community board.” Tuesday’s CB7 vote came after community boards in western Queens, so-called Brownstone Brooklyn, one Bronx community board 6 and several other Manhattan boards had similarly demand 20-mile-per-hour speed limits across the entire district, not just a few blocks here and there.
The Department of Transportation has carried out Sammy’s Law in Manhattan south of Canal Street, before that neighborhood’s community board held a vote on the matter.
Meanwhile, a veritable “Who’s Who” of elected officials has called for Mayor Mamdani to act faster to slow down car drivers, sending a letter highlighting the need for reduced speed limits “so that more New Yorkers make it home safely today, tomorrow, and for generations to come.” “We can’t afford to wait,” added the letter, which at the time was signed by four borough presidents (sorry, no Staten Island), 25 Assembly members, 12 state senators, 23 City Council members and Rep.