As the Bronx looks ahead to 2025, environmental activists are focused on a major green initiative to restore Tibbets Brook while also bracing for the expected impact of congestion pricing.

“We’re going to create the largest green infrastructure project in New York City,” said Karen Argenti of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality.

The project, aimed at daylighting sections of Tibbets Brook, has been gaining attention well beyond the city.

What You Need To Know

  • The Tibbets Brook daylighting project is set to begin in 2025, restoring the stream and creating a new greenway in the Bronx

  • Congestion pricing starting in January 2025 will likely add 4,000 more vehicle trips daily to the Bronx, raising health concerns

  • The MTA will provide over $130 million in community benefits, including asthma clinics and air filtration systems for schools to help mitigate pollution

"I’ve seen articles from Paris, and when I mention the Tibbets Brook daylighting project, people are like, ‘Oh my God, what a great idea!’” Argenti said.

After two decades of planning, the project is set to enter the bidding phase in 2025, with construction following soon after.

“What we’re gonna do is, we’re gonna take this body of water and we’re going to create a new stream, which is almost a recreation of the old, historical Tibbets Brook,” she said. “And we’re going to meander it down the old CSX Putnam Trail to the Harlem River. So, it will discharge — in its own clean pipe — into the river.”

Experts say the project will help prevent freshwater from mixing with household sewage, create a new greenway, and reduce flooding and wastewater flowing into the Harlem River.

But while this green project brings hope, many in the Bronx are also worried about the potential downside of congestion pricing, which is expected to begin in January 2025.

“This is where the Bruckner and RFK bridges intersect with our community,” said Mychal Johnson, co-founder of South Bronx Unite, standing at a busy intersection.

The MTA estimates that congestion pricing will add 4,000 more vehicle trips per day in the area, already burdened with 16,000 daily trips.

“We have some of the highest asthma rates in the country in this community. Our children — 1 in 5 have asthma. We can’t take one more truck with our current health situation,” Johnson said.

He believes the congestion pricing plan exacerbates an ongoing problem in the Bronx.

"We shoulder the burden for waste, for fossil fuel power plants, for heavy diesel trucks, and now they wanna give us more traffic. We have five bridges and three highways intersecting with this community, choking us,” Johnson said.

The MTA has promised community benefits to mitigate the impact of congestion pricing, including an asthma clinic and new air filtration units in schools, as part of over $130 million in funding for Bronx initiatives.

"Our blueprint for the borough of the Bronx for 2025 is one that focuses on equity and opportunities,” Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said.

Gibson remains optimistic about the borough's future, pointing to recent improvements, including the opening of a maternal health and birthing center, and the allocation of $400,000 for additional security cameras across the borough.