The word “traffic” conjures up some ugly thoughts – cars backed up and not moving, drivers running stop signs, autos double-parked and blocking the road, honking horns and sometimes even serious or fatal accidents.

Peekskill’s streets – and how to make them safer – were the topics at a two-hour community forum sponsored by the Peekskill Herald on Saturday, June 21, at Dramatic Hall.

Forty audience members joined a panel of five speakers to hear the problems about our city streets and to share ways that both city officials and all residents can address them.

“We’ve been writing and reporting about pedestrian and traffic safety for the past four years,” forum moderator Regina Clarkin, publisher of the Herald, said to open the discussion, entitled Walking and Wheeling. “We hear of crashes, we see the images, and we know people who are hit as I was, nine years ago in a crosswalk in downtown Peekskill.”

The Herald held its first community forum in March of 2024 when 60 residents spoke with each other at A Conversation about Housing. [The New York Press Association voted the Herald second place in The Susan R. Fulmer Community Leadership award in 2024 for convening the forum].

The problems …

“We love that Peekskill is walkable by default,” said panel member Jen Zawacki of Peekskill Walks, a citizen advocacy group. “The problem is that it isn’t actually walkable because it’s not safe.”

Zawacki pointed to the intersection of Nelson and Main, right outside of City Hall, as an example. “The crosswalks are faded and have been for years, the pedestrian signals are either broken or not functioning for years. People speed down Nelson Avenue – it’s a racetrack. There are many reasons why this intersection is the way it is.”

Illegal driver behaviors, speeding, running stop signs and red lights, double parking including parking in emergency vehicle zones, drivers with tinted windows preventing eye contact with pedestrians trying to cross the street and uneven sidewalks impassable for people with mobility issues are among the issues facing the city.

Anyone driving along Main Street at anytime of the day knows that bumper-to-bumper traffic is a constant through downtown Peekskill. Carol Samol, Peekskill’s Director of Planning, addressed the forum in a taped message [see video below] and said the city is participating in another study to examine the idea of letting trucks use the Bear Mountain Parkway during the day. Trucks use Main Street as the main east-west thoroughfare through this part of the county, greatly adding to congestion through Peekskill. Trucks can currently only drive on the Parkway at night.

Working with data from the police department, the Planning Department has charted a map for all accidents starting in 2023, showing the location of crashes involving vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, injuries and fatalities, Samol said. “It shows clearly that Carhart Avenue and Bear Mountain Parkway is a hot spot, Main and Nelson, Main and Broad, Main and North Division – it shows where we need to invest our dollars and make improvements.”

… and some answers

Peekskill Police Chief Leo Dylewski, with two decades of service as a cop here, has been both observing and helping to solve the traffic and safety issues that residents face.

“I’m very local and familiar with the issues here,” Chief Dylewski said. “I chose to work in Peekskill as a police officer because I love this community. This is not just an enforcement issue. This is a community issue where we all work together, and if we don’t work together we can’t solve the problem.”

According to police statistics, tickets issued have risen steadily over the past three years, and accidents have declined significantly in that same time frame. ” Hopefully, the correlation of the amount of tickets is helping to bring down those accidents,” Chief Dylewski said.

In 2023, the police department recorded 807 accidents. That number declined to 780 in 2024, and halfway through 2025 the number is 292. “We’re probably going to be down another 100 to 150 accidents this year,” he said.

There were 3,349 traffic tickets issued in 2023. followed by 4,135 in 2024 and now 2,525 in the first half of 2025. “We will probably issue over 5,000 tickets this year for traffic enforcement.”

Samol, the city Planning Director, told the gathering in her video presentation that Peekskill officials are always focused on both capital investments and thoughtful planning to promote pedestrian safety and roadway improvements.

Her department is waiting for final signoff on a $300,000 “Safe Streets for All” federal grant. “That will allow us to focus on the most dangerous intersections in our downtown and make improvements and create a comprehensive traffic safety action plan with aim of achieving zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries.”

The city plans to invest some of the recently-approved capital bond money to start redesigning some of the downtown’s most dangerous intersections beginning in August. And after Labor Day work will continue on Peekskill’s Civic Hub and Connectivity project, using state grant money from the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) that will build a connection between the train station and the waterfront and our downtown.

“That project brings in art, a bike lane and shared pedestrian path as well as sidewalk improvements to make it a place for people to walk and enjoy,” said Samol. “It ends here in our downtown at the gazebo at the civic hub and continues into Pugsley Park. We want to redesign it with a new pavilion to replace the Gazebo.”

Peekskill will apply for more money through a new county program called “Complete Streets” that would fund improvements on Broad Street and supplement the DRI money for plans on Central Avenue. “We know we’re going to need more money than we have to see that whole vision come to pass,” Samol said.

Hearing from the public

Panel member Julian Bautista Rojas, a transportation planning consultant, said as a Peekskill resident he was encouraged to see people meeting to find answers that work for everyone.

“As a civil engineer and transportation planner, I’m working to find ways that communities work together and understand issues by talking together in a room.

“The city is going to hear from everyone hopefully, from schools, from businesses from senior residents and projects should solve for those expectations,” he said.

Building consensus is the best way to solve these issues. “When safety is a priority, it’s hard for stakeholders to stand against safety. When you make everyone’s goal safety, people will understand there are tradeoffs and demonstration projects will prove to different stakeholders that things can be solvable.”

Panelist Stephanie Bethea spoke of her experience being hit as a pedestrian and how she was most shocked by the reaction on social media.  “It became a driver versus the pedestrian. That mentality divides us as a community. It should be a human issue. We should be looking out for each other; it’s a human being driving the car.”

She also referenced the need for pedestrians to pay attention and be accountable. If they’re jaywalking, they’re not helping drivers.

After the panelists finished speaking, the audience divided into four groups and discussed ideas around pedestrian and traffic safety.

Peekskill resident and cyclist Calvin Lom suggested that any bike lanes are kept out of the downtown and run on the outer edges of the city in order to keep pedestrians on already crowded streets safe. He also encouraged continued enforcement efforts by the police. “If you cut down on breaking the law in lesser crimes like double parking, illegal parking or running stop signs, you inevitably cut down on things like speeding. Law enforcement is vital to have Peekskill a safe community for pedestrians,” Lom said.

After the question of red-light cameras was raised as a more immediate solution, Chief Dylewski explained the city has made the request to Albany and is awaiting approval to proceed.

Peekskill Mayor Vivian McKenzie attended the forum, as well as Deputy Mayor Patricia Riley and Common Council members Brian Fassett and Ramon Fernandez.

Clarkin thanked all those who took part in this Herald community forum. She said the names of attendees who expressed interest would be forwarded to the city for a potential permanent citizens task force on traffic and safety that would report findings and suggestions to the Common Council.

“When you have a group of people showing up on a Saturday morning for a two-hour conversation about pedestrian traffic safety, pay attention because they are engaged,” said Clarkin.

The Herald’s Walking and Wheeling Community Forum, the first of two planned for 2025, was underwritten through a grant from the New York Community Trust, Westchester Division.