Quisqueya Plaza Upgrades February 2023

UPPER MANHATTAN, NY — The Quisqueya Plaza street sign was officially unveiled on Monday, along with the announcement of millions of dollars in upgrades for the Upper Manhattan public space.

A crowd that included Mayor Eric Adams and DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez gathered Monday morning at the plaza on Dyckman Street between Broadway and Seaman Avenues to watch the Quisqueya Plaza street sign get displayed for the first time.

The ceremony was part of the Dominican Republic Independence Day celebration in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood, as Quisqueya is one of the names in the Taino language for the island that is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

“On Dominican Independence Day, I’m proud to announce $7 million of that funding will go to bringing dramatic upgrades to Quisqueya Plaza, an Open Street that helped save local businesses and jobs right in the heart of Northern Manhattan’s Dominican community,” Adams said during his remarks.

The funding will go toward an unspecified reconstruction of the plaza as well as pedestrian safety and bike lane enhancements.

“The agency has been working closely with Dyckman Gardens, a group of local restaurants and neighborhood stakeholders formed during the pandemic, to steward and help this public space thrive,” reads a news release from the DOT’s office.

The uptown funding is part of the Adams administration’s $375 million push to make improvements in public spaces across the city.

“There is no better place in New York City to celebrate Dominican Republic Independence Day than on Quisqueya Plaza,” Rodriguez said during the news conference. “Through our Open Streets program, we were able to reclaim a section of Dyckman Street dedicated to parking and through traffic and transform it into a vibrant new public space for Inwood.”

You can watch the full unveiling for yourself — below.

The Quisqueya Name In Upper Manhattan

The unveiling of the street sign on Monday comes around a year and a half after Patch first reported on Rep. Adriano Epsaillat’s legislative push to rename Inwood, Washington Heights, and Hamilton Heights to Quisqueya Heights.

A few months after the first Patch story, along with multiple uptown Community Board meetings about the subject, Espaillat announced in October 2021 that he reintroduced a revised version of the piece of the legislation that still looked to honor the longstanding history of the Dominican American community in parts of Washington Heights, Inwood and Upper Manhattan — but not change the names of the neighborhoods.

During that period, the Upper Manhattan plaza was temporarily called Quisqueya Plaza during the summer of 2021 before getting switched to the Dyckman Plaza in the fall.

It was then renamed Quisqueya Plaza permanently that winter after a City Council vote.

Source: https://patch.com/new-york/washington-heights-inwood/uptowns-quisqueya-plaza-sign-unveiled-millions-upgrades-announced