A Unicorn in the City
New York City is a place of abundance, but green, carbon-free transportation routes that connect people to schools, work, and commerce are hard to come by. In Queens, TPL is working with partners and local communities to build the QueensWay, a 47-acre park and trail along 3.5 miles of abandoned rail line in the heart of this diverse borough. For resident Yvan Lemoine, a chef, small-business owner, and father, having nature nearby will mean a healthier, happier life for his family and his neighbors.
By Yvan Lemoine
Published August 21, 2025
My journey back to Queens was circuitous. My family moved here from Venezuela when I was a teenager, so I spent my formative years in Queens. The high school I attended had a culinary program, and I knew I wanted to be a chef. Feeding people makes me happy. I’ve lived and cooked in the Bronx and Long Island and in Manhattan too.
My wife and I have friends who owned a restaurant in Queens, in Forest Hills, and they wanted to retire. They were a little bit older, and COVID had hit them really hard. So we bought their business and came back to where I grew up. We took a chance on Queens. That was four years ago. Now, our business—which is a restaurant, event space, and catering service—is growing and becoming more well-known. I’m also the vice president of the Metro Village neighborhood association, which includes a lot of entrepreneurs like me who operate on Metropolitan Avenue. They’re mostly independent business owners, which is what America used to be. It’s like a kaleidoscope of small businesses, from local paint shops to the oldest ice cream parlor in all of Queens. And you can get incredible ethnic food.
Queens is a little bit mom-and-pop. We’re interested in giving back to our community, raising our kids, and just making a living. I think people kind of miss that.
The businesses that are here are multigenerational. Many times, they get passed down from generation to generation: The kids take the store, and then their kids take the store. Those families live here. So when you support a small local business, you keep your money in the community—you invest in and support your neighbors.
Chef and small-business owner Yvan Lemoine says the QueensWay will bring vital health benefits to his community. Photo: Tess Mayer
As a chef and restauranteur, creativity is really important. Parks and green spaces are a great place to get lost in your thoughts, have your head in the clouds, and connect with nature. I take a lot of inspiration from nature. Growing up and living in an urban landscape, it’s kind of difficult sometimes. For instance, Manhattan is wonderful, but it’s very difficult to find nature besides Central Park.
I found out about the QueensWay a couple of years ago, and I’m a true believer in the concept and its promise for our community. You have to ask of these vacant places, “What if we don’t tear it down? What if we build something within it?” And then after it’s built, you breathe life into it. You bring people in and activate it with art and music and food. I think that’s the opportunity we have in this forgotten piece of land.
We can work with Trust for Public Land, or the parks department, or the government, and together we can build something for the neighborhood that’ll last generation after generation. We can create an amazing ecosystem to raise our kids in and to thrive as happy, loving, creative human beings. I believe exposure to nature and art makes us more cultured, more diverse, better people.
I love walking outside, looking at the crowds. At My Kitchen, our business, my wife books events, and I do all the cooking and maintain the space. We have a baby, and we basically take turns. So when she has a meeting and we don’t have a babysitter, I take our daughter to Forest Park, where they’re already building part of the QueensWay.
If you consider Forest Park to be this great lake, the QueensWay is going to be a river that runs through it and connects it to all these other neighborhoods. Which is wonderful because the park, as it is now, can be a little inaccessible. Our daughter is only 1 year old, but just walking around and seeing the birds and the trees and looking at the squirrels—just disconnecting—it’s therapeutic, and it makes us both healthier. It makes us happier. It’s good for us.
I know, at some point, I’m going to have to quell my fears and let her go and bike ride with her friends. In the city, it’s difficult to find a safe space. But this trail has so much attention and love and positivity poured into it. It will be a place where they can connect with nature and be kids.
I think it’s beautiful, and it’s something that’s kind of dying in New York City. That’s what’s special about the QueensWay. It’s this piece of undeveloped land with all this potential. It’s like a unicorn in New York.
Help us bring the QueensWay to life. Visit tpl.org/queensway to learn more and donate.
For more than two decades, community leaders, advocates, and partners have worked to make the QueensWay a reality—a 3.5-mile greenway and park that will transform an abandoned rail line into safe, vibrant space for 245,000 New Yorkers. Earlier this year, the project won a landmark $117 million federal grant—only to have more than 95 percent of the funding rescinded midstream. We cannot let this once-in-a-generation opportunity slip away. The QueensWay is ready to deliver parks, climate resilience, safer connections, and healthier communities across Central and South Queens. But we need our leaders to act. I invite you to join me in speaking up for Queens. Please take a moment to email your elected officials today and urge them to restore the federal funding that this community has earned. Together, we can make the QueensWay happen.
Donate to become a member, and you’ll receive a subscription to Land&People magazine, our biannual publication featuring exclusive, inspiring stories about our work connecting everyone to the outdoors.
