Mayor Mamdani Responds After Pete Davidson Says NYC Should ‘Fix the F–king BQE’ During ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

BROOKLYN, NY – Comedian and New York native Pete Davidson took aim at the seemingly endless construction along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway this week, prompting a response from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani about the city’s plans for the aging highway.

Davidson raised the issue during the New York City broadcasts of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” complaining about the condition of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and questioning what is happening at its construction sites.

According to the New York Post, Davidson called on Mamdani to “fix the f–king BQE” and joked that whenever he drives past highway construction, workers appear to be “never doing anything.”

The complaint eventually made its way directly to the mayor.

During Mamdani’s appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on September 28, host Jimmy Kimmel told the mayor that Davidson wanted to know what was happening with the BQE.

“Pete Davidson wants to know. What’s going on at the BQE?” Kimmel asked, according to an official transcript released by the Mayor’s Office. Kimmel said Davidson claimed he drives by and sees nobody working and joked that the situation had been going on since before Davidson was born.

Mamdani responded that his administration had recently announced plans to repair the portion of the expressway owned by New York City.

The mayor said the city intends to move forward with a multibillion-dollar plan targeting the section of the highway considered most at risk. He said the work is expected to proceed over approximately the next decade while attempting to avoid diverting highway traffic into surrounding neighborhoods.

The exchange was lighthearted, but the underlying infrastructure project is substantial.

In August, the city announced an approximately $4 billion rehabilitation of BQE Central, the city-owned stretch running between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street in Brooklyn. Construction is currently expected to begin in 2030 and continue for about 10 years.

The city’s plan calls for temporary bypass structures that would allow the New York City Department of Transportation to repair deteriorated portions of the highway while traffic continues to move through the corridor.

Among the proposed work are improvements to drainage, railings and lighting, along with structural repairs intended to extend the design life of the BQE Central section by approximately 40 years.

One temporary two-level bypass would be constructed above Furman Street between Atlantic Avenue and Columbia Heights, below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. A second temporary elevated bypass is planned from Columbia Heights across the Brooklyn Bridge approach toward the Manhattan Bridge.

The city controls the central portion of the expressway, while New York State controls sections to the north and south, meaning a broader long-term overhaul of the entire BQE would require coordination between city and state officials.

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For Davidson, however, the lengthy engineering and jurisdictional issues surrounding the highway were distilled into a much simpler request: get the BQE fixed.