‘If you knew him, you loved him’
Gowanus street co-named for business owner killed in traffic crash
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
The victim of a deadly 2019
car crash in Gowanus was immortalized
in the neighborhood
on Wednesday, when local
leaders offi cially co-named
the roadway at Third Avenue
and Seventh Street after the
late Andreas Stylianou.
“A lot of people in this
neighborhood knew Andreas,”
said Mayor Bill de Blasio
at the Nov. 17 co-naming
ceremony. “And if you knew
him, you loved him. You really
loved him — such a good
heart, such a warm person,
such a wise man.”
Stylianou had been the
long time owner of New Millennium
Motors, an auto-repair
shop located on the avenue
that now bears his name
as “Andreas Stylianou Way.”
In December of 2019,
Stylianou attempted to cross
Third Avenue on foot while
on his way to work in Gowanus
at around 6:10 am, when
the driver of a Isuzu box truck
slammed into him — sending
him further into the roadway,
where he was also struck by
two other cars.
Paramedics arrived on the
scene and rushed the victim
to nearby Methodist Hospital,
but doctors pronounced him
dead a short time later.
At the recent co-naming
ceremony, de Blasio refl ected
on his time as a patron of
Stylianou’s business, and the
remarkable character of the
late man, who left behind a
wife and three adult daughters.
“I would come in, whatever
was wrong with my 1999 Ford
Taurus Station Wagon, he
would make fun of me for having
a 1999 Ford Taurus Station
Wagon,” Hizzoner said. “And
then, we would end up having
a long talk, and it wasn’t about
the car, it was about life. It was
about family. And he loved
this family so deeply.”
The late business owner’s
death came amid a surge of
traffi c-related deaths in the
winter of 2019, as cars fatally
struck at least six pedestrians
within a three-day span, including
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Stylianou.
At the time, street-safety
groups like Transportation Alternatives
blasted the Mayor
for his failure to get pedestrians
out of harm’s way.
“We need to prioritize human
life over traffi c. That
means creating a protected
bike network, that means giving
more pedestrian space on
sidewalks, that means removing
trucks and deadly vehicles
from our roads,” said the
group’s head, Danny Harris.
“Again, making sure that we
prioritize for vulnerable users.”
For his part, de Blasio,
at the Wednesday ceremony
in Gowanus, hailed his signature
“Vision Zero” plan,
which aims to reduce traffi crelated
fatalities in the Five
Boroughs.
“For eight years, we’ve
been fighting to change that
there’s much, much more to
do,” the mayor said. “Anyone
who says something like
Vision Zero doesn’t matter,
talk to this family and
so many other families who
have suffered. It does matter.
We have to change things. A
car in the wrong hands is
dangerous and we’ve got to
keep changing our laws and
the way we do things to save
lives.”
With 91 pedestrian fatalities
this year though Sept.
30, this year is on pace to
see around 121 deaths in total
this year. That number
would nearly match the 124
pedestrian deaths in 2019, according
to Vision Zero data.
Offi cials unviel the new sign at Third Avenue and Seventh Street.
Mayoral Photography Offi ce
Bill de Blasio
Mayor
Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc
Health Commissioner
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