Concerns over Greenway Link through Riverdale

An Open Letter to the Riverdale Community.

Dear Neighbors:

In early 2014, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) will formally present the Hudson River Valley Greenway Link Study to Community Board (CB) 8 for consideration.

The plan that has been publicly presented thus far contains recommendations for a multi-purpose path — essentially for bicyclists and pedestrians —to close the official gap between the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, which extends from Battery Park through northern Manhattan, and the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail in southwest Yonkers.

While the Greenway Project is an important undertaking, which in principle we emphatically support, the study contains serious flaws.

The matter is further complicated by the disagreements that exist between some greenway advocates and NYMTC staff on certain key aspects of the plan and their competing visions of how the plan should be implemented. Moreover, the community support, which NYMTC says it has, is not as strong as they contend.

What has been presented thus far includes recommendations for major reconstruction at the northern terminus of the Henry Hudson Bridge, widening the roadway along stretches of Palisade Avenue, installing new sidewalks where none exist, and converting Riverdale Avenue from West 261st Street to the Yonkers border from four-lanes to three-lanes.

The current plan also recommends providing access to the Hudson River by widening trails through Riverdale Park at or near West 232nd Street, and broadening the Palisade Avenue Right of Way west of Riverdale Country Lower School from Spaulding Lane to West 254th Street.

The already-released draft study does not assess the impact on residents, businesses and traffic in these areas, as well as along other portions of the suggested route, nor does it address the dangers to both cyclists and pedestrians that bottlenecks along several segments of the proposed route trigger.