Vias Verdes, what’s it about?
Vias Verdes de Washington Heights / Inwood is a project I came up with hot on the heels of the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance. I got to thinking about how my neighborhood could be improved, and Fort George Hill struck me as a great place to start.
View Map of Ft George Hill on Google Maps
If you haven’t been there, it looks kind of like this. Empty and paved. On the sides, it’s a different story.
What’s amazingly cool about it, however, is how completely unique it is in New York City. First off, there are no houses or businesses on 75% of it. Second, it curves in an ‘S’ shape. Third, it connects two really dense, really interesting neighborhoods: Washington Heights on the top and Inwood on the bottom. With all these fantastic attributes, how come it just languishes there, used mostly as a medium-term parking lot?
What would be great is to develop it as a real place. A pathway through the forest, with gardens, arbors, benches, and playgrounds. A two-way bike lane and a jogging track. Maybe even turn the auto-glass shop and the car wash:
into restaurants or play areas. The street could be a destination in its own right, a place that would link these two neighborhoods with a third place, instead of a dull strip of roadway.
What do you think?