Inwood

Last week I took my first cab ride in recent memory, from Midtown home to Inwood. It was Thursday night, and pretty early -- around 10:00 -- when we exited the West Side Highway onto Riverside Drive and made the left to Dyckman/200th Street. As we passed the bustling Mamajuana Cafe, near the corner of Seaman Avenue, its outdoor tables packed as usual, and the cab driver inched among revving motorcycles, honking livery cabs and boom-car drivers who seemed to have no purpose there other than to cruise the block, I muttered something to the effect of "I'm glad we don't live down here."

At a Monday night meeting with the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 12, DOT rolled out a slew of much-needed street improvements for Washington Heights and Inwood. Several are still in the preliminary stage, but one major intersection in the Heights is slated for an overhaul this fall.

Pedestrians and cyclists should again have access to the Henry Hudson Bridge walkway this summer, almost three years after it was closed for construction.

For years, the New York City Economic Development Corporation intended to have the Sherman Creek area in eastern Inwood rezoned for higher-density residential and commercial development. That effort was ultimately abandoned when stakeholders couldn't come to terms, but as the Manhattan Times reports, plans survive for a waterfront esplanade along the Harlem River between Academy and W. 208th Streets.

Is the city finally taking action on a citizen proposal to connect Manhattan's east- and west-side Greenways with a safer Dyckman Street?

After almost two years of waiting for DOT analysis of a proposed cycle track for Dyckman Street in Upper Manhattan, advocates this week were promised ... more waiting.

A brief follow-up to our earlier story on Inwood's disappearing Dyckman Street bike shelter. According to DOT, while it was located near a bike shop (two, actually, though one now appears to be closed) as well as the Dyckman A train station, the shelter was not widely used, and was removed as DOT looks for another site in the area.

Last October, DOT installed Inwood's first bike shelter on Dyckman/200th Street at Broadway. A little over a week ago, it disappeared without a trace.

There are two opportunities tonight to get behind livable streets efforts in Manhattan.