South Bronx
Streetsblog Basics
DOT Plans Safer Walking and Biking Routes to Bronx River Greenway
The Bronx River Greenway, threaded along the waterfront between expressways, railroad tracks and busy arterial avenues, is difficult to access for many of the surrounding South Bronx residents. A proposal from DOT [PDF] would improve park access while providing some order to the area's streets.
March 6, 2013
Bronx River Advocates Petition State and City to Fix Greenway Gap
While a network of parks continues to sprout along the banks of the Bronx River, a dangerous gap between two parks could fester for years, preventing the creation of a continuous, safe walking and biking route for local residents. Advocates have launched a petition asking the city and state to overcome bureaucratic hurdles to complete the missing link, so people don't have to risk their lives biking and walking across a freeway on-ramp between two parks.
January 7, 2013
Deferred, Not Defeated: Sheridan Teardown Advocates Move Ahead
In the wake of the city's refusal to consider removing the Sheridan Expressway, advocates from the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance gathered last night at a town hall meeting to revise their game plan. Although the long-term vision of removing the highway lives on, the discussion focused on other potential improvements along the Sheridan corridor.
December 6, 2012
You Can Drive a Truck Through the Gaps in City’s Refusal to Remove Sheridan
Last month, the Bloomberg administration unexpectedly ruled out the option of removing the Sheridan Expressway and replacing it with housing and parks, telling South Bronx advocates that added truck traffic projected for local streets was a "fatal flaw" in the highway teardown. After a closer look at that truck traffic analysis, however, the coalition calling for the highway removal says the city overlooked some obvious options to keep trucks off neighborhood streets.
June 28, 2012
City Abruptly Rejects Sheridan Teardown; Serrano and Advocates Fight Back
The Bloomberg administration has abruptly ruled out the possibility of tearing down the lightly-trafficked Sheridan Expressway and replacing it with mixed-use development, jobs, and parks. Neighborhood advocates and electeds are vowing to fight the decision, which they say fails to follow through on the comprehensive analysis the city promised to conduct as part of a $1.5 million federal grant.
June 8, 2012
The House That EDC Built: A 9,000-Car Complex With 8,930 Empty Spaces
In case you're just tuning in, all that taxpayer-subsidized parking built for the new Yankee Stadium has failed beyond anyone's wildest expectations.
February 3, 2012
Take a Tour of the Sheridan Expressway (While You Still Can)
When taking a tour of the Sheridan Expressway, the first thing you realize is that you're also taking a tour of the Bronx River Greenway. The two pieces of infrastructure -- one a 1.25-mile stub of highway, the other a still-piecemeal bike and pedestrian path reconnecting Bronx neighborhoods to the water -- both run through the low river valley. The greenway and the cleaned-up river, products of decades of community activism, are signs of the incredible revitalization of the South Bronx.
July 29, 2011
To Study Sheridan Teardown, City Pulls Back the Lens
When the state Department of Transportation studied removing the lightly-used Sheridan Expressway, it considered two scenarios. One predicted conditions with the Sheridan kept as is. The other imagined closing the highway to traffic without making any other changes -- simply fencing off the 1.25 mile structure.
July 22, 2011
Construction Industry Objections to Sheridan Teardown Don’t Stand Up
The fight over the future of the Sheridan Expressway, a stub of a highway that Robert Moses built but never finished, heated up this week. The construction industry announced its opposition to any Sheridan teardown in a Crain's op-ed this Sunday, days before experts at a Municipal Art Society panel forcefully made the case for replacing the underused roadway with housing and park space.
April 15, 2011
Road Diet for Macombs Road Wins Unanimous Bronx Community Board Vote
DOT's plans to improve pedestrian safety along the length of the Bronx's Macombs Road [PDF] received a unanimous vote of support from Bronx Community Board 4 last night, according to District Manager José Rodriguez. The plan puts Macombs on a road diet and reconfigures dangerous diagonal intersections that lead to drivers taking fast turns across the crosswalk.
March 23, 2011