Eyes on the Street: Transit Workers on Parade

 
The NYC Transit Pipe and Drums Corps marched in the Inwood annual Memorial Day Parade on Monday, on a route that followed Broadway from 200th Street almost into the Bronx before taking Seaman Avenue, where the above photo was taken, to Inwood Hill Park for a wreath-laying ceremony honoring America's war dead.

A bike-laned residential street that serves as the eastern border of the park, Seaman Ave is a hub of neighborhood activity. This is particularly true in spring and summer, as most Inwoodites must traverse Seaman in order to access park playgrounds, trails and fields, a dog run, and almost 200 acres of the only remaining natural forest in Manhattan. On weekend nights the street is lined with revelers who -- to the chagrin of many nearby residents -- eat, drink and play to a soundtrack of salsa music pumped from car stereos until all hours.

Unfortunately, despite the near-constant presence of uptowners entering and exiting IHP, Seaman Ave is a raceway to drivers who routinely barrel through at unsafe speeds. Parts of the street have been calmed with speed humps, but on other stretches it's common to see cars tearing through intersections or passing one another illegally, even at the park's main entrance.

Photo: Brad Aaron