Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
manhattanville.jpg

This is an artist's rendering of what West 125th Street would look like after Columbia University's expansion is completed more than a decade from now.  (It is included in an overview of the plans that appears in the print edition of Columbia magazine, which, um, hasn't updated its web presence in a while.)  Regardless of whether you're in favor of or against the expansion, it is clear that Columbia is trying hard to persuade skeptics and opponents that the expansion will be a good thing for this part of Harlem.

Toward that end, the image grossly underestimates the amount of traffic on West 125th Street.  You see two taxis in the foreground that seem to be barely moving, and the faint outlines of a car or maybe two in the distance.  Then there's 46 pedestrians and a dog on the sidewalk, another 10 to 12 people inside a cafe, a bunch of vivid trees and some buildings.

Three or four cars on 125th Street?  125th Street leads to the Henry Hudson Parkway, and is the major river-to-river crosstown link north of Central Park.  There are never that few cars on it during daylight hours.  The street is packed all day long, buses inching along amid the plodding, throbbing or stifling traffic.

I don't mean to single out Columbia. It is common for architectural renderings to minimize the traffic. And why shouldn't they? Everybody hates it, even the people who are sitting in it and helping to create it. In the idealized image of a city, there is a lot less traffic. That's why community board meetings are dominated by complaints that this or that development will increase traffic. The perplexing thing is that community board meetings are also dominated by complaints that ample cheap parking, the greatest cause of heavy traffic, is somehow being threatened.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Astro-Turf: Industry Group Says Fair Pay For Delivery Workers Means Higher Grocery Prices

An app industry-supported group is trying to sway the conversation around expanding the delivery worker minimum wage.

December 11, 2024

Pizzeria Deploys School Bus to Serve Customers During Winter Curbside Dining Ban

So let's get this straight: You can eat a slice of pizza in a car ... as long as the car doesn't belong to the pizzeria?

December 11, 2024

Intro 606 Alert: E-Bike Licensing Bill Is Not Even Legal, Lawyers Say

Buckle up, dear reader, because we're diving into the municipal code!

December 11, 2024

Op-Ed: Council E-Bike Registration Bill Is Impossible to Enforce, Unnecessary … and Won’t Even Work

It sounds common-sense: register electric bikes just like cars. But there are so many flaws to this Council bill. Let us set you straight.

December 10, 2024
See all posts