They want to put the "park" back in parkway.
A shuttered off-ramp off the Henry Hudson Parkway has become a draw for local residents and should be made a permanent extension of Riverside Park, according to a group of Manhattanites who want to reclaim the road from cars.
Locals unsuccessfully lobbied the city earlier this year to repurpose the underused Exit 12 ramp to W. 125th Street. Now the deterioration of an Amtrak tunnel underneath the road has forced the Department of Transportation's hand to close the strip anyway — creating an opportunity for full pedestrianization.
"This is a fabulous opportunity to give that park space back to the people who actually live in the neighborhood ... not people who are passing through the community," said Allegra LeGrande, an Inwood green space advocate. "It just seems like such an easy win for the whole community with really no downside to it."
LeGrande and other locals had wanted DOT to close off one of the two lanes on the underused roadway to provide a safe detour during the repairs on the Cherry Walk greenway along the Hudson River, but the city declined to do so.
But DOT said in July that it closed the half-mile off-shoot after its Division of Bridges found a "condition" that "required urgent repair" to the under-deck that carries the 1930s Robert Moses-era parkway over the railroad tracks.
It's unclear how long DOT plans to keep the roadway closed, but officials are working on designing the repairs together with Amtrak, the agency said in an email to local advocates over the summer. The land itself is owned by the Parks Department, while Riverside Park Conservancy manages the adjacent green space.
In recent months, the defunct street has already become a draw for residents in the know, providing more open space and a better connection to the northern end of Riverside Park.
The closure opened up a formerly inaccessible lawn atop the railroad tunnel, and residents are strolling around the extra space, said one Upper West Sider, who recently went bird watching there.
"There’s so many upsides," said Ira Gershenhorn. "Now that it’s permanently closed – or temporarily, officially."
The off-ramp runs along the back of the park's tennis courts and a pollinator garden. There are desire paths leading around the back of the tennis courts already, which would provide an easy connector from the road to the rest of the waterfront park. The low-lying path would also provide an easier entry point to the northern end of Riverside Park, which only has entrances via steep roads and steps that aren't wheelchair accessible.
"We’re gaining more parkland without having to spend any money which I think is a pretty good return on investment," said Felipe Castillo Trujillo, a safe streets advocate and member of local Community Board 9, who clarified that he doesn't speak on behalf of the civic panel.
Meanwhile, CB 9 has not received any complaints from drivers, Castillo Trujillo said.
"I haven’t heard of anybody complaining that they can’t use the exit anymore," he said. "It was overbuilt before and now that it’s closed there doesn’t appear to be a very significant impact."
There is plenty of precedent for closing off or removing deteriorating car sections – including the famous collapse of the West Side Highway downtown in 1973, which officials turned into a boulevard and a bike and pedestrian greenway that became the nation's busiest cycle path.
Another example is the greenway on the East Side of Midtown, where city officials repurposed a former bypass built during repairs to the FDR in the 1990s into a stunning – albeit short – new section of waterfront greenway in 2023. That included a former off-ramp connecting at E. 60th Street and rechristened John Finley Walk.
DOT, the Parks Department and the Riverside Park Conservancy declined to comment.
