Hudson River Greenway

Last June, we reported on a sinkhole in the Hudson River Greenway just north of 181st Street in Washington Heights. The Parks Department, which manages the path, said it had cordoned off the hole and was assessing the situation. As of yesterday, nothing much had changed in ten months -- except the hole has filled with leaves and grown slightly larger, swallowing more of the greenway path along with it. Now, the Parks Department says it has filled in the hole as a temporary measure.

In 1991, Governor Mario Cuomo signed the Hudson River Valley Greenway Act, setting in motion the design and construction of a continuous walking and biking route along the river, from Manhattan to Saratoga County. More than two decades later, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council -- the NYC-area regional planning agency -- has come up with a preferred route for the greenway through the Bronx and parts of Yonkers, which would fill the gap between the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway and the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail in Westchester County.

Since May, Hudson River Greenway users have been detoured from the waterside route between 133rd and 135th Streets to 12th Avenue, which is often full of trucks unloading at the Fairway supermarket. The closure, which signs on the greenway said would end at the end of last month, has been extended through the end of February without explanation.

The Parks Department doesn't know when a hole that opened up two months ago on the Hudson River Greenway will be repaired.

A tipster sent us photos of what looks like a sinkhole in the Hudson River Greenway just north of 181st Street, in Washington Heights. These shots were taken Sunday morning.

Drivers going to and from the Henry Hudson Parkway at 158th Street pass a traffic signal at a crosswalk that cyclists and pedestrians use to access the Hudson River Greenway. The light flashes yellow until a crosswalk user requests a signal, at which point it turns red and drivers must stop at the crosswalk.

The Hudson River Greenway between 133rd Street and 135th Street in West Harlem is closed until December, with users instructed to use 12th Avenue as a detour during the greenway's busiest warm-weather months.

New York City's parks are supposed to be a respite from the noise and stress of the city. It seems a few people haven't got the message -- and are using the Hudson River Greenway bicycle and pedestrian path as their personal driveway to the Upper Manhattan waterfront.

NYPD is ticketing cyclists riding on the Hudson River Greenway after 1:00 a.m., which is the Parks Department's citywide closing time, according to a reader who was stopped by police on the greenway last night.