Access Denied at Bronx Ferry Point Park

Pressure Points

Access Denied at Bronx Ferry Point Park

From Transportation Alternatives Magazine, March/April 2000

Click on the map to open a larger view in a new window. Map by David Green.

Ferry Point Park is a rugged, former landfill in the east Bronx beneath the Whitestone Bridge. The park includes a long planned section of The Bronx Greenway. Over the next three years, almost half of the public park will be reconstructed as a private golf course designed by Jack Nicholas. The remainder of the park will be refurbished by the golf course developer for public use. Unfortunately, the current golf course and park plan, which the City Planning Commission approved in an unanimous vote on December 22, 1999, walls off the east side of the park from the adjacent Throgs Neck residential neighborhood, and cuts off a long awaited section of greenway. Right now, neighbors to the east of the park can walk straight into Ferry Point. However, once the park wall is built those folks will have to travel almost three miles to get to the main park. More than a third of local households in Community Board 10, com-prised mainly of the Throggs Neck neighborhood, do not have a car, and three miles is a long detour to take for a picnic in a neighborhood park. By comparison, imagine a resident of Trump Parc apartments at Columbus Circle (60th St. and Central Park South) having to walk to 110th Street and 5th Ave. to enter Central Park.

Write to:
Councilmember Madeline Provenzano
2931 Westchester Ave.
Bronx, NY 10461
Fax: (718) 931-6060

The wall was incorporated into the plan at the behest of Community Board 10 and some local residents who fear the refurbished park and its new esplanade will attract traffic and “outsiders.” Along with stopping these “negative” elements, the planned wall will cut off the greenway path intended to connect to the east side of the park at Schurz Ave. This path is an integral part of the 1993 Bronx Greenway Network and the 1996 Department of City Planning’s NYC Bicycle Master Plan. T.A. will be working with Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, the community and the developer with the intent of restoring eastern access to the park for cyclists and pedestrians.

Contact Councilmember Madeline Provenzano and urge her to call for an eastern access point to Ferry Point Park.