A portion of the Riverside Park promenade, photographed Wednesday, is still covered with snow, more than two weeks after the storm. Photos by Tracy Zwick.
By Tracy Zwick
The promenade in Riverside Park is one of the Upper West Side’s most scenic locations. Flanked by benches and trees that arch over the walkway, it’s almost civic in presentation, and wide enough for strollers, dog walkers, runners, families, and friends to safely share – in warmer weather.
But in the winter, parkgoers say, it’s often another story.
The snow becomes packed, then melts and refreezes, making it difficult, if not impossible, to traverse large sections of the park – often for months.
“It’s a shame because Riverside Park is the neighborhood park,” said one man who was walking his dog just off the snow and ice-covered middle promenade near West 102nd Street earlier this week. He compared the conditions of park walkways unfavorably to Central Park’s Park Drive, which is routinely cleared within hours of snowfall; because Riverside Park has been so treacherous, he said, “we haven’t been here in weeks.”
Longtime UWSer Jody Greco, meanwhile, compared walking downhill toward the center of the park from the steps at Riverside Drive to “jumping out of an airplane,” and something she simply won’t do at this time of year.
”I’m just terrified!” she said.
To check out the conditions, West Side Rag walked the park on Wednesday, from about West 116th to West 83rd Street. We found that while the narrower paths that wind downhill from the Riverside Drive staircases were mostly clear, and the stairways themselves had been salted, large swaths of the promenade itself were slick with packed ice, making them impassable, particularly on top of the train tunnel in the middle area of the park.
A jogger navigates around ice on the Riverside Park promenade, with a snowy stretch straight ahead.
WSR emailed the NYC Parks Department twice, asking about the conditions in this part of the park, but the department turned down an interview request, and a spokesperson declined to address specifics.
However, Merritt Birnbaum, president & CEO of the nonprofit Riverside Park Conservancy, which works with the Parks Department to keep the park safe and vibrant, said this perilous portion of the park is “a well-known problem,” and “one being actively worked on.”
She and the Conservancy’s VP of operations, Roxanne Roth, shared their perspective during a phone call with WSR on Wednesday afternoon. They said that for years, that section of the park has been riddled with infrastructure problems “beyond our control,” which prevent trucks, including plows, from entering.
While Birnbaum doesn’t expect this winter’s ice and snow to be cleared anytime soon, she added: “Hopefully it won’t be the case forever.”
As WSR has reported, there is a $26 million project underway to address drainage and ponding issues from about West 105th to West 116th streets.
A bench in Riverside Park was still half buried in snow on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Birnbaum emphasized the non-profit status of the conservancy and their team’s efforts to clear and salt staircases and footpaths. They even cleared a pickleball court recently, she added.
“We’re pretty new to helping with snow duty, and it’s cost us in terms of resources this year,” she added, noting the overtime rates they pay to maintain a full force in the park when snow falls on weekends. “Our team’s been amazing,” she said. “We appreciate every donation we receive.”
Still, parts of the park remain danger zones for many. Photographer Paul Stetzer, Jr. was in the park Wednesday, hot on the heels of a red-tailed hawk and other avian year-round-residents, with his camera at the ready. “I took my life into my own hands,” he said, of a moment during his walk when he stepped onto some ice to get a shot.
Lifelong UWSer Dee Greenwood said she’d been enjoying Riverside Park since childhood. She’s often in the park’s northern sections walking dogs these days, and reported that “it requires a lot of concentration” to navigate through the snow and ice. “It’s no walk in the park,” she said.
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