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Henry Hudson Parkway is being transformed from a scenic and
recreational corridor designed for the benefit of both motorists
and residents into an ugly expressway with blighted overpasses
and orphan public spaces, paved buffers that no longer screen
the traffic for the neighborhoods that line it, and parkland
inaccessible to residents. The city's budget crisis has only
accelerated the decline, as agencies seek to shift responsibility
for maintenance to each other or, worse, collaborate in solutions
that deprive the City's residents of their entitled benefit.
But
it is a false economy. The City pays the cost in increased
treatment of stormwater runoff from paved and eroded buffers
along the roadway. It pays the cost in depreciated property
values along the parkway. It pays the cost in lost revenue
from tourism by obscuring its most scenic views and monuments.
The
City has poured millions of dollars over the last decades
in the revitalization of the West Side waterfront. As a Scenic
Byway, the Henry Hudson Parkway will both protect the value
of this investment and capitalize on it. It will be the historic
Hudson River Valley route connecting Albany and New York City
as envisioned by Governor George Pataki. And it will once
again be the grandest gateway to the greatest city in the
world as envisioned by Robert Moses.
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