Sunday, November 17, 2013

Daylight in Downtown

Today, an errand took me to downtown Yonkers, a place I hadn't been in quite some time. I am happy to say that the daylighting of the Saw Mill River, so named because Adriaen van der Donck (the "jonkheer" for whom Yonkers is named) built a sawmill near the mouth of the river, looks to be a major success. The river was directed through a flume and covered by a parking lot in the 1920s, in an effort to manage sanitation and control flooding (though a lot of anti-flooding engineering projects actually compound flooding problems). The resulting parking lot was an eyesore, and the downtown area became less-than-desirable real estate.

The "daylighted" river forms the centerpiece of the charming new Van Der Donck Park. For a good encapsulation of the transition from grotty parking lot to sweet downtown park, this video shows in three and a half minutes everything you need to know.

Here's the view of the river upstream from the footbridge which spans it:



Here's the view downstream, with the Yonkers Metro North station in the background. The river runs back into a "flume", visible on the right hand side, and flows under the Metro North Hudson line tracks:




It remains to be seen if the "daylighting" of the river will have a lasting economic impact on Yonkers'downtown. I sure hope that it does. Downtown has some lovely attractions, including the Riverfront Library, the pier, and Phillipse Manor Hall. Already, the project has brought new residents to the downtown area.

4 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Water views help real estate values a lot more than some ugly parking lot.

Or so I have been told...
~

Helmut Monotreme said...

Park the cars underwater and have the best of both worlds!

Jim H. said...

Yonkers has such a prime location. Commuting proximity to the Big Apple + trains + the Sawmill! You've got easy access to the Tappanzee & points north. And you've got those great hilltop Hudson views! (Our best friends from NY live there, have for 15+ years). I mean, look next door to Tarrytown, e.g., where RE prices are through the roof. Y-town seems mired in some past political/social missteps. No?

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Or so I have been told...

By Muscovy ducks?

Park the cars underwater and have the best of both worlds!

Yonkers could use an artificial reef...

Yonkers has such a prime location. Commuting proximity to the Big Apple + trains + the Sawmill! You've got easy access to the Tappanzee & points north. And you've got those great hilltop Hudson views! (Our best friends from NY live there, have for 15+ years). I mean, look next door to Tarrytown, e.g., where RE prices are through the roof.

The downtown is an industrial area post-industry. The beautiful Riverfront Library used to be the Otis Elevators headquarters. Tarrytown is gorgeous, but the former North Tarrytown, now Sleepy Hollow, is another working class town with little work. The main industry in the town was a huge GM plant, which provided great jobs, but destroyed the river. The name change was brought about to generate tourist interest, but the town hasn't quite figured out what to do with their new identity. With the new show, people show up, but there's nothing to do when they get there.

Where in Yonkers do your friends live? I live in the extreme southeast, a couple of blocks north of the Bronx border.

Y-town seems mired in some past political/social missteps. No?

Yonkers was long plagued with corruption. One nickname for the City of Y______ is "The City of Hills where Nothing is on the Level".