The West 90s may not be everyone's ideal of New York, but it's a New Yorker's ideal of New York!
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1. You can see all sorts of people in the West 90s.
2. You will find products from everywhere in the world in the West 90s.
3. Four parks surround the West 90s.
4. Times Square in 50 minutes.
5. Vehicles, bikers and pedestrians coexist without a problem in the West 90s.
6. Streets and roads are now wider than they used to be.
7. The Upper West Side is really affordable.
The West 90s is quintessential New York.
If you think of Woody Allen's New York, Seinfeld's New York, or Nora Ephron's New York, that's the West 90s.
When you're walking down the street in the West 90s, I think what you're struck by are the people. Young, old, from every walk of life.
You've got the street life, which is so intense. But then you've got the sort of tranquility of Riverside Park and of Central Park. It's perfect.
The West 90s is this precious nugget.
What's great about this neighbourhood is that it has brought in different people at different times. What's resulted is a very nice diversity of people.
We have these great mom and pop shops lining Broadway and Columbus and Amsterdam. You'll find Asian markets, Hebrew markets, Polish markets, Hungarian markets, Spanish markets.
There's Gabrielle's, there's Carmine's, there's Gennaro's.
We've really been able to maintain this very local, approachable culture. The biggest retail to move into the 90s is really the mall on Columbus Avenue, while right around the corner you have the Judaica shop. Architecturally, it's absolutely stunning. We have all of this great Beaux-Arts and Art Deco architecture and the great brownstones that line all of our side streets.
And then we're sandwiched between two amazing parks.
The north part of Central Park, I think, is a part of the park that people really don't frequent.
You've got the tennis courts, we've got the reservoir, which I used to run around in my youth.
Riverside Park in the 90s. You can start in the south with the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, and then you go along the north and you get to the Joan of Arc part and then the People's Garden.
Riverside Drive has this wonderful dinosaur park where in the summertime the kids are running in and out of these water fountains that run constantly.
I mean, I couldn't imagine a better place to grow up as a kid.
Getting anywhere from here is very easy. You can be in Times Square in 15 minutes.
You've got the one, two, and three train, and then you can go over and get the B and the C train over on Central Park West.
And we just got select bus service.
But also the bike infrastructure is terrific. I think we have the best bike lane in New York City, which is the Hudson River bike lane.
You can literally ride your bike from the George Washington Bridge all the way down to Battery Park City.
The trade-off of being this hub is that there can be tragic conflicts between the vehicles and the bikers and pedestrians.
When I first came in to office within the first couple of months, there were five pedestrians who were struck and killed right around 96th Street. We really did a complete street redesign.
There's been a lot of narrowing of the streets and left turn signal changes. So my husband, the driver, complains. I think they've made it safer.
The West Side was developed about a generation later than the Upper East Side. And it just happened to align with the period in New York, the City Beautiful Movement. And so you had the grid already established, but then you had Olmsted, Frederick Law Olmsted come in and carve out Riverside Drive out of that grid, departing from the grid and following the contours of the landscape. In my opinion, you have the best residential architecture of New York City is right here in the West 90s.
To me, there's no part of the Upper West Side that's really affordable. When apartments become vacant in this building and then I hear what they're asking, it's just…
It's not the trendiest neighbourhood. It doesn't have the hottest restaurants. It doesn't have such a great night life. And that's what we like about it. The West 90s is not everyone's ideal of New York, but the West 90s represents a New Yorker's ideal of New York.
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