(Photo: Rendering courtesy of NYC Economic Development Corporation)

T he name alone will stop you: South Bronx Greenway. The first part is shorthand for urban rot, the latter for the kind of gracious amenities that get built everywhere except New York, least of all in Hunts Point. Yet, all but miraculously, a mile and a half of the river’s edge, until now defined by barbed wire and waste-transfer stations, is getting the full grassy treatment. Moreover, we didn’t have to turn the whole thing over to a private developer to make it happen. Funded by the city and a scattering of nonprofit agencies, the greenway will incorporate bike paths, street plantings, recreational space on several piers, and (down the road a bit) a pedestrian and bike connection to Randalls Island. This group of projects is the $30 million first phase of the larger scheme known as the Hunts Point Vision Plan, which calls for a swath of green buildings and green industry to replace the area’s brownfields and burned-out reputation. A generation ago, the Bronx was burning; before long, it could be hot.

Related:

• Articles by Christopher Bonanos
• Table of Contents: December 25, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!