Park Hill

A friend writes;

The Zoning Board will hold its 2nd hearing on the application for a variance at 44 Wingate Rd on this coming Tuesday, Oct. 18 - 6:00 - City Hall. The owner would like to create a building lot on what is now a side yard. Anyone interested in preserving the open space left in Park Hill should attend. You do not necessarily have to speak - simply being there to register opposition is enough.

I don’t know the owner, nor do I have any knowledge of what they intend to put there aside from what my friend writes. I am, however, prima facia against building Park Hill out anymore than it has been. It ultimately reduces all our property values and lowers the aesthetic quality of our neighborhood.

I can imagine, however, many reasons an owner would want to establish a buildable lot: perhaps they need the money from its sale for their retirement; perhaps they’re in dire financial straights; perhaps they intend to build a small bungalow for their disabled parents. Then again, perhaps they’re just greedy. I’m not inclined to give folks the benefit of the doubt about this, but I am willing to listen to what they have to say.

Agree or disagree, you should attend if at all possible.

p.s., I haven’t forgotten about the police blotter information. Let’s just say that the Yonkers PD is taking their time with my request.

A reader writes:

This morning at 7:22 as I was walking to the train station, a man driving a red car (NY Tags ADT 4112) pulled out of the parking lot for the South Broadway apartment building took a right hand turn, drove past the “do not enter” signs and on up Undercliff.

So what do I do with this piece of information? Do I call the YPD? And if I did, what would they do? I have to believe that, what with kids shooting up chicken hill and all, Yonkers finest have something better to do than follow up on the complaints of a cranky Park Hill resident. But even if we assume that they wanted to do something about this, what could they do? I mean, can a couple of cops just show up at this guy’s door based on my having phoned in a plate number? Last week when I wrote to Councilman Robertson asking his assistance on putting the signage back up, I requested a law enforcement presence on Undercliff to let drivers know that the city is serious about this change. At the very least, this would let us know if the city is, in fact, serious about this change or if they just did it to keep some pesky constituents quiet.

Of course I’m also trying to figure out why this pisses me off so much. At first I thought it was because the street is well traveled by students walking to and from Yonkers Middle/High School. But that’s not it. Kids in Junior high are smart enough not to get run over by scofflaw drivers. It’s the scofflaw part that bugs me. Members of our neighborhood engaged in a political process to request a change they thought would be beneficial. Our councilman made sure it would not bother his other constituents and only then was the change enacted. Then this asshole (I mean, he’s in a car, it’s not like he has to WALK out of his way, he just has to sit in his care five minutes longer) decides that he doesn’t like the change and obeying the traffic signs is optional for him. It’s this lack of respect for the process that annoys me. This still leave me with the question, “What do I do with this information?”

I certainly share this reader’s frustration (although I’m less certain about the assertion that high school kids are immune from the dangers of this road - and the people who defy the law to drive up it.) And he’s almost certainly correct that the folks at the 3rd precinct have more pressing issues. That said, Park Hill residents have an equal right to protection, and although this may appear to be a nuisance issue, it is in fact a safety issue; I just hope that nothing happens to make the safety component obvious.

There is a bigger picture here, however. We’ve had a rash of break-ins in Park Hill lately - three of which I have personal knowledge, and two of which occurred in the last 10 days. These may be tied to the larger crime wave that’s beset SW Yonkers since the Summer. Several new residents, all with children, have asked me how to go about requesting much needed stop signs for high traffic areas (e.g., Hillcrest avenue which has only one stop sign - near the end of the street - for its whole, considerable, length, almost inviting people to recklessly speed). Lest anyone think that traffic safety is an academic issue in our neighborhood, there was a fatal accident at the well traveled intersection of Park Hill and Lakeside, in the very heart of the neighborhood, last week (the investigation is ongoing).

These are not only quality of life issues - they are life itself issues. To answer our reader’s question, I’m not certain what to do about all this, but I’m checking into it. I think a police blotter would be a good start, as well as inviting the 3d precinct to the Racquet Club to talk more specifically about what we can do in terms of public safety, e.g., lighting our houses, learning to take a suspect’s description, understanding what constitutes suspicious behavior and how to report it.

Also, I think the neighborhood needs to make a concerted effort to make ALL of our streets four way stops, just like in communities such as Pelham Manor. Stop signs cost little to erect and maintain, unlike speed bumps. Drivers may choose to disregard them (and there are some notoriously disregarded ones in the neighborhood already), but at least stop signs make drivers more aware of their speed, more conscious of their surroundings.

But now I’m rambling. I’m going to speak to the 3rd precinct about some of these issues as soon as I get a chance and report back.

-ed.

The “One Way” signs are back. Kudos to the appropriate quarters.

A resident writes:

So the do not enter signs at the bottom of Undercliff lasted exactly a week before vandals took them down.

Here is the scoop. Undercliff is a two way street from South Broadway to the entrance to the parking lot for the apartment buildings on South Broadway. Past the entrance it is one way down hill. At this juncture there were two of those steel street sign posts (you know, the angle steel kind with bold hole every inch or so, not the round kind) that have a “Do Not Enter” sign and a “Road Closed” sign attached to them. There were holes bored in the road surface and the posts were merely placed in the bored out holes. That is, there was no concrete put in the holes to hold the signs in place. All the vandals had to do was pull the posts out of the holes and throw the signs in the weeds by the side of the road. So as of 7:25 AM this morning the signs are there, they’re just not up.

I called the Mayor’s help line yesterday to let them know and, shockingly, the maintenance department did not rush right out to put them back up. Would you mind calling them (337 HELP)? Perhaps if more than one cranky person calls we might see some action.

Please, do call. I did. You may also want to call Councilman Robertson at 914 377-6313.

Sometime last week, the city finally made Undercliff one way, going down. There are two big “Do Not Enter” signs, one at either side of the road, and a steel pole barrier allowing only one car at a time to pass through going down.

Don’t forget to thank our Councilman Robertson next time you see him - or vote. You can also leave a message with his office at 914 377-6313. It’s just as important to let our representatives know what they’re doing right as it is to criticize them for what’s going wrong.

Our ever faithful anonymous source, let’s call the source Shallow Throat, writes:

Neighborhood residents met with Councilman Dennis Robertson on June 16th to discuss his proposal for making Undercliff St. a one-way down from Alta Ave. to the old elevator house. This narrow, steep, twisting street has long been recognized as dangerous and we are happy to see the Councilman and the City Traffic Engineer taking proactive measures to solve/alleviate the problem …hazard for children walking to and from school…heavy traffic rushing to the Parkways through the neighborhood… Edit/rewrite/change as you will.

Maybe I was supposed to take that last part out?

Anyway, another source who attended the meeting said it went well, and our councilman seemed ready to work with us (after having first cleared it with his South Broadway constituents). That said, it’s been a over a year since we first started trying to move on this, and I think all of us will believe it when we see it.

So, I understand from both sources that there was also talk of changing the directions of a couple of other streets. Faithful as ever, I immediately got to work on a little map showing the other proposed changes, only to learn yesterday that the proposed changes didn’t represent by far the majority opinion of the meeting and are unlikely to occur. I thought they sounded a little kooky, but what the heck.

Anyway, I’m not going to waste a perfectly good map with colors and text and everything. Just remember: this is NOT the actual proposal, just a pretty map. Well, ok, it’s not that pretty, but damnit, I worked for half an hour on it, so here it is.

As I will not be able to attend this evening, I have written the following open letter to Concilman Robertson which I hope to have read at the meeting:

To the Honorable Councilman Robertson,

Let me thank you for taking time to meet with representatives from our neighborhood to discuss making Undercliff a one way street and to offer my apologies that I cannot attend in person. Although the Park Hill community members here represent the oft-considered sentiments of the entire neighborhood, I would like to add my voice to theirs in order to reiterate our strong concern for the safety of all who live in or transit through our neighborhood.

If I may make a couple of observations about the road itself, Undercliff was built at a time when automobiles were smaller and cars utilized roads like Undercliff much less. It was never designed to accommodate our larger cars nor its current volume of traffic. Living up to its name, Undercliff’s incline and turns are extreme; visibility on the road is severely limited; and during any kind of inclement weather, the road becomes nearly impassable.

In the best of circumstances, the road is hazardous. Despite the obvious danger, I understand that historically there has been opposition to closing the road or curtailing access to it. There’s no way around it, so I’ll just say it: the issue has become couched as a “those living up the hill” vs. “those living at the bottom of the hill” conflict.

This is a shortsighted obfuscation. To those who would frame the issue thusly, I would remind them that children coming from both up and down the hill walk on Undercliff everyday. It doesn’t matter whether a child lives at the bottom or the top of the hill – if even one child is injured (or God forbid, worse) on Undercliff, it will be a tragedy for everyone.

Moreover, Undercliff isn’t even needed. Park Hill Avenue and Rumsey Road – roads designed to accommodate larger volumes of traffic – both bisect the neighborhood and can be accessed mere blocks from the Undercliff /South Broadway intersection. No one is going to be inconvenienced by more than couple of minutes if the City makes Undercliff a one way street, but it will cut in half the volume of traffic on that dangerous road.

This is first and foremost a safety issue. I don’t think making one small road a one way street is asking too much the safety of all our children.

Yours Sincerely,
(Names and addresses redacted)

Please, if you can, attend this meeting or send a letter.