Putnam Rail Trail to Become Bronx-Yonkers Pathway
The City of Yonkers has been collaborating with Groundwork Hudson Valley, a community environmental non-profit, as well as corporate, foundation and state partners to bring the Yonkers Greenway to life.
From 1880 to 1943, the Yonkers branch of the New York Central Railroad’s Putnam Division (called the Putnam Spur) connected the heart of Yonkers’ Getty Square to Van Cortlandt Park in New York City. It was instrumental to the early development of modern-day Yonkers.
Today, a coalition of partners is working to once again link Yonkers to New York City with a 2-mile, vibrant green pathway for walking, biking, recreation and economic development, along the old Putnam Rail line, which runs along South Broadway in Yonkers and ends at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
On Oct. 24, a project team broke ground on the first phase of this ambitious project by transforming an abandoned section of the old Lowerre rail station into a revitalized park space that will include a state-of-the-art playground, a community garden, and art installations that reflect the rich diversity of the many cultures that came to Yonkers along the route of the Old Putnam railroad line. This is expected to rehabilitate the long-defunct Smith, O’Hara, Levine Park into a thriving new playground and return it into a hub of recreational activity for this community.
The original park was named in honor of three Yonkers servicemen who died in World War II – Daniel I. Levine, Earl Smith and Bernard O’Hara.
The city’s Department of Planning and Development, along with the parks and engineering departments, is currently leading the effort to complete the final design and construction documents for the entire route of the Greenway.
The City of Yonkers has financially committed to this project, with $1.3 million invested. Together with Groundwork, an additional $4.6 million has been raised from the New York State Department of Transportation; Bank of America; the Environmental Protection Agency; the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; the Westchester Community Foundation; Impact 100 Westchester; the Ronald McDonald House Charities; and the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets.
Over the last four years, Groundwork Hudson Valley has been gathering input from local community stakeholders, conducting neighborhood and feasibility studies, and fundraising with the city to bring this vision to reality. This project would not have been possible without the early leadership of local community members.
Community leaders at the forefront of this project include Renee Milligan, community advocate and Groundwork Hudson Valley board member; Lucy Moreno, community advocate and Greyston’s Community Gardens coordinator; and Pastor Lourdes Roman-Rivera from Living Transformations.
Greenways and green public spaces provide economic stimulus, renewed business activity, improved environments, health benefits, recreational activity, local stewardship, crime reduction, and perhaps most importantly, positive social infrastructure – the physical places that allow social bonds to develop. The goal is for this project to have transformational impacts in the neighborhood to improve the lives of all community residents, and Yonkers as a whole.
Attending the ground-breaking were Mayor Mike Spano, Council Majority Leader Michael Sabatino, Groundwork Hudson Valley Executive Director Brigitte Griswold, New York President of Bank of America Jeff Barker, Impact 100 Westchester Executive Director Susan Bloom, Westchester Community Foundation Program Officer Tara Seeley, and Milligan, Moreno and Pastor Lourdes Roman- Rivera.
