Transit to Trails Act reintroduced
There has been a second push to get the Transit to Trails Act passed. Reintroduced in the Senate and House by its sponsors, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Rep. Jimmy Gomez, the Transit to Trails Act is an effort to create a program that awards grants to groups that can provide transportation from critically underserved urban and rural communities to the countries’ green spaces.
“Due to unjust, racist policies such as redlining and economic segregation, communities of color are three times more likely than white communities to live in nature-deprived places,” said the nonprofit Wilderness Society. “Seventy-four percent of communities of color in the contiguous United States live in nature-deprived areas, compared with just 23 percent of white communities.”
“Getting out in nature is essential for our mental health and physical wellbeing, especially for our children. But many cities are built in a way that makes America’s national parks and public lands inaccessible for underserved communities,” Gomez said in a statement. “Everyone deserves access to green spaces, not just those who can afford to drive to them. That’s why I’m proud to partner with Senator Booker on this legislation that will remove barriers between our cities and our parks to ensure everyone, regardless of their ZIP code, can enjoy the beautiful outdoors.”
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Paterson’s Hinchliffe Stadium
Hinchliffe Stadium, one of five still-standing Negro Leagues stadiums, is being updated and refurbished so it can be used again. In the 1930s and ’40s, the Paterson, N.J.-based stadium was the homefield ballpark for the New York Black Yankees, New York Cubans, and often the Newark Eagles baseball teams.
After a campaign of fundraising and $100 million in state tax credits, renovations began in April 2021 on what was once a deteriorating landmark.
Hinchliffe will be re-opened as the new home stadium for the New Jersey Jackals baseball team. The Paterson Public Schools will also be able to use the stadium for events and a museum commemorating the history of the Negro Leagues professional baseball league will be part of the new Hinchliffe Stadium.
The project, under the auspices of Baye Adofo-Wilson’s real estate development company, BAW Development, LLC, will also see to the opening of an affordable senior housing apartment complex dubbed the Hinchliffe Residences, a restaurant, and a 5,200-square-foot preschool.
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DWELL: 452 WEST 144TH STREET TOWNHOUSE
Harlem Bespoke: One of the majestic brownstones on West 144th and Convent Avenue returns to the market for new season and the grand 21 foot wide home is also a rare semi-detached townhouse. Number 452 West 144th Street is now available for $3.65 million $3 million and the 2-family home appears to be in turnkey condition with lots of original details within. We have been writing about this block for over a decade now and buyers who want to live on one of the most charming neighborhoods in Manhattan should definitely check out one of the open houses in the coming weeks. Restaurants, cafes, supermarkets and the express train stations are minutes away by the 145th Street corridor. More details and contact information can be found on Streeteasy: LINK
☞ REMEMBER: GIBB’S DINER OF MANHATTANVILLE
Harlem Bespoke: Another history post we did over 10 years ago at the start of blog was about West Market Diner (shuttered 2004) in the planned Manhattanville campus footprint. A blog reader mentioned that their family used to own the diner and shared amazing photos with some insight on the forgotten past of the neighborhood. The diner building has since been demolished to make way for the new Columbia University campus.
“Thank you for your blog on the West Market Diner. My grandfather, Isaac Gibbs, owned it before it was the West Market Diner. It was called the Gibb’s Diner. Family lore has it that he had the first free standing diner in NYC and this might have been it.(He owned several) The diner was built in 1921. The pictures I am enclosing are of the original diner. As you may know, an addition was built, parallel to, and in front of the original diner, in about 1948. The original diner became the kitchen of what later became the West Market Diner. The original diner with its tile floor and rounded wood ceiling, as seen in the attached interior photograph, reportedly still exists as the kitchen of the West Market diner. I think the dinner is a landmark. The man standing in the interior photograph is my grandfather. I do not know the exact date of this photograph, but it is of the original diner with an attached dining area that I assume my grandfather added.”
“I always had my grandfather’s pictures of the diner, but did not know until February, 2009 that it was, what is now called the West Market Diner. Ironically, I visited NYC this weekend and yesterday I went for the first time to the West Market Diner. I was excited but frustrated that I could not see into the old diner. I certainly hope they also preserve some part of the kitchen which is the original diner and is older and more historic than the 1948 addition. I am enclosing a picture of my grandfather in front of one of his diner’s which was on railroad property. This diner would also have been on the west side. This is obviously (judging by the car) a very early diner. Any further news on the diner?”
The last information that we found pertaining to the diner’s fate is on the Columbia Manhattanville Campus website, which states:
“Prentis Hall (632 W. 125th St.), the Studebaker building (615 W. 131st St.), the interior of the original West Market Diner, and the Nash building (3280 Broadway) will be preserved and restored.”
The original diner interior will apparently be relocated inside one of the storefronts of the new buildings to built after the diner at 659 West 131st Street is demolished. Read more of the plan here: LINK.
See our original post on the West Market Diner: LINK.
Photos courtesy of the Gibbs estate, no further copies without permission.