Make Vannie friendlier to bikes

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I support the Van Cortlandt Park master plan. I am a resident of the Bronx and a long time user of the park (since the mid-1970s) and I recall when the Putnam Trail still had rails!  As a kid I would walk up the rail with my friends toward Yonkers and we would find our way around the ad hoc trails. We would also bike through the equestrian trails.

I know the cross-country trails (and generally all unpaved trails) are off limits to bikes, but I still don’t know if the equestrian trails are off limits (they are paved, but the paving has since broken down to rubble). 

Most recently I started fishing in the lake, which was unimaginable not too long ago. In fact, I can say that I’ve done just about everything there is to do in the park, including hiking, walking, baseball, soccer, golf, etc.    

Van Cortlandt Park is a rare natural resource in one of the biggest cities in the world and it should be treated as such.  If it continues to be managed haphazardly, we risk losing more of its native beauty to — among other things— erosion.  

As the plan correctly states, there are too many trails (most appear to have been created ad hoc by pedestrian traffic over the years).  Even after 40 years or so of park use, I still see trails that I have not walked. 

These trails have not been managed, which has resulted in a great deal of erosion. The park needs a manageable trail system with fewer well-thought-out, multipurpose trails in order to preserve the native forest and other natural features of the park. 

There are individuals (the Putnam Trail Campaign) that oppose the master plan particularly because they oppose improvements to the Putnam trail.  They argue that they want a master plan that resets the planners’ priorities, “from landscaping and manicuring and paving trails to preserving nature in the park. [The planners] should remove asphalt in the park instead of adding it and they should keep trails natural.”  

Preserving nature and improving the trail system are not mutually exclusive.  The proponents of the master plan want to preserve nature in the park and the plan addresses the need to do so in great detail.  

Van Cortlandt Park, transportation, Antonio Papageorgiou
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