Telling a Manhattanite you live in Riverdale might conjure an image of a sought-after Bronx neighborhood; telling a Riverdalian you live in Riverdale only forces the question of where, exactly — Riverdale is practically a borough. Some of its gridded, sidewalked sections resemble suburban New York; some sections toward the Hudson River resemble rural Connecticut — fine homes, tall trees, rock walls. The more upscale subsections are set on hillsides — some residents distinguish between “upstairs” and “downstairs” Riverdale. On weekends, synagogues stay busy and cricket players speckle Van Cortlandt Park. Mondays, private day schools in Fieldston resume their hum. The subway ride to Midtown takes about 45 minutes. In Riverdale, the quiet is quieter, the green seems greener and the housing costs are a little lower.
Riverdale is on the waterfront, just south of Yonkers; it constitutes just about everything west of Van Cortlandt Park and north of the Harlem River. The No. 1 train is the only subway that goes there (actually, it ends there, at Van Cortlandt Park). But you can get to Grand Central in 25 minutes by catching a train at the nearby Metro-North station — even if its savings in time is demanded in extra fare. The bike path over the Henry Hudson Bridge is closed until 2010. There’s also a path over the Broadway Bridge.
As of August 2009, ferry service to Riverdale and elsewhere in the Bronx was under consideration. The Henry Hudson Parkway runs right through the middle of the neighborhood, over the Harlem River, and down the west side of Manhattan. There are a few Manhattan-bound bus routes in Riverdale, too.
Fieldston, a privately owned area between the Henry Hudson Parkway and Van Cortlandt Park, from 250th Street south to the Manhattan College Parkway, is the neighborhood’s wealthiest, most secluded section, a place with few sidewalks and traffic that slows down for crossing squirrels. West, toward the Hudson on streets like Sycamore and Independence Avenues, is a residential neighborhood of single-family homes tucked behind trees and rock walls.
Southwest of Fieldston and western Riverdale are Spuyten Duyvil and Marble Hill, gridded neighborhoods of single-family homes and low- to midrise apartment buildings. Above the Henry Hudson Parkway and east of Riverdale Avenue, the streets snap back into a grid: North Riverdale, a historically Irish semisuburban neighborhood of single-family homes and apartment buildings not unlike Spuyten Duyvil.
Rich Manhattanites started moving above the Harlem River in the mid-1800s to escape summer heat, overcrowding and cholera. The area became more middle-class after 1936, when the Henry Hudson Bridge opened the northwest Bronx up to development of less expensive housing and apartment buildings. Still, the neighborhood is richer, safer and generally whiter than most of the Bronx, with nearly double its overall median family income, according to census data. In Fieldston, the neighborhood’s wealthiest area, the median income is more than twice that of Riverdale — over $160,000.
The neighborhood as a whole is about 7 percent black, 5 percent Asian, and 13 percent Hispanic, and more diverse toward the southeast corner, below Fieldston. The black population has a strong West Indian flavor; on weekends, Van Cortland Park is full of cricket matches. Riverdale is a strong, affordable alternative to the Upper West Side; families and established singles treat it that way.
The mix is pretty thorough: pristine hillside homes in Fieldston; high- and low-rise apartment buildings in the area’s other neighborhoods; newer condo developments in South Riverdale; wooded, estate-type plots on curved roads toward the Hudson. Though less accessible than Upper Manhattan, it is generally more affordable.
Riverdale is part of the 50th Precinct, which also covers Van Cortlandt Park, Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Heights. In 2008, two murders and eight rapes were reported — the lowest crime rates in a borough not known for safety.
www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/precincts/precinct_050.shtml
The public elementary school and the public middle/high school are within a block of each other in Spuyten Duyvil, at the southern end of Riverdale. Test scores at both surpass city averages. Private options are well known, and concentrated in and around Fieldston. Among them are the Horace Mann School, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School and the Riverdale Country School. All teach kindergarten through Grade 12.
http://schools.nyc.gov/FindASchool/AdvanceSearch.htm?level=All&actn=search&geo=1&bbindex=2
People in search of nightlife in Riverdale probably took a wrong turn somewhere. There are a few restaurants along Broadway and some bars in North Riverdale and Kingsbridge (a neighborhood under Van Cortlandt Park), but most locals head to Manhattan. In an online message-board thread titled “Things to Do Around Riverdale on a Saturday Night,” one resident described the neighborhood as “exclusive and quiet.” Another poster called it “boring as hell.”
The area’s real pride is its nature. The hills of Van Cortlandt Park were worn 13,000 years ago by glaciers. The area is nearly twice the size of Central Park; it has the Bronx’s largest freshwater lake, and is also home to the Van Cortlandt mansion. Mountain bikers consider the park’s patchwork trails and rocky drops one of the more pleasant surprises New York has to offer. There are 13 cricket fields.
Wave Hill, an 1836 estate once occupied by Mark Twain as well as Theodore Roosevelt, is now a cultural center and public garden. In late 2005, three piers for fishing and general serenity opened between the Metro-North station and the Hudson River. The Judaica Museum has a lecture schedule; a collection ranging from prewar mezuzot to miniature Torah arks; and lobby art exhibitions that rotate every few months.
Useful Web Sites:
The Riverdale Press: www.riverdalepress.com/
Bronx Community Board 8: www.nyc.gov/html/bxcb8/html/home/home.shtml
The Riverdale Neighborhood House: www.riverdaleonline.org/HomePage.asp
The Riverdale YM-YWHA: www.riverdaley.org/