Block #5: Upper West Side/Manhattan Valley
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This week, after our little escapade in Brooklyn, we are venturing to one of New York City’s most iconic neighborhoods. Famous as the home to your favorite TV characters from Seinfeld and Will & Grace to 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon, the Upper West Side is quintessential New York.
Bound between Central Park and the Hudson River, the largely residential community is defined by 59th street and stretches to 110th street (some now say up to 125th). The Upper West Side’s long history as an immigrant gateway later combined with the relocation of Columbia University in the 1890s to nearby Morningside Heights realized early on the diverse, artistic and heavily academic neighborhood we now know and love. You know, all those hip musicians and their complicated shoes!
The Upper West Side is widely recognized for its world-class cultural institutions. On any given night one might attend the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, catch Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons at Beacon Theatre, or view the Fossil Halls at the American Museum of Natural History. And if just thinking about all of the cultural activity makes you hungry, not to worry, the UWS has got you covered. Along with a variety of restaurants and eateries, at least two long-standing culinary establishments are a must: Zabar’s and Levain Bakery (featuring the #1 cookie on Instagram, if we had to guess).
But what about living on the UWS? It’s a whole different world than downtown. Recently we noticed that even Citi Bike is making the move north and decided to look into it. We are stepping away from the well-known tourist attractions and peering into a block on 104th street between Columbus Avenue and Amsterdam in the sub-neighborhood known as Manhattan Valley [mysterious music].
Just one avenue away from Central Park, this strip of W 104th contains a mix of 1960s high rises, NYCHA housing, beautiful brownstones, a corner bodega (just don’t bounce a clown check there), Grace United Methodist Church, PS 145, The Bloomingdale Elementary School, and a large youth hostel.
Now that we are well acquainted with our block, let’s see how everyone is moving. According to Placemeter, this is the average pedestrian traffic you’ll see on the block per hour in the winter for a weekday and the weekend (sampled from about a three-week period in January and February).
Our data shows that the weekend and weekday activity follows the same pattern but small differences are explained by the real estate makeup of our block. The weekday morning commute begins to pick up at 7:00 AM and continues through 10:00–11:00 AM (retirees doing grocery shopping?) and with few businesses on the block, lunch hour is relatively quiet. The big activity spike comes around 3:00 PM, correlating with the dismissal time of PS 145.
To best understand the weekend movement, we find it helpful to separate Saturday and Sunday. Saturday reflects sleepy morning activity with most people walking around at 4:00 PM shopping and finishing weekend errands, while Sunday early features a consistent spike between 10:00–11:00 AM, which may be a result of the church going crowd. There is also a spike at 3:00 AM Sunday Morning/Saturday Night, possibly the hostel guests stumbling their way home?
The two main subway lines servicing our block are the B, C line stopping on 103rd and Central Park and the 1 line on 103rd and Broadway. The layout of the subway stations is reflected in our data, that more people are crossing the block westbound than eastbound, likely because they are utilizing the nearer subway stop.
As gentrification continues its advance into Manhattan Valley with specialized eateries like the Baconery and a Whole Foods, we expect to see a continuous increase in pedestrian activity overall. On the other hand, if you don’t want to be a part of society, why don’t you just get in your car and move to the East Side! Stay with us as we monitor the pulse of our city!
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The BONY Team
Download the dataset here (CSV)
Sources: Placemeter Data, Google Maps, PLUTO data, City-data.com
Interested in Placemeter? info@placemeter.com
