West Side Canvas: Down by the River

By Robert Beck

Remember Fall? My previous column was about the snow, and it felt like I was piling on, so here’s something to look forward to. I asked my friends who live on Riverside Drive about the role of Riverside Park in their lives, and their answer had a personal intimation. They spoke of peace, closeness to each other, and beauty. I compare this to my sense of Central Park, which is closer to where I live. Central Park is an 843-acre menagerie of lakes, skating rinks, ball parks, performance venues, a 1908 vintage carousel with a 52-keyless A Ruth & Sohn Model 33 Band Organ, a zoo, and, at the right time of year, so many brides that you can’t get fewer than three in any photograph. There is a playland quality to it that goes well with carousel organ music.

Riverside Park has many of the things its big sister has, despite taking up a fraction of the area. It’s got personality. There are recreation facilities, monuments, the tomb of an ex-president located a mere stone’s throw from the resting place of an Amiable Child, and the favorite rock perch of Edgar Allan Poe. You might chance across the spirit of the great man himself upon some midnight dreary.

The park is a landmark with trees, paths, and its own conservancy, but it has a much more intimate feel to it. More neighborhoody, despite its still significant size. It also comes with a river, which is no small thing.

The park continues north well beyond the top of the UWS boundary. This border doesn’t apply to UWS’ers who are inclined to feel that if they have walked to someplace, it’s theirs. And why not. As long as everybody picks up after themselves, we can do without the delineations.

Speaking of which, a lot of dogs get walked in Riverside Park. By my unsupported calculations, there are 29,127 dogs on the Upper West Side, and that means 14,563-1/2 dogs are serviced in Riverside Park. Besides being a large number, it’s a pretty good argument for picking up after Barky. It’s also one of the few places in Manhattan you can go when you need to see a goat.

The long, thin nature of the park, its terraced rise from the river, and the accommodation of rail lines and roadway, minimize the non-intuitive winding parkwander preferred by some landscape architects, but you can still find it if that’s how you meander.

Walking is healthy, and there is a lot of it going on in Riverside Park. The promenade in the 80s and 90s is the perfect place to get in a good stroll. The screen of vegetation opens up in places, revealing traffic on the West Side Highway (The Henry Hudson Parkway if you prefer), people running, walking, and riding bikes along the river, the mighty Hudson itself with a ship if your timing is good, and the shoreline of New Jersey. These Saul Steinberg-esque tableaus provide westward glimpses of a smaller, less familiar world. Keep walking, and that vista becomes blocked by park trees again, a protective curtain pulled over all that is happening out there. Back to a narrow, shared tranquility of Spring scents and Fall colors. As my friend described it, peace in a chaotic world.

See more of Robert Beck’s work and visit his UWS studio at www.robertbeck.net. Let him know if you have a connection to an archetypical UWS place or event that would make a good West Side Canvas subject. Thank you!

Listen to an interview with Robert Beck on Rag Radio — Here.

Note: Before Robert Beck started West Side Canvas, his essays and paintings were featured in Weekend Column. See Robert Beck’s earlier columns here and here.

Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.