An Extraordinary Amenity for Residents
Local resident use is projected to jump to more than 100,000 annual users (Hurley Trail as reference currently 80,000) for the multipurpose Greenline, Gateway, and Kingston-Ashokan Trail, from only approximately 1,000 local riders currently on trains (2012, 2013 figures, last published annual reports for CMRR). This translates to 300 or 400 users every day, acessing this linear park at no cost, instead of the corridor in the Kingston segment currently being deserted 6 1/2 days a week and available on a fee-only basis
Residents not only will have easy access to alternative transportation and recreation throughout the city, but in only a few short minutes be able to access the beauty of the Catskills. The Gateway Trestle Park is a charming rustic destination just a 10 minute walk from the heart of the city, and the new Gateway 209 Biking/Pedestrian Bridge, just 5 more minutes walk could be constructed with with stop-out spaces and benches for tourists and residents to, for example, sit and contemplate the Valley at sunset. See an example of an elegant and highly attractive infrastructure bridge.
The Kingston Gateway 209 Biking/Pedestrian Bridge, as potentially designed by world class artists living in our community could be a landmark amenity which residents of the County and City will see as a Kingston and Ulster branding reference and a point of pride. An artisticly designed landmark iconic bridge would be a feature that visiting tourists remember, talk about, and tell friends to come and see, attracting artist tourism as well as active tourism, and becoming an integral part of an overall artistic theme of the Kingston Greenline.
photo: The Walkway over the Hudson (walkway.com)
Examples of Amenity Experiences
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Sculpture installations all along the Greenline so that the whole Linear Park becomes in itself a work of art.
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Businessmen and women from Uptown and Midtown going for noontime jogs—and in just minutes being out into the countryside.
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The attraction of young creative talent to a city with a high walkability index and the ability to quickly be through the Gateway and into the countryside as a contributor for economic development in the city.
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Bike rides from Deitz Stadium in the evenings initiating safely over the Gateway out to Hurley Mountain Road.
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Mothers from Midtown neighborhoods meeting together for community walks to the Trestle Park and the 209 Gateway Bridge in the evenings, in fitness walks or pushing strollers and chatting together.
Youth Obesity, Fitness and Health Issues
The health of our children has become a front-cover-of-Time issue, approaching a national crisis as we are seeing the emergence of such diseases as early onset diabetes which didn't even exist 20 years ago and can be directly tied to lack of exercise and nutrition. Childhood health issues are also a concern here in Ulster County. In Kingston and many other school districts the 400-600 kids in traditional fitness programs such as youth soccer, basketball, and baseball close out to only 20 spots in each sport for the most elite as kids reach junior high and the introduction of interscholastic sports. But no one gets cut from biking. Youth biking programs originating from the YMCA only a block away from the Greenline trail can start young kids riding just 15 minutes out and 15 minutes back. By adding just 5-10 minutes a week, kids could be riding for hours by the end of a summer and “Earn a bike” programs lending bikes and rewarding consistent attendance by giving bikes to those not able to afford them could transform neighborhoods. Parents wanting safe unstructured activity for their kids could see them in packs of 11, 12, and 13-year-old kids experiencing newfound but safe freedom riding from the city to Winchell’s Corner for pizza, all the while never on dangerous roads, experiencing the benefits of fitness just having fun with their friends.