This is not a review of New York City per se, but a review of one of it's smaller and more obscure neighborhoods - INWOOD! New York City has always been a town of disparate and very separate neighborhoods, from Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side to the South, through Chelsea and Tribecca up to Harlem and Washington heights to the North.

Inwood is Manhattan's northern most neighborhood. It spans a twenty block area from Dyckman Street to the South up to 218th Street and Spuyten Duyvil to the North. With Inwood Hill Park and Isham Park dominating its West side, it is the greenest nabe in the entire borough. Inwood Hill Park claims over eight miles of paved paths. It is a great place to run, hike or bike.

I grew up on Staten Island, but I work in the South Bronx. I could never live in the bustling metropolis below 96th Street, but Inwood is an area of wooded parks and pre-war buildings that sport huge sunken living rooms and parquet floors. The West side of Manhattan all the way up has stayed very stable. Much of the land is owned by Columbia University and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, thus the blocks furthest West have always been bypassed by the urban blight that wreaked havoc on so many other areas.

Aside from its greenery, Inwood boasts some colorful local history as well. Inside of Inwood Hill Park lies Sherackapock Rock, the place where Peter Minuit is said to have purchased the borough, further into the Park are a number of Indian Caves that were used before the first European settlers arrived here. The Park stretches to the banks of the Hudson River, and it is from the shores of Inwood that General Washington led his troops across to New Jersey after being defeated at the Battle of Long Island (actually it was fought in what is now Brooklyn).

There's Columbia's Bakers Field at 218th Street off Seaman Avenue and Broadway between 204th Street and 215th is littered with pubs, most notably The Piper's Kilt on Broadway between 207th and Isham Street. If you are in Manhattan and want to check out an area that has not been effected by the urban sprawl that's conquered the rest of the borough, take the A train (it's an express) up to Dyckman or 207th Street (the last stop) and head West from Broadway toward Seaman Avenue and Indian Road. Take a stroll around Inwood Hill Park. Inwood is an oasis, it's a neighborhood that is inside Manhattan but not of it. Come and visit. Oh Yeah!....If you fall in love with the area, boy do I have a Co-op deal for you!



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