You have to admit. Battery Park City has the reputation of being an ostracized neighborhood. The big gaping hole we call Ground Zero doesn’t help much either.  At times, BPC is more similar to a not so far New Jersey town than, you know… an actual Manhattan neighborhood.

While traveling up and down the West Side Highway, it’s a pretty sure bet that you’ve reached the Battery Park City limits with your first approach of a pedestrian bridge. Since it’s founding in the early 80’s, the pedestrian bridges were the traffic veins into our community. Unfortunately on September 11th, we lost one of our bridges due to the terrorist attacks — which introduced a system of some lesser beautiful, but still functional introduction of new bridges to help us cross our own boulevard of death — The West Side Highway.

For anyone who uses the Rector bridge daily, it’s access has been spotty with construction on the elevator and much needed repairs on the West Side Highway. As some of the surprises have been more of a hassle, there are also some friendly new experiences — like the waft of Christmas time you smell once you step onto the ramp. Back to the hassles – What is with this roundabout detour that we’re expected to add a good 3 minutes in our daily commute? I’m sure I’m not the only one who meets with great pleasure the renegade who insists on breaking through the cross tape and string that holds the futile barricade in place. Whoever you are, you’ve become my small daily hero.

It’s hard to ignore the fact that one of the longest standing bridges, The Liberty Bridge, is undergoing what looks like the birth of a new arm or something. The fact that it spits out to Albany causes some concern for the already difficult maneuver to the C&E trains.