About 3 years ago, Welcome2TheBronx wrote about the possibility of having the Metro North rail yards in Melrose at 149th Street decked over much like the Hudson Rail Yards and have it developed into office space and affordable housing. Today, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr made a similar proposal along with two other Bronx locations stating that since Queens didn’t want it to happen at the Sunnyside yards, The Bronx would be happy to take those monies.

The other 2 locations identified are the 4 train rail yards by Lehman College in Bedford Park just west of the Grand Concourse and the 1 train rail yards just west of Broadway between Riverdale and Kingsbridge.

Diaz Jr reported that his office will study costs, etc associated with this proposal for these 3 areas.

The area with the most potential is probably the Melrose location since it is the largest and has the possibility offices on either side of the 149th Street bridge over the Metro North rail yards and perhaps a combination of open green space and much needed affordable housing (truly affordable housing hopefully).

If they think big and smart, they would also consider a Metro North station at this area since this is where all 3 Metro North lines east of the Hudson (Hudson, Harlem, New Haven lines) converge and is a half a block from the 2/4/5 subway at 149th Street and Grand Concourse. because the rail goes right above the 2/5 train tunnels it is perhaps even possible to make a direct connection from the Metro North station into the subway.

The Bedford Park site by Lehman College would be more conducive to mixed use housing and retail as well as the Riverdale-Kingsbridge site.

While these projects sound very big and lofty, hopefully this is something that the community will be part of the process since tax-payer dollars will be utilized to perform such studies.

What do you think about these developments? How do you think it will impact the communities of Melrose/Concourse/Mott Haven, Riverdale/Kingsbridge and Bedford Park?