misu

At Broadway and 110th, there are a lot of stores that real people need. On the southeast corner there is a Gristedes supermarket that is clean & has a good selection. On the southwest corner there is a drug store. Just two blocks up there is a Citibank, the Heights (a bar/grill), and just north of 110 on broadway is a fruit/vegetable stand. Along 110, there are just well maintained apartments and it is relatively safe to walk down the street. A good thing to note, is that late at night, cabs are plenty here because of the fact that the cabbies use 110 as a cross-over street. At Amsterdam & 110 there is a good pizza place V&T and across the street from that is St. John the Divine & at the other corner of 110 & amsterdam is a Jewish synagoge.

I use Manhattan Ave as a way to drive from the west side of manhattan to the east side. Manhattan Ave has Morningside curve into it near 110th street. At this point, you can follow 110th down to 96th street and then since Manhattan Ave ends at 96th, make a left and then cut through the park to get to the east side. The brownstones on Manhattan Ave are in great shape & makes you feel like you are in a great neighborhood. However, that's not the case. I wish it were different. But overall, the street is pretty and a nice quiet place to drive through & avoid traffic.

Riverside is a great shortcut or a great way to avoid Broadway. You can time the lights from 72nd street to about 168th street and can go through 3 or 4 before you have to stop. And these lights are not at every block. From about 120th to 135th there are no lights at all since you are traveling on the overpass/aquaduct. Along Riverside, there are no businesses, restaurants, or delivery trucks. It is only passenger cars, and bikes. It is a pretty tree-lined street with great looking apartments. However, near 134th street there are some warehouses & at 135-140 many drug dealers are still around, so avoid walking there. Up towards Columbia Medical Center - it is fine to walk - very safe. And of course, down by Columbia University - it is also safe to walk. At 108th street there is a nice entrance to the park.

Morningside Ave is also known as Convent Avenue. It is referred to as Morningside after 128th street. Morningside just north of 125th Street is a two lane, narrow avenue. South of 125th Street, Morningside widens out and is easy to drive down. Not many people walk down it and on the west side of the street is a park - which also not many people frequent. As you drive down Morningside, it eventually ends by curving into Manhattan Ave, near 110th street. So, I usually use Morningside as a short cut from the northern part of the city to get me to 96th Street. As you drive down Morningside between 125th & where it ends on Manhattan aAve- there are no businesses or shops. There are some cute apartments though.

St. Nicholas Terrace is up on the hill and is just behind City College. It is where everyone parks who goes to school there or lives in the surrounding area. It is right up against the park and during the day, it is quite safe to walk down it. It is also nice to walk down a street in NYC where it is COMPLETELY tree-lined. But, at night, the park is totally unsafe. The school often posts warnings to students to not walk through the park from St. Nicholas Terrace to the subway at 135th Street. The street is a little better since City College put in a dormitory, there are security guards that patrol the street, but overall it's not safe.

What can one say about 125th street!! Before I moved up here, I had no idea. There is every kind of store & more banks than you can think of their names. Between Broadway and Lennox, there are Citibank, Commerce, North Fork, Wamu, Chase, Bank of America, and two other banks right at Broadway. At St. Nicholas & 125th, there is a Danice clothing store, Old Navy & two smaller stores right next to Old Navy. Near Adam Clayton Blvd. there is an H&M and a Lane Bryant. The post office at Morningside and 125th is pretty decent, but like all post offices - it is understaffed & what staff exists aren't that friendly. The food on 125th street is mostly fast-food except for there's a Manna's at Lennox and also down by North General Hospital (Madison Ave.). Manna's is one of those carribbean restaurants where you can pick what you want from buffet-style warming trays. Though you do pay for your food by weight. The diner at Morningside & 125th should be avoided. In the past year it has been closed by the health department 3 times. This I know, because I've seen the sign right on the front door. Traffic on 125th is insane. It is best to walk - the buses are slow too. I would never drive down it, except for when the stores are closed, any time after 9:30pm. Overall, the street is very safe and I've not seen anything bad going on there. Though, I don't walk down the street late at night. Also, there are a ton of street vendors on 125th - selling everything from African spices/incense to spanish icees.

From Riverside park to Broadway, there's not much there other than apartments. From Broadway to Amsterdam, there are quite a few shops and surprisingly a liquor store that stocks decent wines (this is on the south side of 145th). From Amsterdam to St. Nicholas, there is a raw food restaurant, which is quite good, if you like raw food. There is also a new Starbucks, and a Pathmark which has parking around the corner - if you show your receipt from the store, the charge to park in the parking lot is $1. The parking for Pathmark is very nice. It has a direct, inside access to the store and is within a building, with good parking attendants. Also in the same area, there are two new banks and an apartment building that has been renovated. If you go to City College you should know that City College also has a shuttle bus that picks you up from the 145th street subway on the southwest corner of 145th & St. Nicholas & drops you off at the center of campus at 138th street and Convent. Past St. Nicholas on 145th street, the neighborhood changes and I wouldn't walk there unless you have reason to be there (like you live there.) 145th street widens as it gets closer to the 145th street bridge to the Bronx and there are two gas stations very close to the bridge on 145th. The Bx19 runs on 145th street and surprisingly runs on time.

West 135th street in between Amsterdam and Convent is a mess. While due to the fact that streets don't follow a grid always this far up in NYC, the distance between these two avenues is about 10 cars long, the road itself is a mess. There is parking on both sides of the street and the road is very narrow. This coupled with the fact that the road is FULL of potholes, makes cars have trouble driving down the road in both directions at the same time. The other side of West 135th St (from Amsterdam to Riverside) is very easy to drive down. It has two lanes in either direction and is a direct route to Riverside. However, this is not the street to walk down. It is a well known drug dealers haven and it is not a good idea to walk down it. Especially between Broadway and Riverside. At the corner of 135th and Broadway, there is a large apartment complex that is in the process of becoming gentrified, but it still has a long way to go. Overall, it is best to avoid this street by foot, but by car - it is good for those who are looking for an easy way to get to Riverside and avoid the more congested & narrow side streets.

I live on a street that runs parallel to amsterdam avenue, near the cross street of 133rd. Amsterdam from 125th to 145th, is pretty much dead. Some points of interest - at Amsterdam and 128th street, there is a live poultry market. In the four years I've lived here, a chicken once escaped and ran all the way up to 133rd street and got into the apartment building next door to mine. At 131st street there is a laundromat, Miss Bubble & don't go there on Sunday nights - their drains get clogged after everyone does his/her wash & it becomes a mess. Next to Miss Bubble there is a grocery store, which is OK, but not the best. Both these are at 131st street. Across from both are some pretty sorry stores & a Kennedy Fried chicken & a chinese take out. Surprisingly, the Kennedy Fried chicken sells really good Hershy icecream. Up at 138th street, the NAC Building of City College has an entrance off Amsterdam. In between 138th and 140th (on the west side of Amsterdam) there is a chinese food place, a dominican restaurant (VERY GOOD FOOD HERE), and a diner called "Collegiate Food" - which everyone calls the "The Greeks" because it is owned/operated by Greeks. The Greeks, is plain old diner food - it is OK, it closes by 6pm & opens early. In between the Greeks and the Dominican restaurant, there is an auto parts store, and yes, there are the men who fix cars right outside the store. I've used their services and found them to be decent. You have to determine how much you want to pay for the repairs before they start & you have to purchase the parts from the auto parts store.

First, no one has ever heard of it & cabbies never know how to get there!! But it is a pretty nice street. It runs from about 153rd street and St. Nicholas Ave and once you get to 128th street, it changes names to Morningside. From about 145th Street to 140th, it is in an historic district and the brownstones are amazing. There are still a few of them for sale, but they are going quickly. At 141st, City College begins and from 8am to 6pm, Monday through Friday - even during the summer- no cars or taxis are allowed to travel from 141st to 135th streets. The college has guards placed at both sides and barricades, so don't bother to try to drvie down. There's construction going on as well and the M18 is not running on Convent until January 2009. Just past the school (135th to 130th) there are many 6 story apartment buildings and most of the residents are either families or City College students (myself included) Past 130th, the neighborhood changes and there are less families & students. I would avoid walking around that side late at night. Overall, there is not much traffic and it is pretty safe. The one major drawback is that there is no restaurants at all on this street. Though a new laundromat is going in at 131st (still under construction)

West of Richmond Road, Wilson Mills is known as Monticello. At the intersection of Richmond Road, there is a great deal of shopping with Richmond Mall and two strip malls on either side. As you travel down Wilson Mills going east, it becomes a mixture of residential and businesses. As you cross S.O.M (Route 91) Wilson Mills becomes residential - but this part of the road is still partially closed for construction. But this ends at Chagrin River Road (174). However, Wilson Mills does a jog at this point. At the intersection of Chagrin River Road, turn right, go over the bridge and at the next intersection turn left. This left turn will put you back onto the extension of Wilson Mills Road.

To get to princeton, travel north on Belvoir and then just past Monticello, turn right. Flanking Princeton at this point are two lovely, tudor style houses, which look like they could be in architectural digest. The road curves and crosses S. Green. If you follow it past S. Green, it passes a sorry looking Strip Mall and a concrete factory - but then it winds slowly along the upper path of the Euclid Creek Reservation Metropark and there are lovely houses on the other side. If you follow this to the end, you will be directed to curve to the left and this will eventually put you on Euclid Ave going east, just before Highland. I use this to avoid the Metropark with its speed trap.

It is primarily residential, with some smaller business sections at major intersections (Noble and Green Roads) Up until the western side of Richmond, it is referred to as Monticello and to the east of Richmond Road it is called Wilson Mills. It is two lanes in either direction with a green median. There is hardly any commerical traffic on it and it is a very pleasant drive - use this to avoid Mayfield. The houses on this street are quite charming - but one does have to pay attention to the smaller neighborhoods - they change in character quite quickly and without warning.

this road is only residential. it is between S.Green in South Euclid and Richmond Road in Lyndhurst. It is a good way to avoid traffic on Mayfield. Anderson has some interesting houses that border the MetroPark on the north side and on the south side of the street, there are these hidden houses that are only accessible from unmarked side streets. Though near the entrance to Anderson, just from Green, a developer bought the land on both sides of the Euclid Creek and some houses - and is now putting in a new development.

This road is about the same width as Monticello/Wilson Mills - but mostly residential and with even less traffic. I highly suggest driving down this road whenever possible. There are two ways to get to it, one is through the Euclid Creek Reservation Metropark (from S. Green Road) which is a pretty path -but watch your speed - it is a speed trap. It is also possible to access it without much hassle if one takes Anderson (from either S. Green or Richmond) and turns north on Trebisky. Trebisky is only residential and there are no speed traps here.

Belvoir has three main socio-economic regions. From Euclid Ave to Monticello it is primarily a low-income area - but relatively maintained houses. From Monticello to Cedar, it is mostly middle class and following this area from Cedar to Shaker Blvd it is upper-middle. Overall it is pleasant to drive through - the Euclid to Monticello area borders the Euclid Creek Metropark, and there are many trees. It is only residential. However, near Fairmont (which is in the upper-middle region) John Carroll University is located and when students are walking to classes, there is a great deal of foot traffic at that point.

avoid, avoid, avoid. At Brainard, Cedar is congested with I-271, and immediately following this to the west is Montefiore/Menorah Park Old age homes right next to Beachwood Place Mall & diagonally from the mall, yet another mall. From this point, there is a mixture of residential and more shopping all along Cedar until you get to Cedar Hill which will bring you towards downtown Cleveland and consequently even more traffic during working hours. East of Brainard should also be avoided on Cedar - at this point it is 100% residential, but it has jogs in the road and a traffic circle and it is easy to find yourself no longer on Cedar!!

Near Chagrin Blvd, it is ok to drive - but watch as you drive just north of Cedar (just past Beachwood Place) There used to be an old farm house on the right (just past the Condos which are on the east side of the street) on a hill. The old farmhouse's driveway still exists and that is where Lyndhurst police wait for people to speed. It's brutal! Past this point, it is mostly residential - punctuated with businesses at Mayfield, Wilson Mills/Monticello and again near Euclid Ave. The houses are well maintained but the neighborhood changes once you get to Euclid Ave.

It is a residential street that everyone who lived nearby used to avoid Mayfield. However with construction now, it is a mess. You should avoid driving down it. It's almost better to drive down Mayfield! Or try Wilson Mills. The traffic is worse near the end by S.O.M. Center just by the I-271 overpass – the reason why is because there is a shortcut from Mayfield behind all the strip malls. Because of this, if you want to take it to bypass Mayfield, drive from Richmond (where it begins) to Lander and then make a left turn on Lander (going south) to go to Mayfield or turn right (going north) to get to Wilson Mills.

From just east of downtown Cleveland to somewhere in PA (near State College PA) - this road seems to be chock full of mostly shopping. During the day avoid it - especially when school is being let out for the day. After 7pm, it is pretty OK to drive down - the lights are timed so that one can get quite a few of them. However, watch your speed in Chesterland Township - just west of Route 306 near the McDonalds - the police wait there and here the speed drops immediately from 45 to 25. Also watch your speed at the bottom of the hill at the intersection of 174 (Chagrin River Road) and also in South Euclid near S. Green Road.