When West Side Rag walked the northern stretch of Riverside Park on September 19, a laminated sign was posted near the closed staircase at 108th Street. It said the closure would last "approximately three weeks." The sign was dated April 26. On September 21 the city put up a new sign saying the stairs would stay closed until October 1.
The new sign fits the fall in Morningside Heights. The neighborhood's two main walking routes are still closed. One is the stretch of Riverside Park from 108th to 116th Street. The other is College Walk, the 116th Street path through the Columbia campus. The park closure has the more confusing signs, but the project behind them has an estimated completion of May 2027, with individual paths on their own spring timelines. College Walk has no reopening date at all. Until one of them changes, the reliable public routes are the two avenues and a free code most residents can request.
Two closures, compared
| Riverside Park, 108th to 116th | College Walk and the Columbia campus | |
|---|---|---|
| Closed since | Construction started in late 2025 | The gates have stayed closed since April 2024, except for a short period in summer 2024 |
| What is closed now | Upper path, its staircases, Riverside Drive path from 108th to 111th | General public entry. Access is limited to Columbia ID holders and approved guests |
| Stated end | May 2027 for the whole project, moved back from April | No date given |
| Who decides | NYC Parks | Columbia, with a court case pending |
The park work runs on a schedule, even if the signs don't match it
The work in Riverside Park is a $26 million rebuild of the drainage system. It is meant to fix the flooding that has troubled this part of the park for years. Parks moved the estimated completion from April to May 2027 because of permit filing delays, according to the department's spokesperson in the West Side Rag report. The city's capital project tracker also lists May 2027.
The work comes in three phases, and each one closes a different path:
- Phase One closed the upper path just below Riverside Drive from 108th to 116th Street, along with the staircases into it. Posters said it would end this summer. The Rag found the closures had actually spread south toward 108th.
- Phase Two covers the Riverside Drive pedestrian path over the same blocks. Posters say spring 2026 through winter 2027. Parks has also closed the path closest to the park from 108th to 111th Street until next spring.
- Phase Three closes the lower path from 108th to 116th Street. It was expected to start this fall and last until spring 2027, and pipes, concrete, and trailers were already being staged there.
Parks says the extra time is for more drainage structures, asphalt pavers, granite block, larger tree pits, new concrete curbs, and sinkhole repairs. Those are permanent improvements to the paths that will reopen. On any given week, though, the posted signs are a less reliable guide than the phase timelines and the project's estimated May 2027 completion.
For now, getting onto College Walk means applying for a code
Nobody has put a date on College Walk, but there is a way in for neighbors. Columbia accepts requests from people who live between 103rd and 135th Streets, from Riverside Drive east to Convent Avenue, Morningside Drive, and Columbus Avenue. Columbia notes the boundary may change. You fill out a short online form on the Columbia neighbors page, and Columbia then arranges a campus visit to collect a copy of your ID. Approved neighbors get a free, ongoing QR code. The university can suspend or revoke it for safety, operations, or special events.
According to Columbia's Public Safety access page, the code works at these gates:
- 116th Street and Broadway, open 24/7. A dedicated QR visitor line runs at the north gate Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- 116th Street and Amsterdam, open 24/7
- Wien Gate, on 116th Street between Amsterdam and Morningside Drive, open 24/7
- Earl Gate, at 117th Street and Broadway, Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The changes announced in September were mostly for Columbia's own people. Since September 8, faculty can register up to 24 same-day guests, and staff and students can register up to five, up from two. The president's announcement said only that neighbors would "continue" to have the same free QR access.
The newest piece is the Access Service Kiosk, which opened October 1 behind the 116th and Broadway gates. The Columbia Spectator reported that it sits behind the locked gates. Dave Robinson, president of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition, told the paper the announcement "wasn't sent to neighbors, it wasn't directed to neighbors." President Jennifer Mnookin has also brought back a campus access advisory committee of about 20 people, including community residents. She has said she hopes to have an interim or final report before the semester ends.
Where the court case stands
The other route back onto College Walk runs through the courts. It moved faster in September than at any time since the case was filed.
- January 15, 2025. Attorney Toby Golick filed Auffray v. Columbia for four Morningside Heights residents, as the Spectator reported.
- April 2025. The residents argue that the 1953 transfer of College Walk created a public pedestrian easement. In New York County Supreme Court, Justice David Cohen denied their request for a preliminary injunction, so the gates stayed closed while the case went on.
- September 3, 2026. Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration filed in support of reopening College Walk, reversing the city's earlier position. The court conference was moved to September 30.
- September 30, 2026. Under an agreement, the city was dropped from the residents' case. At the same time, it threatened to take Columbia to court unless College Walk reopened immediately. The judge did not decide whether the residents' case should be dismissed, the Spectator reported.
Asked what "immediately" meant, Mamdani said at an October 1 press conference, "As to the definition of immediate, I would say it speaks for itself."
As of mid-October the residents' case was still open. A university spokesperson told the Spectator that Columbia is "already working toward a more open campus" but gave no date.
Broadway and Amsterdam pick up the slack
When a campus gate closes, the businesses on Broadway and Amsterdam feel it. In 1972, according to a Spectator article from that year, closing the gates between Hartley and Livingston, now Wallach Hall, cut student business at some Amsterdam Avenue shops by as much as 75 percent. The current closure has lasted far longer. Businesses on both avenues told the Spectator on October 16 that they have lost customers and that deliveries now cost them more.
Sujit Balachandran, a partner at Roti Roll and at Suite next door, said his drivers now wait outside the gates for customers they sometimes cannot reach. Cody Madsen, vice president of operations at Book Culture, said that arranging one campus book drop-off took "six or seven extra back-and-forth emails." He also said the stores have worked harder to keep student visits steady. Faith Ethridge, a manager at the board game café Hex&Co, said it "just feels like there is a little bit more of a wall."
The block associations have responded by sending people up and down the avenues on purpose. The seventh annual Taste W111th in September, hosted by the West 111th Street Block Association with Morningside Merchants, took guests with tasting passports along Broadway and Amsterdam between 106th and 112th Streets. The participating restaurants were Koko Wings, Roti Roll, Elis Wine Bar, V&T Restaurant, Hungarian Pastry Shop, Tartina, Fumo, Playa Bowls, ? Tea, Famous Famiglia, Tom's Restaurant, Qahwah House, and Le Monde. Koko Wings took the triple-one cup, its first win since the event started in 2020, the Spectator reported. Lead organizer Dan McSweeney said one goal is to raise awareness of a new small business association for the neighborhood.
Places on the avenues you can enter without a Columbia ID
Miller Theatre sits at 116th and Broadway, on the street side of the gates. "Carried by Light: Celebrating 15 Years of Morningside Lights" is in its lobby through May 2027. It is the first exhibition to collect photographs from every year of the lantern procession, and it opens for two hours before each Miller Theatre event this season, as I Love the Upper West Side reported.
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, on Amsterdam, has a full November and December. Its fall programming release lists:
- November 6, 6:30 p.m. Launch of Dean Winnie Varghese's book "One Single Act," free with RSVP
- November 13, 7:30 p.m. Genshin in Concert with the Sixth Station Trio, tickets $35 and $50
- Sundays, November 15 to 29, 5 p.m. Free 45-minute organ recitals on the Aeolian-Skinner organ, after the 4 p.m. Evensong
- December 4 to 6 The 28th annual Crafts at the Cathedral, with single-day passes from $12 and a weekend pass at $22
These events are set dates. Through the winter, Riverside Park will keep changing as each phase opens and closes paths, and College Walk will depend on a committee report and a court hearing that have not happened yet.
At the Heather Domi Team, we follow the details that shape daily life in a neighborhood as closely as we follow prices, from a Parks timeline to the terms of a campus access program. If you own in Morningside Heights and want to talk through how this winter's changes affect your plans, schedule a consultation with us.
