Colonial Charles Young | mywalkinmanhattan

I finally completed my walk of the entire Harlem neighborhood from 155th to 145th Street. I was lucky that it was a nice day with not much humidity. It has been pretty bad with the weather lately. This part of my walk took me to the area east of Jackie Robinson Park from Bradhurst Avenue to the East River. It was one of the harder sections of the city. I always felt that I was being watched by someone.

As I walked along the side streets between 155th Street and 145th Streets, between Bradhurst Avenue and Fredrick Douglas Boulevard, the residents reacted to me differently. Some were smoking pot on the street and when I came back walking on the other side of the street they disappeared. One woman was having a very heated argument with a man on Frederick Douglas Boulevard that was getting pretty heavy and when she saw me immediately shut up. When I walked down the other side of the street, she and the man had also disappeared.

The police in the area kept driving around looking me over and when I was walking on 147th Street, someone threw a bottle from the building that hit the other side of the street I was walking on. I never thought I ever screamed ‘cop’ before but I got a pretty good idea that that’s what the local residents thought I was that afternoon. Things really quieted down as I walked around this area.

The weird part was that this happened both in the initial walk in 2016 and in the return walk in 2026. I kept seeing cars with tinted windows slowly pass by me and strange looks from drivers. Even though it took three hours to complete the walk of this neighborhood again, I tried to finish as quickly as possible. I felt all the time like someone was watching me walk the neighborhood.

Like all other areas of Harlem, the area is quickly gentrifying. I have never seen so many young perky white kids running around the area. All the buildings lining Bradhurst Avenue by Jackie Robinson Park especially closer to 145th Street are all brand new and there is even a Starbucks on the corner of 145th and Bradhurst Avenue which means that the neighborhood is past the ‘transition’ stage. This area of Harlem has changed population by about 20% (New York City Statics 2025).

https://www.cssny.org/news/entry/examining-west-harlem-demographic-and-economic-changes

Central Harlem

Looking down Bradhurst Avenue in the Summer of 2026

Most of the area around 145th Street to Frederick Douglas Boulevard are new housing a lot of it catering to the CUNY students who are boldly pushing the boundaries of the campus into all parts of Harlem. They walk all over the neighborhood, sometimes much to the surprise of the local merchants.

The front of Jackie Robinson Park

Entering Jackie Robinson Park at 145th Street is very pleasant. Named after the famous baseball player, there are basketball courts, a public pool, picnic and barbecuing areas that are very popular with the local residents and walking trails. The rock formations in the middle of the park not too different to the ones in High Bridge Park tell the story of how the Ice Age molded these parks for the future.

Jackie Robinson Park at 145th Street

The pathways of Jackie Robinson Park

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/jackie-robinson-park_manhattan

Jackie Robinson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson

Jackie Robinson was known to some as one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the sport but had a much more accomplished life. He lettered in four sports at UCLA and contributed to the community in youth sports as well. Entering the major leagues for the Brooklyn Dodgers, number 42 broke the color barrier and integrated major league baseball. He helped the Dodgers win the 1955 World Series. Upon retirement, he served as a Vice-President of Chock full o’Nuts coffee company and continued supporting causes that meant something to him (Wiki).

The large formations are mostly covered with vegetation but still make quite an impression. The park was very busy that afternoon with kids crowding into the pool and many pickup basketball games going on. On the upper reaches of the park, there must have been four barbecues going on at once, many were having birthday parties and many of the area seniors were sitting around talking and watching what I was doing. I didn’t know that me walking around was such a topic of discussion.

The main staircase through Jackie Robinson Park

It must have spread around the neighborhood because a bottle came flying down from one of the apartment buildings on 147th Street. That surprised some of the people walking around the neighborhood. Between that and the police vans trolling the neighborhood, I felt like I was being followed.

The pathways through Jackie Robinson Park

Walking down Bradhurst Avenue, the street is lined with new buildings facing the park and many new shops that have opened between the park and Fredrick Douglas Boulevard along 145th Street like Starbucks and Popeye’s that cater to the students and residents alike. As you move further into the neighborhood, local businesses line the avenues along Fredrick Douglas and Macomb’s with interesting local stores and restaurants. The chain stores have found themselves up here so the services are changing in the shopping area.

The Bradhurst Avenue Starbucks is at the corner between the neighborhood and CUNY campus, bridging the areas together leading to more students moving into the area.

https://www.starbucks.com/store-locator?map=39.635307,-101.337891,5z

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60763-d4114354-r1075707595-Starbucks-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

I had to stop into Starbucks at the end of the walk to recharge my phone and have something to drink. I ordered one of their Dragon Fruit Lemonades and it was a delicious. I do want to note they do not have a bathroom.

At 146th Street is the Robert Clinkscales Playground and Community Park at 234 West 146 Street that was founded in the neighborhood in 1983. This small park has an active playground on one side with a cooling area in the middle and raised vegetable garden on the right side of the park with sitting areas throughout.

The entrance of Robert Clinkscales Playground and Garden

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/robert-l-clinkscales-playground-and-community-garden

Robert Clinkscales honored with a park in his name

Even on a Sunday, the playground was very active with lots of kids being looked upon by their grandparents. The vegetable garden was in full form with lots of tomato and herb plants all around the gardens. It is a nice refuge from the hot streets and a good portion of the brownstones and apartment houses that surround the park have been renovated.

Robert Clinkscales Playground at 234 West 146th Street

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/robert-l-clinkscales-playground-and-community-garden

https://www.captaingambling.com/thesportsfanjournal/sports/etc/robert-clinkscales-harlem-community-playground-garden/

I have noticed a trend in all the neighborhoods I have walked so far in Upper Manhattan. If a neighborhood puts the time and effort into Community Garden or triangle park, all the real estate around it improves. Time and time again I have seen homes renovated around these small parks and that the owners enjoy having a view of something.

The Flower beds at Robert Clinkscales Playground

The picnic areas with overhead growth

As I worked my way up the side streets, the area of renovation depends on how close you are to Jackie Robinson Park. The closer you are to the park, the newer the buildings and more construction is going on. The further you get away from the park towards Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, you move towards the projects. Even the projects are going through a renovation in the neighborhood as most are under scaffolding and look like they are getting a sandblast and new windows.

The Mother Clara Hale Bus Stop at 721 Malcolm X Boulevard at East 145th Street

https://sites.google.com/site/mtanewyorkcitybusroster/new-york-city-bus-roster/mother-clara-hale-bus-depot-mabstoa

https://stvinc.com/project/mother-clara-hale-bus-depot-2

SHINIQUE SMITH- Mother Clara’s Garden

The video on the artwork by Artist Shinique Smith

The lower part of the neighborhood is dominated by a bus depot at 145th Street and Lenox Avenue. The Mother Clara Hale Bus Stop has since been renovated since my last trip to this neighborhood and is covered with the beautiful contemporary works of Artist Shinique Smith.

Artist Shinique Smith

https://www.shiniquesmith.com

Artist Shinique Smith is an American born artist with a BFA in Fine Arts from the Tufts University & The Museum School and a MFA from Museum Institute College of Art. She is best known for her background in drawing, painting, etching, textile arts, and papermaking gives her deep material fluency, while her early training in both fashion and graffiti shaped her instinct for movement and rhythm. Through color, calligraphy, and accumulation, she transforms the language of the everyday into meditations on care, belonging, and transformation (Biography Artist’s website).

The artwork on the side of the Mother Clara Hale Bus Stop

Large apartment buildings dominate around this area of Lenox Avenue and the streets can get quite busy on the weekends. A lot of residents hang out outside their buildings gossiping with their neighbors. No one seemed to pay attention to me walking by until I made my way onto their side of the road and then everyone seemed to disappear.

As I made my way onto 152nd Street, the street was dotted with many small Community Gardens. There is a real community spirit within the neighborhood when it comes to Community Gardening. The ‘Garden of Love’ run by the Bradhurst Garden Association at 321 West 152nd Street has beds of flowers and vegetables but locked from the outside and the 8th Avenue Garden at 301 152nd Street near Fredrick Douglas Boulevard, were small patches of green on this residential strip. The neighbors reclaimed these spots and by planting them and taking care of them really add to the fabric of the community as well as teaching the kids about gardening. Their a special touch to the neighborhood.

The Bradhurst Community Garden of Love at 321 West 152nd Street

https://www.nycgovparks.org/opportunities/volunteer/group/bradhurst-community-garden-of-love

https://www.instagram.com/harlemgardenoflove

The inside of the Bradhurst Community Garden of Love in the Summer of 2026

Walking up Macombs Place, I saw a neighborhood that is starting a very early transition. Beautiful townhouses and apartment buildings line the street and lead into the Bronx where Yankee Stadium is located. People were smoking pot outside one of the apartment buildings when I passed and were fighting with each other and when I walked back down the street, there were long gone. This seemed to be the trend wherever I went.

The exception was Colonel Charles Young Triangle at Macombs & 153rd Street, the one big park in the neighborhood outside of Jackie Robinson Park. This large triangle is in the corner of the neighborhood at 154th Street just off the bridge and dominates a very busy traffic corner. The park is named after the third Black graduate of West Point.

Colonel Charles Young Triangle at 154th Street sign

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/colonel-charles-young-triangle

The Colonial Charles Young Triangle could use a good mowing and some landscaping

Many of the people in the neighborhood gather here to talk or in some cases have family parties as I had seen the three times I walked in the park. It is not well taken care of as it needs a good weeding and planting. The only thing I did was turn some heads. It was quiet when I went on my second walk in 2026.

Colonel Charles Young, third Black soldier to graduate from West Point

https://www.buffalosoldier.net/CharlesYoung.htm

Colonel Charles Young was born into slavery but whose father served in the United States Colored Regiment in Ohio and the family won their freedom. One of the first blacks to enter West Point, he accomplished skills in languages and engineering. After discharge, he worked for the park system and continued with his military duties (Wiki).

Much of the upper part of the neighborhood is commercial and when you walk down the steps to 155th Street, you are facing probably the most sterile and probably one of the more dangerous projects in the city at the old Polo Fields where the NY Giants used to play. As I said on a previous day, please do not linger around here. Even the police stay in their cars in this neighborhood and the site of a preppie 6:3 guy walking around the neighborhood for a third time must have had everyone wondering what I was doing there.

The Polo Grounds Houses on East 155th Street

https://affordablehousingonline.com/housing-search/New-York/New-York-City/Polo-Grounds-Towers/10067840

In 2016, trust me, I walked down 155th Street to Bradhurst Avenue as fast as I could go and then crossed down Bradhurst before the other set of stairs that leads up to Harlem River Drive and Edgecomb Avenue where High Bridge Park is located. Pretty much the park separates the two areas from one another.

By Jackie Robinson Park in the Summer of 2026

In 2026, I had to stop and go to the bathroom and made a pit stop at the Holcombe Rucker Park, which is located just across the street from the Polo Grounds Houses. I was that desperate and Thank God the bathrooms were open.

The Holcombe Rucker Park sign

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/holcombe-rucker-park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rucker_Park

There was a basketball tournament going on when I was there with a series of people selling foods and clothing for the game. I also saw a lot of parents so I figured it was safe to go to the bathroom. I was lucky that some of the coaches were going to the bathroom the same time I was going so I felt safer. Unless there are people around, I don’t recommend this as this area is pretty dangerous.

The inside of the park points directly at the Polo Grounds Housing

The overhead street bridge that separates the neighborhoods at East 155th Street

On my way back down Macombs Avenue, I walked through the now finished renovation of the Harlem River Houses and Fredrick Johnson Playground. I have to say that I am very impressed with the work that has been done on these buildings. They have been repaired and sandblasted back to life with all new windows and landscaping all around the buildings. Even the common areas are really nice and vibrant.

The inside of the Harlem River Houses at West 152nd Street

One of the sculptures surrounding the pools of the fountain (I could not find the artist)

https://nyc.marketproof.com/building/manhattan/harlem/221-west-152-street-10039?tab=overview

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_River_Houses

https://savingplaces.org/stories/the-experimental-history-behind-the-harlem-river-houses

Across the street is the renovated Fredrick Johnson Park, which was falling apart when I visited in 2016 and is now fully functional and very nice in 2026. The park and its bathrooms are all brand new and a real asset to the neighborhood.

Fredrick Johnson Park next to and across the street from the complex on 7th Avenue between West 151st and 152nd Streets

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/M159

The marker at this newly renovated park

The park was really pleasant and between the park and the renovation of the homes across the street, it has really made a difference in how the neighborhood looks. This whole area was under scaffolding the entire time I walked the area in 2016 and I can see how it improved and is probably improving the lives of the people who live there in 2026.

My last stop on the tour of this neighborhood was dinner. I stopped at Charles Country Pan-fried Chicken on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 152nd and 153rd Streets and a neighborhood staple (it has since moved). While eating lunch, I talked to Charles, the owner, who was taking a quick break. He could not believe the makeup of his customers that day which were mostly white and some were out of town tourists.

I told him that everyone reads about the restaurant on TripAdvisor and Yelp and that’s why he has such a hodgepodge of customers. There were some excellent reviews online. I just found the place while walking around earlier and checked TripAdvisor for what people were saying.

Charles Country Pan-Fried Chicken new location at 340 West 145th Street

https://www.charlespanfriedchicken.com/locations

https://www.charlespanfriedchicken.com/menu

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g60763-d1830370-Reviews-Charles_Pan_Fried_Chicken-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

Thank God I ate there that day because Charles said that this was his last day at this location. He had been there for over twenty years and was moving to a bigger spot on 145th Street which is closer to CUNY. He explained that he needed more room as big groups wanted to visit and he had to keep turning them down. He only had about five tables and they were all full.

My meal at Charles Pan-Fried Chicken

The food is excellent. He really does cook his chicken in a very large cast iron pan and chicken is constantly cooking so it is fresh. They give you a big portion for a meal so bring your appetite (See review on TripAdvisor). I had the fried chicken dinner which consisted of a freshly fried chicken breast and wing, a big portion of creamy mac & cheese and cornbread.

The chicken is crisp and flavorful on the outside and moist and juicy on the inside. It was one of the best fried chickens I had in a long time.

The Fried Chicken, Mac & Cheese and Cornbread are delicious

As I was eating, I told Charles that I thought his food was excellent which he appreciated. Remember to wash it all down with their fresh lemonade. It will really cool you down on a hot day. It was nice to eat with and talk to the owner of the restaurant.

I really enjoyed my meal that afternoon

The day ended with a final walk into Jackie Robinson Park and a cool down period on this humid day. Many of the CUNY students have come to sunning themselves on the lawn on the hill off 145th Street or cooling down in the pool located in the park. After that, a quick subway ride from 145th Street back to midtown. The whole area between 155th Street to 145th Street both sides and in between had been done. It was quite a walk that afternoon.

The reindeer statue in the park when I visited in June 2024

The Reindeer Statue in Jackie Robinson Park. There was no artist plaque for this.

The contemporary work that has since replaced it in 2026.

The Black Yankee Team history before the integration of the teams started.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Black_Yankees

I have to say one thing, walking around Harlem as a 6:3 white guy is never boring. I try to watch myself as much as possible. If you are going to walk around this neighborhood just know you are being watched.

Places to Visit:

Jackie Robinson Park

Bradhurst Avenue & 151st Street

New York, NY 10039

(212) 369-9675

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/jackie-robinson-park_manhattan

Open: Sunday-Saturday 6:00am-10:00am

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d21085366-Reviews-Jackie_Robinson_Park-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

Robert Clinkscales Playground

234 West 146th Street

New York, NY 10039