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Mayor Bloomberg announced the completion of phase 1 of the Manhattan Greenway, a 32 mile bike path and walkway around Manhattan. The ultimate vision is to have one continuous loop around Manhattan's waterfront, so pedestrians, runners, bikers, bladers, everyone, can enjoy the city. However, currently only 23 miles are on the waterfront, due to "construction on the Manhattan Bridge and security issues at the United Nations."
The Mayor's press release.
Map of Manhattan Greenway (PDF)
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It's already walkable: I joined Shorewalkers (http://www.shorewalkers.org/) for "The Great Saunter," a 32-mile walk around Manhattan in May. Highly recommended. It took me (and my sore feet) 12 hours. The west side was a breeze; the east side involved dodging traffic and avoiding lots of broken glass.
I love what the City and Parks Department has done with the West Side waterfront. I think the idea of the Greenway is very powerful.
As it happens, I work on Canal Street and just this weekend moved to a new place on 204th Street near Dyckman. Being a brave soul, I've been biking it.
The entrance to the northwest terminus of the greenway is carefully hidden behind a "passenger cars only" sign, but once you actually find it, it's NICE. There are two small detours where you have to leave the waterfront for a few blocks (once around 135th St by the Fairway, and once around 96th St. at the boat basin), but other than those it's a straight shot down the entire west side of the island, usually only feet from the water. The path is neatly groomed asphalt and the river views are gorgeous.
At a mildly active pace, it's about an hour and fifteen minutes from Inwood to Canal Street, and since the path is on the water, it's flat almost the entire way. You can't beat it.
Haven't quite decided if I feel like trying to do the reverse commute in the evenings now that it's getting dark early. There's not a lot of pedestrian traffic even during the day, and I've yet to see a single police officer in the park. Any Gothamist readers doing the night ride?