Shoelace Park Fitness Hub Opens in Wakefield, Bronx

A stretch of Shoelace Park near East 225th Street in Wakefield has a new draw for Bronx River Greenway regulars: a $1.7 million adult fitness hub with ten exercise stations, replacing what used to be a set of outdated bocce courts. Five of the ten components are fully accessible to patrons with disabilities, and the surrounding paths were rebuilt with new asphalt, security lighting, and fresh landscaping. The project traces back to reconstruction work that began in November 2019, according to New York YIMBY, which first reported the completed fitness area. The outlet notes the work aimed to build a multi-use trail with new wayfinding, seating, and green infrastructure, and that southern paths were reconstructed specifically to connect the fitness hub to other upgraded sections of the park. A secondary path with concrete steps was also added, giving visitors access from the northern side of the park. Shoelace Park runs from East Gun Hill Road to East 230th Street, and its long, narrow shape on city maps is exactly why it earned the name in the first place, stretching as a thin green ribbon along the Bronx River, as detailed by the Hidden Waters blog. The park is part of the larger Bronx River Greenway system. Riders on the Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line can reach it via the Williams Bridge station at Gun Hill Road, while the nearest subway options are the 2 and 5 trains at the 225th Street station, per the same YIMBY report. The park's main pathway itself has an unusual backstory. It follows the roadbed of the original Bronx River Parkway, completed in 1925, which was relocated from Bronx Boulevard to its present alignment alongside the Bronx River in 1950 after rapid advancements in automobile technology made the narrow, winding original route unsafe, according to the Bronx River Alliance. The abandoned roadbed remained in place and became Shoelace Park's upper path, a rare case of obsolete highway infrastructure quietly turning into parkland. The fitness hub did not appear in isolation. It is the latest piece of a 2010 Shoelace Park Master Plan produced by the Bronx River Alliance and NYC Parks, which specifically called for reconstructing the original Bronx River Parkway roadbed into usable greenway. Earlier phases of that vision included a $1.46 million ADA-accessible gateway completed in July 2012 at East 211th Street, linking Bronx Park directly to Shoelace Park, according to NYC Parks. NYC Parks also broke ground in February 2020 on a separate $5.12 million Shoelace Park Link reconstruction project targeting trail continuity, park amenities, and stormwater management along the riverbank. Regional investment has continued nearby as well. In March 2025, state transportation officials finished a $66.4 million bridge upgrade in the Bronx that added safety handrails and updated wayfinding signage along the underlying segment of the Bronx River Greenway, a project Hoodline previously covered. Even the river itself carries centuries of transformation: originally named Aquehung, or River of High Bluffs, by the Mohegan Tribe, it suffered intense industrial pollution after the 1840s construction of the New York Central Railroad, so severe that 19th-century officials described it as an open sewer, per NYC Parks. Because Shoelace Park sits in the Bronx River floodplain, the fitness project also had to solve a drainage problem. The approach path around the new equipment was regraded to improve drainage, and a triangular planting bed along flood-prone southwestern paths was replanted with water-tolerant species, according to New York YIMBY's account. Pruning around the reconstructed paths also opened up sight lines, a change the outlet ties to safety improvements alongside the new security lighting. NYC Parks Bronx Borough Commissioner Jessenia Aponte joined Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson and local elected officials at a ribbon-cutting for the finished hub on September 4, celebrating funding secured by New York City Council Member Kevin C. Riley, according to NYC Parks. The $1.5 million allocation dates back to fiscal year 2022 and reflects Riley's push to improve health and fitness facilities across District 12. That investment lands in a neighborhood with real financial strain. A 2018 community assessment by the Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation found that 57 percent of households in Bronx Community District 12, which covers Wakefield and Edenwald, are rent-burdened, spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Free, ADA-accessible workout equipment offers an alternative for families with little room in the budget for a gym membership. NYC Parks also runs Shape Up NYC, a program of free outdoor exercise classes offered across the borough's parks as part of a broader push to address elevated rates of obesity and cardiovascular disease in the Bronx, as reported by the Norwood News. Shoelace Park itself offers more than land-based exercise: a boat launch at East 219th Street hosts free community paddling sessions and water safety orientations run by the Bronx River Alliance, giving local families another way to get outside along the river that once ran through the neighborhood as an industrial afterthought and now anchors its recreation.