A stone’s throw from Inwood Park is Baker Field, where Columbia University plays its football games. Notice that big "C" for Columbia on the cliff opposite the Harlem Ship Canal. Jim Carroll and his friends used to jump off those cliffs to prove they weren’t "punks," dodging the "shit lines" of a sewer that emptied into the canal.

Just like Washington Heights, western Inwood is becoming a haven for professional musicians. Quotes printed on tiles at the 207^th Street subway station as part of a community project tell the story: "When you have one professional singer in a building, you soon have many!" and "I play my grand piano and sing my arias, and am accompanied by merengue, salsa, a saxophone, kids practicing—all in the same building!"

Finally, a word about Marble Hill. This neighborhood was once physically part of Manhattan—and still is, politically—but it’s now connected to the Bronx mainland. Here’s what happened: in 1895, the city dredged the Harlem Ship Canal south of 225^th Street to connect the Harlem and Hudson Rivers. This left Marble Hill an island until 1910 or so, when Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the north was filled in. For years, Marble Hill was a sort of working-class suburb, whose Victorian houses alternated with small apartment buildings. This changed in the ’50s, when the city built the 14-story Marble Hill projects. When I grew up there in the ’60s, it was Irish, Jewish and African-American; now, its mainly Latino and African-American. Some things never change, though—like the giant ball field where a dozen basketball, softball and handball games go on simultaneously.