Yale students walk the walk

Mark Zurolo ’01MFA

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Alumni, remember all those times you sat on a bench beside this path on campus and watched the world go by?

We didn’t think so.

This walkway is brand new—one of a group of four street blocks that Yale bought from New Haven and is gradually remaking into pedestrian paths. This one used to be the block of Wall Street that ran from Sprague Hall to Sterling Library. (There’s still a sign on a Berkeley College garage door that asks motorists, “Please do not block the driveway.” It now looks slightly nostalgic.) The walkway will soon grow by one more block, extending along the north side of Sterling all the way to York Street. Rose Walk, the path that runs past Sterling’s main entrance, will eventually expand northward almost to Grove Street Cemetery. The result will be a car-free “X” for pedestrians at roughly the center of Yale’s main campus. Yale expects to complete the work by fall of 2020.