A sinkhole in Riverside Park is getting bigger, and it is now eating into the ground right next to the 87th Street Dog Run on the Upper West Side, first reported by West Side Rag.
The hole sits inside the park directly beside the dog run. It is about four feet deep at its lowest point and runs more than seven feet long, based on measurements the outlet took at the site. A section of fence has already been swallowed, along with a tree and several shrubs.
Here is what that means if you actually use the park. The back part of the 87th Street Dog Run, the section set aside for smaller dogs, now has an area roped off with yellow tape connected to the sinkhole. Out front, the hole is walled off with metal barricades, and those barricades leave less than half the usual pathway open for walkers and cyclists.
Neighbors have been flagging it for months. Katherine Bouton emailed West Side Rag about it on March 24, 2026. “I may have missed coverage of this, but the large sinkhole just south of the 88th Street dog run seems to be getting bigger every day,” she wrote. “Some of the dog run has now been roped off. What’s causing it? What are repair plans?”
A second reader, Laurence Freed, wrote in with the same alarm. “There’s a huge sinkhole in Riverside Park next to the 86 St. dog run. It’s been there for many months, and it keeps getting larger,” Freed wrote. “We walk by it every morning and have noted that as it has grown, the fencing to keep people and dogs away keeps expanding, but we haven’t seen any efforts at remediating it. Recently, it’s consumed a few trees. Soon it will consume the dog run.”
The city says it is still figuring out what is happening underground. A spokesperson for the New York City Parks Department said its engineering team was “assessing the cause of the sinkhole” and that “the area has been barricaded for public safety, and any necessary repairs will be identified following the assessment and addressed accordingly.”
No timeline for a fix has been given. The hole has spread far enough that the fencing meant to keep people and dogs out of it has had to expand along with it.
Featured image: Photos by Gus Saltonstall
