My hotel in NY - "Hotel 309" - great location, slightly strange - was very close to the Highline Park. One of NY's most recent parks. Made from a dis-used, elevated railway line. Very interesting. Tourist attraction. Cause celebre. Made me think - for some strange reason - of the Otago Rail Trail. Both projects have had massive economic development effects. More later....
BTW - if love is the answer, what is the question? Or maybe, love is the answer to every question. Is that the theory?
Lovely place to walk....
I was in West 14th, very near the MeatPacking District. Very trendy it seems.
The Highline goes through all the original railway buildings....
And across streets and avenues. Here's a group being given a story about it. Many tour groups along the line. If you click the pic you'll be able to read the yellow sign - and understand a pic that's coming...
One of the streets you look down on...
...here's the motivation for that yellow sign... stacked car-parking...(I see that underground parking back of my hotel is about $60US for 24 hours. And lots for an hour or two...
Back to the Highline. Trees and grasses and all sorts are planted along the way. Delightful....
We learned at the workshop that property values along the Highline have gone through the roof. The gentrifying effect of this sort of parks infrastructure. Just half a kilometre away is the Hudson River Park. Built in the 1970's instead of a proposed motorway that was planned for the whole of West Manhattan. Largely working-class residents built a huge campaign. Stopped the motorway. Got a riverside linear park instead and a smaller arterial. Again - land become so expensive, developers moved in, and pushed the old communities out that had so successfully campaigned against the motorway....
All along the route, you can see for-sale and to-let signs. Changing fast.
People are changing their backyards to inter-relate with the Highline. Something they turned their backs on, has become the main attraction.
And every now and then a reminder of what was there. A railway line...
Here's another group of tourists getting the story. A popular destination. With many access points, lifts and stairs, and great places nearby to eat and drink...
Just wanted to share this with you. This sign is at every entry to the Highline Linear Park. Quite exhausting and depressing to wade through. And very American. Reminded me of those immigration forms you had to sign you'd not recently been guilty of "moral turpitude". Maybe that's why I never saw an American on the grass in a park - not prohibited though!
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