Thursday, June 18, 2009

The High Line and Its Disappointments

By Raanan Geberer

I visited the well-publicized High Line in Lower Manhattan this past weekend, the first weekend it was open to the public.

The High Line, as most people know, is a former freight rail line that was built in the mid-1930s and served the Meat Packing District until 1980. One of the most unusual features of the High Line is the fact that it goes right through several industrial high-rises — this is where freight, chiefly carcasses of cattle, was unloaded. Here and there, one also sees a spur that once led to a nearby factory, like the former Nabisco factory that now houses the Chelsea Market. The neighborhood is still dominated by industrial buildings, even though many of them now house art galleries.

During the 1990s three local residents came up with an idea for an elevated park, inspired by the “Promenade Plantée” in Paris. They organized themselves as “Friends of the High Line” in the same way that during the 1980s some Brooklyn Heights residents organized themselves as the Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition.

Throughout the ’90s, a debate took place between the Friends of the High Line and the owners of nearby parking garages and warehouses, who wanted the rusting, potentially dangerous elevated railroad structure torn down. After Mayor Bloomberg took office, the Friends of the High Line won and construction began. So far, the first section, from Gansevoort Street in the Village to 20th Street, is complete. A second section, extending north to 30th Street, is scheduled to open next year, and tree planting there has already begun. A third section, from 30th to 34th streets, is also planned, but funding is in doubt due to the budget crunch.

The High Line itself is very beautiful, with many varieties of colorful plants and flowers, benches, and an elevator for those who don’t want to navigate the staircases at either end. In some places the old railroad tracks survive, having been incorporated into the design, but new railroad ties of dark wood have replaced the older, rotting ones. At various points, volunteers answer questions by park-goers, many of whom come from as far away as Seattle. We saw several “upscale” food carts, but they are unobtrusive and you have to look for them.

As always in Bloomberg’s New York, however, the city didn’t do this out of sheer good will. At almost every corner, I saw, either under construction or already completed, “luxury condos” or “luxury rentals.” These buildings can be thought of as analogous to the high-rise condos planned for either end of Brooklyn Bridge Park – the difference, of course, being that in the case of the High Line, they’re not actually in the park and don’t have direct access to the park.

While it’s only natural that builders would want to build near such an attractive feature as the High Line, and that the city would want development to increase its tax base, it’s somewhat disconcerting that they all seem to be high end. No one wants to go back to the days when Chelsea was characterized by factories, warehouses and rundown tenements. But according to accounts I’ve read, the local community lost battle after battle about inclusion of more affordable housing, building heights and density. Similarly, in Brooklyn, concerns about many development projects are being ignored by the powers that be.

The High Line indeed is a welcome addition to the city, but it’s unfortunate that it had to come into being as a gentrification accelerator.

Originally published in Brooklyn Daily Eagle