The High Line: elevated railroad in Chelsea

[MidtownGuy]

What's with the "water feature"? I've been up there 3 times already and haven't seen a drop of water anywhere. Supposedly it's near the sun deck lounge chairs?

[lofter1]

I've seen it on 3 X ...

Seems they're having some trouble with getting an even flow across the entire expanse of the rippled surface where the water will flow from the west edge of the sun deck towards the center (where the water flows down through a grate and is re-circulated).

Hoping they will get it up and running for good before the real heat of summer comes (if that ever happens this year -- not that I'm complaining. 80 degrees without humidity in the middle of July makes NYC perfect).

Off:



On:



The idea:

[Merry]

For High Line Visitors, Park Is a Railway Out of Manhattan

By DIANE CARDWELL





The High Line is still under construction, with orange-vested workers busily adding last-minute touches. Yet the park, perched on an old elevated railway on the West Side of Manhattan, already seems like a permanent fixture, almost a small town in the air.

It has its own mobile skyline in the steady stream of heads (or, in the rain, umbrellas) bobbing above the trestle. It has its own economy, including the $15 High Line Picnic Baskets for sale at Friedman’s Lunch at the Chelsea Market (sandwich, cole slaw, pickle, chips, cookie, beverage). It has its own art scene, drawing students from Parsons sketching panoramas, and photographers armed with devices from cellphones to Leicas. It has its own neighborhoods and hot spots, shifting in feel throughout the day.

It even inspires crusty New Yorkers to behave as if they were strolling down Main Street in a small town rather than striding the walkway of a hyper-urban park — routinely smiling and nodding, even striking up conversations with strangers.

“Here people tend to be more friendly,” Kathy Roberson, who is retired but does volunteer work with the poor, said on Saturday. “Those same people, you might see them someplace else and, you know,” she broke off, raising her eyebrows, “they’re kind of stressed.”

A little more than a month since its first stretch opened, the High Line is a hit, and not just with tourists but with New Yorkers who are openly relishing a place where they can reflect and relax enough to get a new perspective on Manhattan.

Despite the complaints about noise, gentrification and tour buses spewing forth their cargo, many locals have fallen so hard and fast for the park that they are acting as impromptu tour guides, eager to show off their new love interest.

“It just gives you a whole new appreciation of Chelsea,” Amy Goodman, co-host of the radio and television news program “Democracy Now!,” was saying with an enthusiastic sweep of her arm to her companions early on a Friday. “It’s such an incredible celebration of urban architecture.”

Later, the evening found one of her group, Brenda Murad, leading a tour of her own for a friend from Mexico City.

Since its southernmost section — from 20th Street near 10th Avenue to the corner of Gansevoort and Washington Streets — opened to the public on June 9, the park has attracted more than 300,000 visitors, said Patrick Cullina, vice president of horticulture and park operations for the High Line.
Plans call for the park to reach as far north as 34th Street.

Weekdays it draws from 3,000 to 15,000 through its entrances at 20th, 18th, 16th, 14th and Gansevoort Streets. Weekends are busier, with roughly 18,000 to 20,000 visitors a day; but the park’s legal capacity is 1,700, so officials have often resorted to “special entry” for an hour or two, limiting entry to Gansevoort Street and, for those needing an elevator, 16th Street.

On Saturday around noon, the park was lively, but there was still plenty of room. Ms. Roberson had brought her mother, Josephine, and her neighbor Louis Smart, a retired opera singer and teacher, from their apartments on West 43rd Street, wanting to show them something a little different.

They were sitting on the topmost row at the Sunken Overlook, the centerpiece of 10th Avenue Square, which hovers over 16th and 17th Streets. In daylight the space functions like a central plaza, with trees scattered around benches, open areas and rows of amphitheater-style seating that offer a windowed view of cars and trucks rushing below on 10th Avenue.

Mealtimes tend to be most crowded, when people picnic, chat or just stare blankly at the traffic underfoot, often with children running serpentines through the seats. At night, the overlook turns into a Warholian conceptual installation, with its art-house vibe and screenlike windows.

But on Saturday, it was a stop on Amy Chin’s “urban birthday safari,” a daylong tour of attractions far above the ground, she said, inspired by the High Line. Ms. Chin, a consultant to nonprofit arts groups, was celebrating her 47th birthday with friends and family over lunch and a cake frosted in thick chocolate butter cream and poppy-red and saffron-orange flowers (“Van Gogh colors,” as her sister, Lily, put it).

Back at the top of the overlook, Mr. Smart was transfixed by the cake.
“Now, I’ve got to see that,” he said.

“You’ve seen a cake before,” Kathy Roberson said. “Not like that!” Mr. Smart countered, descending.

After his return a few minutes later, Amy Chin approached, offering to share the confection. Josephine Roberson accepted. The High Line had not yet seemed to impress her much, but the cake did.

“She’s smiling now,” Kathy Roberson said, laughing.

There are other gathering places, like the passage beneath the Standard Hotel near Little West 12th Street, where the arching structure has created a breezeway with perpetual shade and cooling winds. The Standard is itself a draw, attracting people hoping for a glimpse of the racy displays in the huge plate-glass room windows of the hotel, which seeks out exhibitionist guests by promoting itself as a sleek sex palace. (“And now, the floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the High Line at the Standard New York offer direct views to your most intimate moments,” read a notice on its blog).

There is plenty to see below the hotel, especially near 13th Street. On Friday around 7 p.m., a shifting cluster was leaning over the railing there, snapping pictures of the creative types sipping champagne at an open-air lounge, and of Marni Halasa, a figure skating instructor and “parade junkie” who was posing, arms held high — for a National Enquirer photo shoot, she said.

She was wearing what she called her mermaid outfit: long, form-fitting aquamarine sequined skirt slit nearly to the waist, halter top, shimmering cape held like angel wings, Rollerblades.

But there is no spot more coveted than the sundeck facing the Hudson River between 14th and 15th Streets, where the row of dark brown ipe wood lounge chairs brings bikini-clad sunbathers, picnicking families and affectionate couples throughout the day and evening. If it were the late 1980s, this would be Nell’s, albeit without the cocaine and cocktails: roving park security officers are vigilant about drinking, which is prohibited.
The visibility of the staff — maintenance workers, gardeners, volunteers wearing “Ask Me About The High Line” buttons — is important, Mr. Cullina said, in promoting the sense that the park is well maintained.

So on Sunday night, before the park’s 10 p.m. shutdown and 7 a.m. reopening, a maintenance worker was wheeling a garbage can along the sundeck.

“I’m looking for trash donation,” he called out, as if hawking hot dogs at a ball field. “Can I get a trash donation, y’all?”

A few along the way obliged. Meng Li, a bond analyst with a fondness for magic tricks, playfully fanned out a deck of cards. The pinks in the sky deepened toward purple, the red neon W of the hotel across the Hudson grew brighter, and the strains of Hector del Curto’s Eternal Tango Orchestra on Pier 54 drifted overhead.

One of Mr. Li’s companions, Nikoleta Kasa, took it all in, saying, “I’m lucky to live here.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/ny...1&ref=nyregion

[Merry]

BLOOMY BACKS THE TAX ON HIGH LINERS

By KEVIN FASICK and JEREMY OLSHAN

July 30, 2009

Mayor Bloomberg supports higher taxes along the High Line.

The proposed business improvement district for the park, which would be the first in his administration to tax residents as well as merchants, is a great way to help pay for the upkeep of the park, a mayoral spokesman told The Post.

Although it's long been legal for BIDs to levy residents as well as businesses, such an arrangement has not been approved in many years.
The extra funds are needed because the crowds at the park, which opened two months ago, have far exceeded expectations, said Robert Hammond, co-founder of the Friends of the High Line.

Weekend crowds have averaged 20,000 visitors a day, while weekdays typically draw between 6,000 and 10,000 -- quadruple the original estimates.

"No. 1, the nice problem, I gather, is that the High Line has turned out to be a very big success. That's the good news," Bloomberg said.

The BID tax plan cannot go forward without the approval of the majority of residents and merchants, as well as the City Council, he said.
"If the community supports charging all property owners, then we'll support it, too," a spokesman for the mayor said.

"If this is very unpopular, and the majority of residents are opposed, we're not going to do this," Hammond said. "We're a community group, and we don't want this to be a sore spot."

The residents who would pay the tax -- roughly $30 to $90 year for a 1,000-square-foot apartment -- are unlikely to get any special privileges as a result.

There will not be "residents only" hours, Hammond said.
"This is a public park, and we want to keep it that way," he said. "Some people have suggested that we charge admission, but there are a lot of low-income residents in the area who would not be able to enjoy the park then."

Property owners will make back their money with the higher real-estate values the park brings, he said.

Those who live along the park are not so sure.

"The park is lovely; it's great that they did this, but they never asked us to foot the bill," said resident Rebecca Gordon, 40. "I have contributed to the park, but I think this is unfair."

Reut Edelman, 32, said he's never paid for any other city park.
"I don't see why or how they should be able to do that," he said. "I don't think they are trying to get people who live on the Upper West Side to pay for Central Park."

Merchants also had misgivings.

"If that's the case, then they should close the damn park down," said Kerry Nolen, manager of Los Davos, a Mexican restaurant near an entrance to the park. "It's not like we were asked about it before."
Tam Nguyen, the manager of the clothing shop Earnest Sewn, agreed.
"That's just ridiculous, because we were here first," she said. "None of us were ever given any sense we would be responsible for the upkeep."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07302009...ers_182076.htm

[MidtownGuy]

Some people have suggested that we charge admission

How ridiculous and inappropriate.

[stache]

In this town?

[scumonkey]

What about charging the tour bus operators a fee that dump
out their loads of tourists there instead ?

[MidtownGuy]

Those I would ban completely.

[ablarc]

"If that's the case, then they should close the damn park down," said Kerry Nolen, manager of Los Davos, a Mexican restaurant near an entrance to the park. "It's not like we were asked about it before."

Tam Nguyen, the manager of the clothing shop Earnest Sewn, agreed.
"That's just ridiculous, because we were here first," she said. "None of us were ever given any sense we would be responsible for the upkeep."

There's gratitude for you. How much do you think their business has increased since the park opened?

A lousy ninety bucks?

[lofter1]

ain't they neighborly ...

"If that's the case, then they should close the damn park down," said Kerry Nolen, manager of Los Davos a Mexican restaurant near an entrance to the park ...

I think the article mis-spelled the name of the restaurant.

Most likely it's Los Dados, at the corner of Washington + Gansevoort, directly opposite the main HL entrance ...

$90 < 2 Pitchers of Los Dados Margaritas (@ $50 / Pitcher)

$90 = 1 Bottle of Champagne, Mumm Cordon Rouge 90 btl

I wonder what their prices were last year?

[MidtownGuy]

Too high.

Just like this idiot basket:

including the $15 High Line Picnic Baskets for sale at Friedman’s Lunch at the Chelsea Market (sandwich, cole slaw, pickle, chips, cookie, beverage).

Oooo, they even threw in a pickle. How generous! What an irresistible meal!
Seriously, this is beyond lame. Fifteen bucks for that is high line robbery. Plus I bet the portions are so tiny and precious that the basket wouldn't fill a bird's belly.
For people with a sense of value: forget the rip off at Friedman's...just go to a non-bourgeois place like Hector's and ask for that same lunch 'to go'.

[MidtownGuy]

10 pm is MUCH too early for this park to close, especially considering all of the nightlife in the area.

Ditto in Times Square, where they kick everyone off the TKTS steps at 1:00 am! There are still big crowds enjoying it at that time.
So much for "the city that never sleeps". Someone is intent on giving it a tranquilizer.

[stache]

I think a lot of this is connected to liability concerns especially regarding inebriated people.

[MidtownGuy]

Hmmm...that's not very reasonable of them, IMHO.
Drunk people might fall off a subway platform too, but we don't close down the subway when the bars get busy. Hell, if someone is drunk enough they could also fall in the middle of a street and get run over.

[lofter1]

It's proabaly a budget issue. We've read that since the HL opened it's been determined that maintenance and other costs need to be augmented. No doubt the original (insufficient?) budget was planned with the hours from 7-10 in mind and extending the hours would only mean having to find additional funds. HL Is now in the hands of NYC Dept. of Parks and the decisions about hours, monitoring, etc. will come from the bureaucrats. That said, during summer months it would be great if it were open later, similar to other NYC Parks. But to make that argument to the powers that be it seems a money source would have to be part of the presentation.

Folks should go and enjoy the HL for what it is -- don't get all wrapped up in what it isn't.