As of now, the High Line, the city’s newest park, stretches from Ganesvoort to 20th street, a span of about eight blocks. Eventually it will go on to 34th street and measure one and a half miles on Tenth Avenue. It has cost the city 130 million dollars thus far, just a bit more than $16 million/per block; additionally, federal funds of $20 million and $59 million in private funds have gone into this project. Almost 200 million dollars so far for eight blocks, raising the cost to $25 million/per block. The park is actually an elevated promenade on the grounds of a former freight railway which was created in the 1930’s, disbanded in the 80’s and rediscovered as a point of interest by photographer Joel Sternfeld who documented it in 2000. The new promenade is beautiful, bordered by wildflowers and plantings reminiscent of the ones that had populated the abandoned tracks. Many visitors have come to see this newest addition to the city’s gentrification efforts but after the novelty wears off, how many people will be served by this extravagant expenditure? And how wise is it to continue this project at this critical time in the city’s economic state?
While New York struggles with unemployment, plummeting real estate values, cutbacks in social welfare programs, overcrowding in schools accompanied by dismal SAT scores, hospitals in crisis, diminution in our police force - it’s fair to question why the executive director of Friends of High Line earns $250,000 a year, more than New York’s Park Commissioner who is in charge of 1,700 parks and recreational facilities. This is a park for grownups; there are no facilities for children and even dogs are not welcome. Though the park itself is an improvement over the abandoned tracks, it’s impossible to imagine that the city would favor it over the Second Avenue subway fiasco which continues to postpone its completion and destroy small businesses, tie up traffic and constitute a major urban blight.
The High Line became the darling of some very wealthy people who own real estate in that neighborhood and have already contributed a great deal to its development (Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg to name two). The Whitney Museum plans to build its annex right near it; a new hotel straddles it. Mike Bloomberg is one of its champions. The question is cui bono - who benefits? Perhaps the rest of the money for continuing and maintaining the park should come from those who have vested interests in improving that neighborhood. The majority of New Yorkers might well contend that there are more pressing priorities for this city to tackle than a very expensive sashay up Tenth Avenue at a time when the denizens of avenues 1 - 9 are so hard pressed. For the rest of us, 1700 parks might be enough to explore until the MTA gets transportation costs under control, until there are enough kindergarten spots for each neighborhood’s children and until the city figures out how to complete its embarrassing construction site at Ground Zero.
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