Yes, the weather was beautiful. Yes, it was a long weekend. Yes, this an urbanist must-see in NYC.
But the High Line has become impossibly crowded, certainly too much to enjoy it as originally intended.
But the High Line has become impossibly crowded, certainly too much to enjoy it as originally intended.
.
.
I shuffled along in the line-up, and then took the first exit stairs I could. Fortunately there is other near-by attraction. The City itself.
Clearly the city needs more High Lines.
Another reason to keep the viaducts,
add separated bike lanes, leafy trees overhead and
stairs here and there along the way.
Is that a joke?
The viaducts are orders of magnitude wider to accommodate a vision where cities were meant to be carpeted by tarmac for the suburban commuter. They have overshadowed thousands of m2 of land that has remained derilict for decades, and they have niothing to do with the human scale. The context is the complete reverse of that around the High Line.
The High Line is very narrow by comparison. In fact, it has an excellent and “well-fitted” human scale. It was a remnant rail line that very efficiently serviced adjacent warehouses that are still standing and now undergoing adaptive conversion.
Even if you demolished only one viaduct and shrubbed up the remaining structure, it would be overpoweringly brutal compared to the delightful High Line.
It’s obviously not “well fitted” when it has become such a zoo. And then there’s NYC’s Vision-like strategy of slapping luxury condos and apartments all along the sides to take advantage of the hype.
Hmmm capacity issues – like where some sections of our seawall need widening.
At least they don’t have the multi-modal conflicts (pedestrians, cyclists, rollerbladers)
Yep, our seawall has the same problem during the summer season. That’s what success looks like.
Even on a weekday in May when I was there last year the Highline was over crowded. It’s got a lot of awkward choke points that should have been eliminated.
I think they were expecting a lot less use.
A few years ago, I had to go to NYC for work… I was stuck in an office building from 8 till 8. I ended up going to check out the High Line at 7am when it opened with some colleagues. It was probably the best time to see it… 🙂
But then again… I also enjoyed seeing San Francisco before sunrise. Cities have a special kind of charm before they are polluted with all the people.