High Line Update #1: Our Dependence on Foreign Soil

(A big green truck hauling bags of soil up to the High Line)

As some of you may know, Kat and John and I work together in West Chelsea, nearby the far-flung piers of the Hudson River. In the past five years, our little “day-borhood” has been a flurry with talk –and now construction– of the High Line, the once-abandoned elevated train track turned ambitious $50mm greenway. For years, local activists Joshua David and Robert Hammond fought for its recognition and renovation as a public space. Today, it is the focal point of massive development, with even Frank Gehry joining the party with his urban snowglobe across from Chelsea Piers.

From our 6th floor window, we have gleefully watched the project unfold, from crews hauling out the rusty old tracks and laying fresh cement to the arrival of new tracks and the appearance of a footpath. This week, with the addition of actual soil, the High Line took a promising leap towards completion.

And while we may take our birds-eye vantage for granted, it occurred to us that our readers might find it kinda cool. So each week, instead of sharing our ideas and opinions with you as usual, we’ll simply share our view.

–Johnny

Click through for pictures from the past few years…

(Laying cement in ‘07)

(Don’t you want to write your name in that?)

(Bulldozers clearing up the years of disrepair, ‘06)