tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post5133374150273134571..comments2023-08-14T11:44:27.299-04:00Comments on Jeremiah's<br> Vanishing New York: Disney World on the HudsonJeremiah Mosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-7475043826228656392014-03-29T00:30:43.783-04:002014-03-29T00:30:43.783-04:00I'm a Manhattanite for over 30 yrs now. The Hi...I'm a Manhattanite for over 30 yrs now. The High Line makes me feel sad - but if it was in my backyard, I know I would feel differently. Thankfully I am closer to Central Pk.Garyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12190749194617258116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-68923458133359631222013-02-15T16:27:19.072-05:002013-02-15T16:27:19.072-05:00nice find, esquared. the tide is turning.nice find, esquared. the tide is turning.Jeremiah Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-85125398863583889042013-02-15T14:42:54.836-05:002013-02-15T14:42:54.836-05:00"The project exudes a "cool" image ...<i>"The project exudes a "cool" image of feigned neglect, despite the troubling irony in this aesthetic. Commodifying ostensibly lower-class spaces for supposedly higher classes is both patronizing and divisive."</i><br /><br />http://www.thepolisblog.org/2013/02/poverty-high-line.htmlesquared™https://www.blogger.com/profile/03535683572170541615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-12826445761518990212013-02-01T11:59:27.870-05:002013-02-01T11:59:27.870-05:00Does anyone else remember the "High Cash Clot...Does anyone else remember the "High Cash Clothes" hawkers? They would often appear in the "courtyards" of Brooklyn apartment houses, back in the 1940s. Would like to learn more about them: were they legal; did they really pay for clothes that were tossed from windows and/or fire escapes? I lived in 438 Ocean Parkway<br />and would hear them from my parents' bedroom in our 3 room apartment.cerisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17132204113357907948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-35008558016411578612013-01-18T11:53:03.879-05:002013-01-18T11:53:03.879-05:00Wow. chain link fences in guelph look much cooler ...Wow. <a href="http://www.jayfencing.com/" rel="nofollow">chain link fences in guelph</a> look much cooler than these..Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15474189970288337453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-57840571898984156872012-10-25T23:41:59.808-04:002012-10-25T23:41:59.808-04:00Anonymous said...
I would have been much happier i...Anonymous said...<br />I would have been much happier if the High Line were once again used for actual trains, passenger or freight.<br /><br />- East Villager<br /><br />East Villager, thank you. You are soooooooo right! Trains, yes, trains, actual trains, not people, should walk the High Line. <br /><br />SaroyanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-90558839839686564572012-08-30T13:31:43.582-04:002012-08-30T13:31:43.582-04:00I would have been much happier if the High Line we...I would have been much happier if the High Line were once again used for actual trains, passenger or freight.<br /><br />- East VillagerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-38804178903273030472012-08-27T23:18:15.855-04:002012-08-27T23:18:15.855-04:00sam hall kaplan: high line is free, the long time ...sam hall kaplan: high line is free, the long time working class residents can afford it. possibly some of those people can appreciate it w/out boom boxes, skates, bikes, spraypaint. the mothers can take the children there, as the wealthy parents do. it would be nice for infants, & very young children. are you saying its too classy? too intimidating? too refined? if they are not attracted to it, then they may be missing out. i understand the need for playgrounds as well, & see your point. but still, everyone IS welcome. that in itself is a positive thing.lauranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-65128232747950969042012-08-27T18:45:56.908-04:002012-08-27T18:45:56.908-04:00Talk about going back to the 70s. Try the 50s when...Talk about going back to the 70s. Try the 50s when I worked on the high line, .. Check out my recent edited blog for Planetizen.com : High Line past, present, future.:<br /><br />Testimonials and awards not withstanding, I am wary of the cloying elitism of a crowing Bloomberg. Having followed the project’s promotions for the last decade and the community’s evolution for the last half century, a second opinion is in order.<br /><br />To be sure, the embrace of the High Line by its high stepping sponsors and a middling media makes it hard to criticize. There can be no denying the feel good publicity it has generated. Whether labeled a park or a promenade, the finical design of the former freight train spur - sensitively landscaped with sustainable plantings and mod furnishings - has become a major tourist attraction and an even more considerable real estate asset.<br /><br />The elevated tracks certainly have been transformed from when I worked there as a railway inspector on the night shift on the original B&O line and in the nearby NY Central RR Yards. That was some 57 years ago when cautious cabbies did not prowl the neighborhood for fares as they do now. To know Chelsea during those days was to walk its mean streets and work on the waterfront and in the rail yards, a bailing hook at the ready. Now I only have a groaning PC.<br /><br />Given the neighborhood’s rough trade and its predators, I would not use “affection” to describe how I felt about the area then, flavored as it was by a bar scene catering to the S&M and transgender crowd that did not include the MBA types as it does now. “Wary” would be my more apt phrase, which actually prepared me well for my future work as a journalist and planner. It also made me appreciate the nuances of neighborhood change.<br /><br />The passive open space of today’s High Line design banning bikes, dogs and discouraging the slatternly, is a not so subtle disinvite to the long time residents shoe boxed into the low rent housing projects and tenements that once lent Chelsea its gritty reputation. They were considered second-class citizens then, as they are now.<br /><br />The High Line obviously was not designed for these persevering dwellers, or the neighborhood. If so, from my public planning perspective, the generous funds received from its well heeled patrons and the city should have been first used at the street level, to improve pedestrian safety and connectivity, contain the noxious traffic, and purchase a few of the area’s unsightly parking lots for active playgrounds, pocket parks and common gardens that have been on the community’s wish list for decades.<br /><br />The pleasant seating and the arresting views aside, the High Line serves principally as the meandering manicured front lawn and garden for the neighborhood’s new residential and commercials developments, encouraged by a host of zoning changes and other concessions enacted by a real estate and building trade-friendly Bloomberg administration. To be sure, the project has provided needed construction jobs for the many, investment opportunities for the few, and lucrative contracts for the design team. The success of the design was coincidental.<br /><br /><br />... the High Line increasingly is being viewed as a mixed blessing. Coming to the fore recently and stirring strong protests is an ambitious $250 million plus expansion of the hugely successful upscale Chelsea Market, which attracts visitors from across the city as well as tourists. Its owners, who in the past have generously supported the High Line, want to add an office tower and hotel to the sprawling complex, and have pledged more funds for the park’s operation, a gesture seen as a classic pay for play ploy popular in Bloomberg’s New York. ..Sam Hall Kaplannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-46977015239674178332012-08-26T20:33:33.012-04:002012-08-26T20:33:33.012-04:00jeremiah perhaps you should re read the post of gr...jeremiah perhaps you should re read the post of greg walters, aug 22. he said go early or go late, or in the rain. you chose to go during high tourist time. im sure this can be a lovely place for solitude. as in peru, in the ancient sacred city of michu pichu (in cusco) one must get there by 5:30am. why? go later in there are hoards of tourists taking pictures via cell phone (of the pyramids) throwing candy wrappers on the ground (yes they leave garbage, what would the mayans say)? & screaming like lunatics! i am one of your fans, & i get most of what you say. but give things a break sometimes, youre throwing out the baby w/the bath water. i persoanlly would NOT want to see grafitti in any natural or beautifully traditional envirement. highline OR michu pichu, or the metropolitian, or the great churches. life is not always about ave C, or the bronx. try the highline again, mid week maybe october during sunset, get back to me. try to use it to your advantage. lauranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-19216710057280022222012-08-26T15:14:13.789-04:002012-08-26T15:14:13.789-04:00i've read the Gallway piece a couple of times,...i've read the Gallway piece a couple of times, and it just makes no sense to me. my piece is not about "other neighborhoods," it's about Chelsea around the High Line. <br /><br />i'm also tired of being told that i want to go back to the 70s (i don't) and that i don't know what it's like not to have money (i know what it's like).Jeremiah Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-8277164078099174242012-08-26T14:56:43.674-04:002012-08-26T14:56:43.674-04:00That Matthew Gallaway rebuttal is myopic and ignor...That Matthew Gallaway rebuttal is myopic and ignorant. And the tag on that post "This post is abt how NYC needs to vanish actually". Why move to a city you dislike, Gallaway? Go fuck yourself all the wayback to Ohio, Matthew. Bitch.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-49114759341948510312012-08-25T07:06:38.797-04:002012-08-25T07:06:38.797-04:00"We still live in a free market and no one is..."We still live in a free market and no one is entitled to live in a particular neighborhood simply because they grew up there. In a free market, you live where you can afford."<br /><br /><br />Markets are rarely free. The financial industry (without which there would be no gentrification in NYC) and the agricultural industry (through federally-back crop insurance) have cost taxpayers trillions of dollars. The people of these and other businesses, entrepreneurs all, can afford to live where they do because the rest of us subsidize them. Call it whatever you want, but there is nothing <i>free</i> about any of this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-56808946365451818452012-08-24T19:48:22.883-04:002012-08-24T19:48:22.883-04:00Exactly. You hit the nail square on it's head...Exactly. You hit the nail square on it's head!SunnyDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-32901244948878566632012-08-24T17:02:49.363-04:002012-08-24T17:02:49.363-04:00RE: Mark Rosenthal's comment on a city not tak...RE: Mark Rosenthal's comment on a city not taking it's history (historical buildings, etc) into account when developing as a city should. I was in London in 2005 and found it remarkable that so many of those buildings still stand and are respected as valuable pieces of the story of a city. New York doesn't really have much of that anymore, eg, they tore down the original Penn Station all those years ago to put up the haven for crackheads we have now. I feel so bad for commuters who have to go through that monstrosity everyday.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16652913440791323385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-64345451388471905922012-08-24T12:10:30.645-04:002012-08-24T12:10:30.645-04:00Alexander, I would love to see your so-called &quo...Alexander, I would love to see your so-called "proletariat" leave Manhattan entirely. How about everyone who watches your kids, waits your tables, repairs or shines your cars, tailors your clothes, does your laundry, housekeeps your homes, handles the administrative responsibilities that keep your asses on schedule, collects your garbage, etc, how about if we all left you in exile on your Fantasy Island so that you had to do all the work for yourself? Let's see how you'd fair on your own then, douche. Push us far enough and we've got the numbers, you don't. <br /><br />http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-instability-of-inequality<br /><br />You fancy yourself some Randian superhero entitled to an island all of your own, but the reality is you couldn't clip your own toenails without someone to help you. Ayn Rand wrote one-dimensional characters that you aspire to be and guess what? You've succeeded.Claribelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11852854870468578618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-88007629239517178162012-08-24T06:10:23.470-04:002012-08-24T06:10:23.470-04:00I just read this in the NY Times. Sad that I agree...I just read this in the NY Times. Sad that I agree with every word you wrote. It's not just the Highline either. It really does seem to be most of Manhattan. I can barely stand what's become of Manhattan. <br /><br />It's not a city for the residents anymore. But in some ways we only have ourselves to blame after voting in Bloomberg for an unprecendented third term. What a joke.EFBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05225875561084154880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-40014621264165413392012-08-23T23:33:09.889-04:002012-08-23T23:33:09.889-04:00well, this is anonymous again replying to anonymou...well, this is anonymous again replying to anonymous who said i was bitter.. i DO live in the outer outer outer borough on the edge of flushing queens and have since moving here in the early 00s. before that i lived in a working class town and before that in one of the poorest counties in the U.S.A. where i grew up. i'm one of those folks who really did want to move to ny against all odds and barely did. my family did not go to college and barely squeak by on lower working class jobs in a tiny town on the border. you are misinterpreting what those of us are saying about the 99percent and Manhattan - it's about equality and fairness we are talking about here. it's not even about if manhattan or brooklyn or parts of queens are cool. it's about the utter inanity that someone could work 40 hours a week in this city and not be able to afford to live her, just because they might want to - not because Manhattan is the coolest of all. you are coming at this from a reverse sort of classism - i am not entitled at all - i cannot afford hardly at all to live in the area that i do in queens - but i was going to not be very happy in the small town in the south because of my lifestyle and views (and i'm again, coming from a lower working class, non college educated family) - it was nothing about being cool - it was about survival - people forget that for those of use who are gay or feminist or have interest in the arts or dress differently and are not wealthy or have any type of trust fund whatsoever, that moving to a bigger city is the only way to go. i am actually from a family like archie bunker but with even less money and while i don' think it's amusing, my friends have pointed out and i can't help but notice that, that is the only area i can afford to live - archie bunker apparently lived in flushing queens - so i move away from my small town and the farthest i can go is another similar space supposedly. but please anon - look past what you think is bitterness - that is not where i'm coming from at all. i mean people who clean goldman sach's buildings and only make enough to live in a bedroom very far away from the basic regional area of NYC. that's just not right. if you work 40 hours you should be able to rent your own apartment here without an hour commute like i have every day. there's a much bigger pix than what you and others surface-ly interpret as bitterness - you've got to step back further and think about this more deeply from all i've said here. thank you for your thougtfulness on important class issues in nyc, which, have burst open with this topic on the high line. and for good reason. thanks JVY for opening the conversation further. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-76016398486376397832012-08-23T22:36:47.429-04:002012-08-23T22:36:47.429-04:00i am still waiting. waiting for someone, it only t...i am still waiting. waiting for someone, it only takes one. someone to move else where, close to new york, if possible. (or w/in new york). that someone or someone's can start something new. if it has started, it has not reported on this blog. maybe they have their own blog, they are keeping it a secret, they want privacy. or @least a few years to be left alone. i understand of you have a rent stabilzed apt, or own a place, your job is there. sometimes things get out of control, you have to go! (if you can). we moved in brookyn several times because of the new neighbors. now you all have neighbors by the millions, even those who dont live there. this is the way the world works, not everyone wants to be w/everyone. its ovious by all these comments, you cant stand the vibe, you cant even look or listen to the people. this is new york? think twice. lauranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-3546689513760956682012-08-23T21:08:17.921-04:002012-08-23T21:08:17.921-04:00i saw this article in the new york times. not one ...i saw this article in the new york times. not one reader commented. why is that?lauranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-42235066252375879242012-08-23T19:52:54.373-04:002012-08-23T19:52:54.373-04:00I'm actually glad to see comments here support...I'm actually glad to see comments here supporting the hypergentrification of the center of New York, because they are (probably inadvertently) revealing. You can really see how the destruction of bohemian New York was tied to the overall agenda of centralizing wealth and power into the hands of a small class, who are now using this city as one of the enclaves from where they lord it over the peasantry.<br /><br />Anyway, I got a look at some jobs data the other day, and it appears the only sector where the city economy has generated enough jobs to keep pace with population growth between 2002 and 2012 is in leisure/ hospitality. Retail generated alot of jobs, just not enough to keep pace with population growth. In most other sectors -particularly finance!- the situation is about the same or even a lower number of jobs in 2012 than in 2012. So basically in economic terms, what you can see from just walking around is true, the city is turning into a sort of high-class resort. I don't think you can make this work with a city of this size, even the southern parts of Manhattan have a population greater than a million. And culturally its a disaster, high end resorts may import good performers but don't generate much in the way of original culture.Ednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-32405695587922870782012-08-23T19:32:55.634-04:002012-08-23T19:32:55.634-04:00tourism can be a cheesy industry. nothing wrong w/...tourism can be a cheesy industry. nothing wrong w/ going to a musuem or park or an attraction etc. its what comes LATER that is the horror. the souvenior stands, the food stands, then the chain stores for the passerbys, the garbage, the noise. i dont think high line was a bad idea. as everyone IS welcome, & its free! the rest of what i am reading is sad. somehow i liked the old days. people just didnt travel as a thing to do. airline tickets were expensive. you traveled that way if you wanted culture, or you were a college student & saved your cash. (or hitchhiked). people also traveled by greyhound to visit relatives, & yes to go to the touristy areas of NYC. they werent interested in neigborhoods. travel wasnt that big of an "industry" as now. cheap airfares that started this. new york is losing its sophication, as well as its uniqueness. lauranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-65711921744798443072012-08-23T19:04:57.171-04:002012-08-23T19:04:57.171-04:00"The High Line carries an extended metaphor t..."The High Line carries an extended metaphor that cities can thrive once again." Kenneth Casper, this isn't the blight of the '70s that the High Line suddenly revitalized, this was a mix of lower, working, upper middle and creative classes, and it's called economic and cultural diversity. Other commenters have noted that gentrification was already there. The High Line put it in overdrive. The death of an Urban Renaissance is what you get when Manhattan neighborhoods continue to lose their diversity in favor of a monolithic wealthy class who don't realize how boring they really are because they are surrounded by the same boring people who affirm their boring gated community lifestyle. Affluent neighborhoods more often distinguish themselves by what they consume and the premium they pay, not by what they contribute in service that is of interest or benefit to society as a whole. The Op-Ed furthers the still debatable question as to whether or not the High Line actually benefits New Yorkers or just contributes to the fleecing of tourists while enriching property owners along its path. <br /><br />"Without the success of pioneering initiatives like the High Line there is the Urban Renaissance is dead. Cities and neighborhoods must change in physical ways if they are to survive and thrive." Your ersatz Urban Renaissance is materialistically driven. There's no cultural rebirth going on here unless your definition is in tourist and real estate dollars only. And mega chain stores in the neighborhood such as the Container Store and Whole Foods contribute to a Suburban--not an Urban--Renaissance.Claribelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11852854870468578618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-27285997479360048752012-08-23T12:45:41.698-04:002012-08-23T12:45:41.698-04:00Good op-ed on the High Line and how it is destroyi...Good op-ed on the High Line and how it is destroying the neighborhoods it runs through. I'll agree, to an extent. Yes, it has become a tourist trap that is yet another one of my no-go zones unless I have a random weekday off (the million dollar question is, how do we stop tourists from clogging the streets and everything else they lay their feet on? Answer: we can't - that is inevitable. Conclusion - NYC can't have nice things, because people will want to come/see/touch). Yes, those new "companion" buildings are ugly. Yes, "the park" (I hesitate to refer to it as a real park - it is more of a runway) drives prices up - but if you put anything nice in a neighborhood that is not-so-nice, it has the potential to drive prices up. As for the Meatpacking District, it was ruined long before the High Line came around - blame that on Pastis/Sex and the City. Yes, Bloomberg has continued to ruin the city. What can we do about that? Not much, I'm afraid, except NEVER AGAIN elect a businessman to do a politician's job (such as it is). His goal is and always will be PROFIT. Like a true businessman, that's all he sees. To be fair, he is doing an excellent job in that respect. What is truly unfortunate is that Bloomie, like Giuliani before him, has created a city in which the rich thrive, and most people with money are convinced that democrats or anyone forward-thinking will take their money clean out of their pockets. They vote accordingly, and the cycle continues.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16652913440791323385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-10607624314199202122012-08-23T11:30:46.898-04:002012-08-23T11:30:46.898-04:00Brilliant, Jeremiah, thank you, and props for gett... Brilliant, Jeremiah, thank you, and props for getting the <i>New York Times</i>, which is utterly infatuated with and enamored of the ultra-rich, to publish it!John Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.com