(rshsdepot) High Line - NYC

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

On West Side, Rail Plan Is Up and Walking

By DAVID W. DUNLA
The New York Times

A once-quixotic proposal to turn an abandoned rail line on the far West 
Side of Manhattan into an elevated public promenade has been formally 
embraced by the Bloomberg administration, almost exactly a year after 
the Giuliani administration moved to demolish the hulking structure.

Now, rather than seeking to tear down the 1.45-mile railroad viaduct, 
known as the High Line, New York City has asked the federal Surface 
Transportation Board to grant a certificate of interim trail use, which 
would preserve the route as a distinctly urban stretch in the national 
rails-to-trails network.

"We think the High Line, ultimately converted into a park, will enhance 
the character of the entire far West Side," Daniel L. Doctoroff, the 
deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, said in an 
interview on Friday.

"The High Line will remain up," he said, "and in conjunction with this 
we would seek to rezone portions of the areas surrounding the High Line 
in order to accommodate residential development. We think the High Line 
can be an important amenity."

The City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, said, "It's a huge step in the 
right direction."

That is not easy to envision while standing in the dark shadow of the 
viaduct, which has all the charm of an el. But it becomes clearer on the 
deck, where trees, weeds and wildflowers among rusting tracks and 
switches create a verdant swath through Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea and the 
Gansevoort Meat Market.

As a practical matter, the CSX Corporation, which manages the High Line, 
is still under an order from the Surface Transportation Board to pursue 
demolition, an outcome sought by Chelsea Property Owners, which objects 
to the structure as a dismal, dangerous blight that cannot be 
rehabilitated feasibly, attractively or economically - especially at a 
time of budget deficits.

Douglas Sarini, president of the group, which represents commercial 
owners along the High Line route, did not reply to requests for comment.

Earlier this year, however, the group said in one of its fliers: "Money 
doesn't grow on trees. And the last time we checked, it wasn't growing 
in the weeds of the High Line, either."

In fact, there is no money now to create a public space, nor even a plan 
to follow, although a private group called Friends of the High Line 
intends to sponsor a competition for ideas early next year.

What last week's filing does do is ally the city firmly with efforts to 
rehabilitate the 69-year old High Line, which runs about 30 feet above 
sidewalk level from Gansevoort to 34th Streets on a path that primarily 
parallels Tenth Avenue. The line, which in some places runs through or 
has spurs into buildings, linked the warehousing and industrial district 
along the Hudson River to the rest of the nation until 1980, and has 
been deteriorating since then.

"I understand that for property owners and many in the community that if 
you have to choose between the High Line as it currently is and no High 
Line, bringing it down makes sense," Mr. Miller, the Council speaker, 
said. "But I believe - and I think the administration has also seen - 
that when you consider the possibilities for a preserved and reused High 
Line as a public space and a signature moment in the New York landscape, 
that the positives are almost limitless."

Robert Hammond, co-founder of the Friends of the High Line, said the 
city's action was "at the top of my Christmas list." Two years ago, his 
well-connected but fledgling group faced considerable skepticism when it 
suggested that the High Line might one day rank with the Promenade 
Plant=E9e in Paris, an old railroad viaduct that has been turned into a 
landscaped walkway.

A year ago, the group was in court, along with the City Council and C. 
Virginia Fields, the Manhattan borough president, challenging the 
tentative demolition agreement reached on Dec. 20, 2001, in the last 
days of the Giuliani administration. The High Line's backers argued that 
because the agreement involved property easements along the route of the 
viaduct, it should have been subject to the city's uniform land-use 
review procedure, known as Ulurp.

In March, they won a ruling from Justice Diane S. Lebedeff of State 
Supreme Court in Manhattan, who wrote that the administration's 
"determination to forego Ulurp review was undertaken without `lawful 
procedure' and was an `error of law.' " The ruling is being appealed. 
What is also holding up demolition is that a final, signed agreement has 
yet to be reached. And in its filing with the Surface Transportation 
Board, the city expressed "serious doubt" that such an agreement could 
ever be attained.

Instead, Mr. Doctoroff said, the city now hopes to reach a new agreement 
with CSX in the next few months, permitting "interim trail use," 
although he cautioned that this is a legal term; it does not mean that 
the viaduct would be open to strollers, skaters and bicyclists any time 
soon.

"A significant investment will have to be made," Mr. Doctoroff said.

In its filing, the city said that to establish an interim trail use, it 
would be willing to assume full responsibility for management of the 
right-of-way and any legal liability.

Without taking a position, Laurie Izes, a consultant to CSX, who is 
overseeing the High Line, said the company was "interested in a 
responsible and expeditious solution" and would review the filing if the 
board granted the city's request for interim trail use.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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