Re: (rshsdepot) High Line - NYC

["fred fep" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

But if you go to 23rd Street and pass under it, look north: there is now
about a 30 foot section totally missing that seemed removed with the
building that was next to it, only the eastern section of decorative wall
seemed left there, not a roadbed or anything else

Paul
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>
To: "Rail Depot List" <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2002 11:36 AM
Subject: (rshsdepot) High Line - NYC


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

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

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