High Line – Natural Urban Renewal
Aug 28th, 2009 | By Nick | Category: News
I know this site is supposed to be “Undercover” and about the people who people. But this week I went to one of the latest free things to do in New York — to spend 30 minutes scoping out perhaps the latest and greatest public space in which to perform. Within the last month or so another park has opened in Manhattan — The High Line.
Sitting between Gansevoort and 20th Street, the High Line is a green snake winding through Manhattan’s ugliest district. It’s all in the name, really – the Meatpacking District. Yukky. However, once the site of mutilated animals, now that section of town is frequented by other types of meat, namely the rich young boys and girls who go there to get wasted and hook up on a Saturday night.
Thankfully, this city has a way of adapting for the better, and the High Line is just that, a 500 meter length of calming beauty in a concrete ditch. With over 200 hundred flowers, grass as far as the eye can see (as long as you are looking north or south), and raised high enough to avoid much of the grey, bleak… Sorry, actually I love New York’s edginess, but it’s quite usurped by this half kilometer garden. They are extending it too, to about 2km. What pleasure!
And what could make it better than some pleasant, relaxing music? Really, I think that would be just grand. However, I’d also say that any street performer hoping to go up there and make a noise, remember the intention of the park (to give people a chill out space), and play accordingly. This isn’t the right place for drummers. Perhaps a violinist, or some other socially acceptable art form.
I saw park police up there, by the way, scoping out the High Line’s many visitors. I’m sure they’ll kick anyone out without one of those ghost-licenses they say you need (which, by the way, I asked NYC.gov about, who they said that on the whole, no street performer needed a license). And I doubt they’ll accept the argument that you are just another one of the many free things to do in New York. Keep whatever you’re doing low-key, and pick a spot that’s in open space (not that there is much). Good luck!
(These are the flowers I saw there, of which there are over 200 varieties)
