Newsflash:The New York Post reports on new estimates that put the price of maintaining The High Line Park at approximately $4.5 million per year. That makes it New York City’s most expensive park per acre. For a “park” that doesn’t even let you run, walk a dog, or bring a bike up, that sure is a hell of a lot of money put to waste. The nearby Hudson River Park is much larger, much more pet and bicycle friendly, and doesn’t have a friggin queue to get into. Yeah, The High Line Park sort of sucks once you get past the glamour of it being a new park.
Here’s a quick comparison of The High Line Park to some other New York City parks:
The city has 11 parks enforcement patrol officers working the High Line’s 2.8 acres now open.
In comparison, only five PEP officers are assigned to cover all 6,970 acres of Bronx parkland and eight handle Queens’ 7,300 acres, the city parks employee union says.
The High Line also has 20 laborers paid through its nonprofit group – including nine gardeners – and another 10 workers will be hired once the park is completed in 2011, officials said. Bryant Park, a much larger crown jewel in the city parks system at 9.6 acres, only uses five gardeners among its staff.
How about getting rid of some of those 11 parks enforcement people so that people can enjoy their time up there without feeling like they’re in prison?
For those of you who cannot make it to New York City to experience The High Line for yourself, dihard has put together this stop-motion video of a photo walk-through of the new park from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street on the West Side.
I just came back from Boston and I noticed that they still have a Circuit City box store with the Circuit City logo hanging on the exterior. I wonder how many of these still exist in the US (with empty parking lots in tow, of course). You can see a larger version of the image above at You’re My Favourite.
I went to check it out last week and I was feeling a bit underwhelmed by the whole experience. The only part that was worth talking about is the amphitheater that overlooks 10th Avenue. The rest of the elevated park is kinda boring and I couldn’t help but keep thinking that I’d much rather be walking on street level.
After decades of abandonment and years of development, The High Line is finally going to open its first section to the public on June 9, 2009. You can enter the elevated park at Gansevoort, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th Streets.
The rest of The High Line from 20th Street to 30th Street is still under construction, but I bet there will be a way to get there once the first section gets open.
