For more than a decade, the High Line, an elevated park that stretches nearly a mile through the West Side of Lower Manhattan, has been a symbol of ambitious urban renewal: a smooth, tree-lined walkway created from an old career -of railway line that cuts through once industrial neighborhoods.
Before the pandemic, it became a major destination in New York for residents as well as visitors outside the city, which in 2019 attracted approximately eight million people.
And now the park, which showed how the city could reinvent itself and imagine dilapidated spaces, needs to be expanded.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said on Sunday that the High Line would be expanded to include the new Moynihan Railway Hall, a project he said would help promote development in the surrounding neighborhoods and an economy facing a serious crisis in the face can promote due to the pandemic.
The new link, officials said, would provide an alternative way to access the new station, which serves Amtrak and the Long Island Railroad. It is part of a broader package, including the new train station and improvements for the Pennsylvania Station, which seeks to enhance the transportation experience to and from New York City.
“Traffic has reached impossible levels, and it has never been efficient or effective,” he said. Cuomo said in an interview. “But it is clear that as the metropolitan area grows, mass transportation must be better, safer, more pleasant, especially in this new world.”
A 1,200-foot elevated walkway connects the existing High Line at 30th Street with a footpath on Manhattan West, a mixed-use utility next to the train station.
Government officials could not provide a specific timeline as to when construction would begin on the expansion or when they expected it to be completed.
Opened on January 1, Moynihan Station – a $ 1.6 billion building with more than an acre of glass roof windows, art installations and 92-foot-high ceilings – is just one in a series of ambitious infrastructure projects, including the Second Avenue Subway. along the Upper East Side of Manhattan and a rebuilt La Guardia airport, that the governor wants to make a prominent part of his legacy.
The state is also looking at another possible extension of the High Line to connect it north to Pier 76 in West 38th Street, where Mr. Cuomo wants to convert a police towpond into another park. The existing High Line runs 1.45 km from 34th Street south to Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District.
But the expansion of the High Line raises questions about spending at a time when the state is facing a major financial crisis. And the High Line, while a privilege for the city, is a convenience rarely used by low-income residents and coloreds.
However, the governor believes that the growth of the park is important for the future of the city.
“FDR believed in building major infrastructure projects to lift the economy,” Cuomo said. ‘But there was another purpose to raising people’s spirits. When you lift the spirits, you increase the economy. ”
Mr. Cuomo plans to formally announce the expansion on Monday during his state of the nation address.
The High Line project began after two men – Joshua David, a writer, and Robert Hammond, a painter – met at a community council meeting in 1999 and discovered that they had an interest in saving a railroad box that has been out of order since 1980 and has been planned for demolition.
Construction began in 2006, and the first section, from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street, was opened to the public in 2009. The third phase – then considered the final phase – opened in 2014, extending the elevated walkway from 30th Street to 34th Street. , which revolves around the Hudson Yards development.
The project is celebrated worldwide, but it was also expensive, with construction and maintenance funded almost exclusively by private funds. The latest construction road cost $ 35 million. According to city officials, the first two divisions of the High Line cost $ 152 million.
Government officials estimate that the connection between the High Line and Moynihan Train Hall will cost about $ 60 million, although that figure may change.
Mr Cuomo said a third of that would be state-funded; another third comes from Brookfield Properties, the developer of the mixed-use development next to the train station; and the rest come from non-profit groups and other private organizations.
Mr. Hammond, a founder of the Friends of the High Line, said the money had not yet been raised. He said he was initially skeptical about the new project. “I felt that the High Line was the High Line and that it was no longer needed,” he said. “Which got me really excited about the fact that it was this civilian connection.”
Mr. Cuomo, acknowledging that the state is experiencing serious financial difficulties as a result of the pandemic, said its share of the cost comes from infrastructure funds that cannot be used to address the budget deficit. He said the state also expects federal government assistance for infrastructure projects after Joseph R. Biden jr. Became President.
The High Line has accelerated a transformation in the West Side of Lower Manhattan, part of the city that has been fueled for decades by working-class homes, light industrial enterprises, and clothing, meat, and mail storage facilities.
It enchanted tourists and spurred the development of luxury high-rise buildings.
A 2012 study by the New York City Economic Development Corporation said property values near the park rose 103 percent between 2003 and 2011.
But the park has also been criticized for contributing to the displacement of low-income people and people of color living in the surrounding neighborhoods. Mr. Cuomo noted that there would be no relocation of actual buildings during the expansion.
One of the groups that has criticized the High Line is Save Chelsea, a coalition that preserves the character of the area.
Pamela Wolff, Save Chelsea’s treasurer, who is 85 and has lived in Chelsea since 1956, said on Sunday that life in the area has changed a lot since the High Line opened.
She said the High Line has led to a constant influx of tourists and expensive new apartments that have been praising residents for years.
“It was difficult to find a way to live with that kind of influx into the community,” she said. Wolff said.
As for the expansion, Ms. Wolff said: “I do not see why we would have strong objections to it,” as long as no historical structures were destroyed to build it.
Proponents of the expansion include Brad Hoylman, a state senator whose High Line includes the district. He said on Sunday that “getting it right is always going to be more expensive, but at the same time I think it’s one-off projects.”
Mr. Hoylman said it is critical to get in touch with the community as it has been since the park’s first development.
“I think the reason why the High Line was so successful is that it was created at community level and was involved by stakeholders in the area from day one. That’s why we definitely need to repeat that model with this new connection,” he said. Hoylman said.