matthewatthehighline's blog

Amanda Burden, Chair of the New York City Planning Commission, has long been a supporter of the High Line-- she sheparded through the 2005 West Chelsea Rezoning which allowed its preservation. And excellence and hard work was recognized recently.

For the very first time that we are aware of, the High Line was featured in a New York Times Editorial. In it, America's paper of record challenges the City and Tishman Speyer to seize the opportunity provided by the development rights to the West Side Rail Yards and to do the right thing and "preserve all of the High Line, the 1.5-mile stretch of elevated railway that is being transformed into a green jewel of public space."

There was considerable pride and a few tears as we read this unprecedented shout-out by the Times.

Read the editorial  on the Times site, or after the jump.

Boston may own New York in baseball, but in regards to creative re-development of disused behemoths of the mid-20th century, they may be woefully behind Gotham. Consider Sunday's Times article describing the slow evolution of the park being built atop the Big Dig where Boston's old Southeast Expressway used to run.