The Highline Park June 2009

Curse that bubbleshare. I typed up a nice long description and the bubbleshare system lost it. Now I have to retype it but I am doing it in Word so that I can save it and resubmit it until bubbleshare’s kludgy system finally accepts it. The Highline was an elevated railroad that traversed lower Manhattan on the West side through lower Manhattan. Use was interrupted “temporarily” while they built the Javits Center and then was to resume but never did. The lowest section was torn down in 1983 and there were plans to tear down the remainder. Instead, dedicated philanthropists and loyal New Yorkers donated money to turn the remainder into an elevated park. The finished section of the park ends at 20 St but is to continue up to 30 St and maybe beyond. I walked to 20th St but that is presently an exit only and had to walk down to Gansevort St, presently the only entrance. There is a line to get in but it moves quickly. They stamp your hand with an “HI” as you wait in line. The park is quite lovely. Railroad tracks remain but there are concrete walkways and flower and herb plantings as well as places to sit. The Highline goes under and through some buildings. There is a bathroom in one of the buildings. The mens room has one urinal and one cubicle. There was a line to get in. I had thought that only women had to endure such things. The cause was a man who never emerged from the cubicle and I speculated on whether he had died there. I was going to check the papers the next day to see if I had experienced the first death on the Highline but I forgot. The other cause was a man who took the longest and most luxuriant piss I have ever seen. I would swear that he must have shared ancestry with a camel

Conversation overheard on the Highline between two middle aged women. "Sometimes I wish we had never left the city. We used to do so much more here." A heartfelt "yeah" was the answer. This kind of puts it in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen. What does life in flyover country have to offer besides horrible food and listening to the grass grow? Nascar and Jesus? Ugh.

The Highline Park June 2009