For more than a decade, the High Line, an elevated park that stretches almost a mile and a half across the West Side of Lower Manhattan, has been a symbol of ambitious urban renewal: an elegant, tree-lined walkway created from an old track – railway line that cuts through former industrial neighborhoods.
Before the pandemic, it became a major destination in New York for out-of-town residents and visitors, attracting nearly eight million people in 2019.
And now, the park, which showed how the city can reinvent itself and reimagine decaying spaces, must be expanded.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said on Sunday that the High Line will be extended to connect to the newly opened Moynihan Train Hall, a project he said will help stimulate development in neighboring neighborhoods and boost an economy facing a deep crisis because of of the pandemic.
The new link, officials said, will provide an alternative way to access the new station, which serves the Amtrak and Long Island Railroad. It is part of a broader package, including the new train corridor and improvements sought for Pennsylvania Station, which aims to improve the mass transit experience in and out of New York City.
“Traffic has reached impossible levels and has never been efficient or effective,” said Cuomo in an interview. “But it is clear that if the metropolitan region is going to grow, public transport has to be better, safer, more pleasant, especially in this new world.”
A 1200-foot elevated walkway will connect the existing High Line on 30th Street to a pedestrian path in Manhattan West, a mixed-use development adjacent to the train corridor.
State officials were unable to provide a specific timeline for when construction on the expansion would begin or when they expected it to be completed.
Moynihan Station, opened on January 1 – a $ 1.6 billion building complete with more than an acre of glass skylights, art installations and 92-foot ceilings – is just one in a series of ambitious projects infrastructure, including the Second Avenue Subway along Manhattan’s Upper East Side and a rebuilt La Guardia airport, which the governor is trying to make an important part of his legacy.
The state is also eyeing another possible expansion of the High Line to connect it north to Pier 76 on West 38th Street, where Cuomo wants to turn a Police Department trailer into another park. The existing High Line travels 1.45 miles from 34th Street to the south to Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District.
But expanding the High Line raises questions about spending at a time when the state is facing a major financial crisis. And the High Line, although a gift to the city, is a little used by low-income residents and people of color.
Even so, the governor believes that the park’s growth is important for the city’s future.
“FDR believed in building large infrastructure projects to improve the economy,” said Cuomo. “But there was another purpose, which was to lift people’s spirits. If you lift your spirits, you improve the economy. “
Mr. Cuomo plans to formally announce the expansion on Monday during his State of the State address.
The High Line project started after two men – Joshua David, a writer, and Robert Hammond, a painter – met at a community council meeting in 1999 and found they shared an interest in saving an out-of-service railroad trestle. since 1980 and was scheduled for demolition.
Construction began in 2006, and the first stretch, from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street, was opened to the public in 2009. The third phase – then considered the final phase – was opened in 2014, extending the elevated footbridge of 30th Street at 34th Street, circling the Hudson Yards development.
The project was celebrated around the world, but also expensive, with construction and maintenance financed almost exclusively by private funds. The most recent construction step cost $ 35 million. The first two sections of the High Line cost $ 152 million, city officials estimate.
State officials estimate that the connection between the High Line and the Moynihan Train Hall would cost about $ 60 million, although that number may change.
Mr. Cuomo said that a third of it would be financed by the state; another third would come from Brookfield Properties, the developer of the mixed-use development near the train corridor; and the rest would come from nonprofit groups and other private organizations.
Hammond, founder of Friends of the High Line, said the money has not yet been raised. He said he was skeptical at first about the new project. “I felt that the High Line is the High Line and I don’t need any more,” he said. “What really excited me was being that civic connector.”
Mr. Cuomo, recognizing that the state was facing serious financial difficulties because of the pandemic, said that its share of the cost would come from infrastructure funds that could not be used to help resolve budget deficits. He said the state also expected help from the federal government for infrastructure projects after Joseph R. Biden Jr. became president.
The High Line sped up a transformation on the West Side of Lower Manhattan, a part of the city that for decades was lined with working-class homes, small industrial businesses and warehouses for clothing, meat and mail.
He delighted tourists and helped to spur the development of luxury tall buildings.
A 2012 study by the New York City Economic Development Corporation said that between 2003 and 2011, property values near the park increased 103 percent.
But the park has also attracted criticism for contributing to the displacement of low-income people and people of color living in neighboring neighborhoods. Mr. Cuomo noted that there would be no displacement of real buildings during the expansion.
One of the groups that criticized the High Line is Save Chelsea, a coalition dedicated to preserving the character of the neighborhood.
Save Chelsea treasurer Pamela Wolff, who is 85 and has lived in Chelsea since 1956, said on Sunday that life in the neighborhood has changed a lot since the High Line opened.
She said the High Line led to a steady flow of tourists and new expensive condos that left the price for old residents.
“It has been difficult to find a way to live with this type of influx in the community,” said Ms. Wolff.
As for the extension, Ms. Wolff said: “I don’t see why we would have strong objections to it”, as long as no historic structure has been destroyed to build it.
Proponents of the expansion include Brad Hoylman, a state senator whose district includes the High Line. He said on Sunday that “doing it right will always be more expensive, but I think that, at the same time, these are projects that occur once in a generation.”
Hoylman said that involvement with the community would be essential, as has always been the case since the park’s first development.
“I think the reason the High Line is so successful is that it was created at the community level and had the involvement of neighborhood stakeholders from day one, so we should certainly replicate that model with this new connection,” said Hoylman .