The Highline
1. What things surprised you when you visited the Highline?
One of the coolest things I saw on my Highline trip was a paint installation made from recycled cardboard provided by one of the vendors. He used cardboard provided by the icecream sandwich truck and recycled it, cut it into squares and charged money to paint a square. You could take the square or put it in the display that had numerous artworks on it. Not only was this eco-friendly but it was promoting the importance of the arts to children and people of all ages.
2. Considering the events of Hurricane Sandy, how do you think the creation of more urban parks or natural elements along the coastline could affect on the damage created by other similar storms in the future?
According to City Lab the North America Risk Reduction and Resilience Project Manager at The Nature Conservancy. One of Woiwode’s projects is the Naturally Resilient Communities initiative, which brings together a toolkit of strategies communities can use to improve their ability to weather storms without leaning so heavily on traditional gray infrastructure. Installing a feature such as a dune or marsh, he added, “is an investment in infrastructure much like a road or seawall.” City Lab also added that “Wetlands and other nature-based infrastructure defanged Sandy’s bite by up to $625 million in the Northeast, according to a paper published this summer in Scientific Reports.” Planting trees, wetlands and including green infrastructure, like the
Highline could lessen the damage of future storms by absorbing some of the impact and water.
3. “Sustainable Land Management is defined in this report [IPCC Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse gas fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems Summary for Policymakers Approved Draft] as ‘the stewardship and use of land resources, including soils, water, animals and plants, to meet changing human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources and the maintenance of their environmental functions.’” Do you think the Highline has met this definition of Sustainable Land Management? Why or why not?
The Highline does in many ways fulfill this definition of Sustainable land management. It fulfills human purposes by providing a tourist spot to visit and thus allowing for business, vendors and so forth, to flourish. It also uses land that would not have been used otherwise effectively and takes into account water conservation and utilizes biodiversity to protect the soil by preventing degradation. THey have thought about long term by introducing native plants that were already there and giving them a place to flourish. Specifically, the trees will come in handy in CO2 and runoff absorption in the future.
4. What link, if any, does the UNFCCC data have to the predictions in “This is New York in the not-so-distant future.”?
On page 13 of the UNFCCC Report, it highlights that coastal zones have, “increased risk of flooding and inundation due to extreme weather,” which mirrors the sentiment brought up in “This is New York in the not-so-distant future.” On page 12 of the report, over 60 nations faced the risk of sea level changes, over 100 had the risk of experiencing extreme weather patterns and over 80 had run the risk of flooding. The article suggests that the ‘latest scientific findings suggest that a child born today in this island metropolis [New York City] may live to see the waters around it swell by six feet” (Lee). These predictions, extreme or not, do match the data in that both show that changes are happening. Sea levels are rising, extreme weather patterns are appearing, it is only a matter of time before something drastic, like the flooding of major coastal cities, occurs.
5. What kind of precedent, if any, does the Highline set about urban parks?
Considering that the Highline was developed on an old railroad, it brings forth the idea that unused land can be turned into something beautiful. People, when making decisions about park creation and so forth can be so pressed for space or land, when there are plenty of places, that if revamped can become their own Highline or an urban park. It is no longer necessary to find regular park space or go through extreme development top make a typical park setting, but that what already exists can be built upon and improved to serve multiple purposes. Also, by using the plants that were already flourishing, it means that less tending, energy and watering can be used which is better for that park or environment. Overall, it presents that giving a new life by building upon the foundations of an urban ground can have amazing results.
6. How has Highline affected the environment around it?
The establishment of the Highline has had numerous effects on the environment around it. According to the New York Post, “The air along the High Line was, on average, a third less polluted than that around the sidewalk below, and the walkway was more than 40 percent less noisy, said the researchers, who combined the results to produce an air/noise index” (Sauchelli). The pollution levels in the vicinity of the Highline has decreased with the introduction of more plants that absorb CO2 and other pollutants which is beneficial. However, considering the construction that has occurred in the region around due to the popularity of the location one can argue that it has been negative. New developments, large buildings, require substantial amounts of land, natural resources and energy in order to build. The large amounts of energy and land taken out of the environment and spent on these projects can be damaging to the environment. Area that could have been parks or green infrastructure is used to build another mall or apartment block. The use of fossil fuels could lead to more pollution. There are positives and negatives associated with this site in terms of the environment.
7. If you could add one more thing to the Highline what would it be and why? Would this be beneficial to the environment, if so how?
I do not feel that the Highline is as kid friendly as could be because it lacks sufficient play areas for children. Some more childlike fun should be had on the Highline with the implementation of a playground, monkey bars, slides or a sandpit would really give the park a better place for families to bring their children.
8. Considering the location of the Highline in an affluent area, do you think the wealth of that neighborhood has any correlation to the environmental efforts? How does this compare to environmental efforts in less-affluent regions?
In the article “Environmental Racism And The Fight For Green Space In The South Bronx,” A community member said, “Now why do we have to wait for those higher income earners to get here before we create something that can really benefit the community” (Phillips), in reference to “recent urban renewal projects in New York City that feature green space, such as the High Line Park in Lower West Side, Manhattan or the Brooklyn Bridge Park” (Phillips). In the article, despite land being available, the funds and resources are not the same in poorer communities. Therefore urban parks or environmental projects, in many cases are needed, but are not established because other areas can afford to build them and poor areas can’t.
Works Cited
Hester, Jessica Leigh, et al. “The Rush to Storm-Proof Waterfront Parks.” CityLab, 17 Nov.
2017, https://www.citylab.com/environment/2017/11/new-york-city-parks-guidelines/546218/.
Lee, Jason. “When Will New York City Sink?” Intelligencer, 7 Sept. 2016,
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/09/new-york-future-flooding-climate-change.html.
Phillips, Ari. “'Environmental Racism' And The Fight For Green Space In The South Bronx.”
ThinkProgress, 9 Oct. 2014,
Sauchelli, Dana, and Beckie Strum. “High Line Far Less Polluted than Sidewalk underneath It.”
New York Post, New York Post, 26 July 2017, https://nypost.com/2016/01/11/high-line-far-less-polluted-than-sidewalk-underneath-it/