That is part of the appeal of the weirdly beautiful High Line. Not the manicured park, with its concrete boardwalk and hordes of tourists but what came before on the 1.5-miles railroad trestle, the despoiled beauty of Mother Nature set loose in the wilds of Chelsea, undisturbed for decades but for the occasional trespasser.

More than 10 million visitors have taken in the breathtaking views of the city’s skyline and the Hudson River and traipsed through its minimalist landscape of historic tracks and native grasses since the High Line park opened in 2009. It has encouraged development in Chelsea and Meatpacking, inspired artists and filmmakers, and managed to polarize the surrounding neighborhood before it has even been fully restored.

Yet the thin strip of pre-post-industrial wildlands that made that all possible is about to disappear.

The feeling was inescapable during a bittersweet walk on the overgrown final half-miled of the trestle last weekend, one of the last chances New Yorkers got to visit the final untended piece of the High Line before it is recast along with its burnished siblings.

About 800 fortunate people traipsed through the half-mile stretch encircling Hudson Yards last weekend in an event organized by Open House New York and Friends of the High Line and sponsored by the Japanese retailer, UNIQLO. Tours continue this coming weekend, though they are totally booked up.

A better sponsor would have been Timberland boots.

The path begins on West 34th Street, next to the last set of idling Megabuses bound for Pittsburgh and Toronto. It unfolds through an arc of unpruned apple trees and Oriental bittersweet before curving gently toward 12th Avenue. It kinks again at 30th Street, running out to the spur that may someday become a theater at the base of great office towers. The renovated High Line, and the reality of New York, reemerge here.

The skyline, river, plant life and rail line all compete for your attention, forcing visitors to slow down to fully appreciate the park. This is a space for ambling.

It’s a nice problem to have.

“They did a beautiful job with this,” said Ellen Appleby, who made the pilgrimage on Sunday. “It’s not an English rose garden or a formal French garden. They kept the informal feel of all these weeds and created a wonderful place.”

Everywhere granite and quartz ballast stones are scattered about the tracks. Railroad spikes jut unevenly from weathered, garnet-colored rails. Deteriorated wooden ties bend and give under the weight of footsteps. Patches of wildflowers, native grasses, and peach trees that germinated on the rail beds are so thick they are nearly impenetrable.

The new plans for the third section call for retaining much of this wilderness, but it will no doubt bear the mark of the manicured.

Students of history can see remnants of the country’s post-industrial might.
The oldest section of the grounds was built in the 1930s and contains metal railroad parts emblazoned with the names of northeast steel companies. A hydraulic switch with is patent number clearly visible at the park’s 30th Street entrance was made by Racor, the Ramapo-Ajax Corp, a Hillburn, NY company near the Ramapo Mountains also known as the Ramapo Foundry Company.

A railroad frog, those junctions allowing trains to switch tracks, bears the handiwork of the Bethlehem Steel, the country’s second-largest steel company, which built ships for the U.S. armed forces and the steel used in the Golden Gate Bridge. Other rail parts have the name “Lackawana,” an Erie County steel company that became a Bethlehem subsidiary in 1922.

But other manufacturer parts that litter the High Line trail have more unusual origins.

Caramel colored ceramic insulators with no markings on them can be found above 31st Street. And several steel plates securing wooden planks on the rails contain a jumble of numbers perhaps indicating their date of origin or some other code.
Perhaps even more mysterious is the growth of a variety of native and non-native plant species along the inhospitable terrain.

Even when it comes to our invasive flora, New York is a magnet for immigrants.
Volunteers have identified dozens of flowers, grasses, and trees that have taken root since the trains stopped running on the line more than three decades ago.

On the path above 12th Avenue grow peach and crabapple trees, elegant branches of Frost Aster, dormant stalks of Queen Anne’s lace, fading yellow goldenrod, spiky white Thoroughwort, purple Centaurea or thistle, and a handsome Juniper bush. Friends of the High Line are well known for their creative fundraising efforts--Diane Von Furstenburg has made numerous collaborations--so perhaps a High line gin is in order.

Photographer Rick Darke, who was cataloguing the season’s growth, hoped that New Yorkers would equally welcome native and non-native plants growing on the High Line. “Invasive is a pejorative term, it should be really called hyperadapted natives from other places,” he said. “Some of these species have been in New York for over 300 years. How do you determine what makes a native New Yorker?”

Still, the tour evoked mixed feeling, as New Yorkers witnessed the last time the High Line will ever look this uncultivated. City officials already broke ground on the third leg of the park last month. Construction on its $90 million refurbishment will begin later this fall and the first phase of the new space will be open by 2014.

Landscape architect James Corner Field Operations and designers Diller Scofidio + Renfro will remove the rail spikes and wooden boards, and add scores of concrete planks creating a smooth pathway for people to stroll and linger. Planting designer Piet Oudolf will preserve many of the wild grasses and flowers above the rail yards, but he can’t save everything.

For access, we are paying the price.

The cost of creating a New York space for millions to enjoy is sacrificing a portion of the unkempt splendor that drew its early admirers to the site in the first place.
But perhaps that’s the way with all New York institutions. The elevated track could have been scrapped entirely and its preservation remains a great victory for the public.

“This is a wild garden that has survived without any chemicals or irrigation,” said Darke. “This is the most sustainable garden in New York. It is a triumph.” The current High Line costs millions of dollars a year to maintain, an amount Friends of the High Line has struggled to raise on a consistent basis.

When the park is finished, it will no doubt be a triumph, too, the kind of transformation the city has not known since Central Park. But we can still acknowledge the beauty that was there before, before it is gone for good.

Change on the tracks. (Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)

The High Line. Rejuvenator of neighborhoods, destroyer of neighborhoods.

Those are basically the two media narratives surrounding the elevated park on Manhattan's West Side, which just held the groundbreaking for its third and final phase today. Most of the attention in the past has been on how great the design-y new park is, but as locals learn to live with the millions of visitors who flock to the park each year, some of them have started to complain, most notably in the Op-Ed pages of the Times, that the High Line has actually ruined, or at least Disneyfied, the neighborhoods surrounding it.

Asked about these changes today, Mayor Bloomberg did not necessarily disagree with the situation, just the sentiment.

"Cities that don’t change—if we didn’t change, Central Park would still be a shantytown; if we didn’t embrace new technology or medicines, life expectancies would still be 25 years old," the mayor said. He then recounted what sounded like a favorite New Yorker cartoon where two cavemen discuss their wonderful lives but limited lifespan. He was not calling Chelsea long-timers troglodytes, we think, but underscoring the need for change.

Creating more park space, whatever its outcome, is not the only issue, either.

"Cities have to evolve," the mayor continued. "We have a constant influx of people from around the world moving to this city, and the needs of the people who are here change. Today people are staying because the schools are better. Today we have a challenge because we need to provide more activities for more kids than we used to have. People from around the world want to come here. There’s always a challenge how you have enough affordable housing, how you build housing when the marketplace says it’s more and more valuable because more and more people want to come."

After all, this is New York. "We’re going to keep changing, and that’s what’s great about New York," the mayor concluded.

Joshua David, one of the High Line's co-founders, went further, arguing the High Line may even be a victim of its own success.

"I also think the High Line gets too much credit and blame for the changes in the neighborhood," he explained. "The Meatpacking was the Meatpacking way before the High Line. These condos, these developments were coming to Cheslea with or without the High Line. What you do have is a free, public, open park. And despite the changes, this is a strong reminder of the neighborhood’s industrial past."

"It’s hard to think we would be better off without it. You’d still have the new development, you’d still have the new changes, you just wouldn’t have the new public open space."

Do the setback! (Studios Architecture)

The earlier 10th Avenue addition, sans setback. (Studios Architecture)

Much of the debate around the expansion of the Chelsea Market has centered around not the former Nasbisco factory turned popular shopping center (and subsequent tourist attraction), but the old railroad trestle next to it.

Part of the justification for expanding the market by 25 percent was that, in addition to providing construction jobs and new office space for the city's booming tech sector, the developer of the project, Jamestown Properties, would pay about $19 million to the High Line, to help fund ongoing maintenance. But there was also great community outcry over the fact that much of the new addition would be built on the 10th Avenue side of Chelsea Market, directly overhanging the High Line.

Earlier today, the City Planning Commission unanimously approved the project's expansion, and addressed a few of these concerns. The 10th Avenue addition will now be set back from the High Line, stepping back like a wedding cake as it rises, providing more air and light over the elevated park.

But the agreement was not a total victory for the Friends of the High Line, who are desperate for funds to keep the expensive park in shape. As a salve to community concerns about affordable housing, roughly one-third of the $19 million Jamestown had promised to the park will go instead into an affordable housing fund, which can be spent on projects in the neighborhood.

"We are gratified by the City Planning Commission's thoughtful and balanced approach in consideration and approval of Jamestown's application to expand the Chelsea Market," Michael Phillips, Jamestown's COO and project manager on the expansion, said in a statement. "With the leadership of Commission Chair Amanda Burden, the commission has modified the application to allow for some of the funds generated through a zoning bonus to be used for affordable housing, an approach that follows the road map set forth by the community board."

The board tentatively approved the project earlier this summer, raising questions about its size and a lack of affordable housing. They also fought against the possible inclusion of a hotel in an expansion planned over Budakkan on the Ninth Avenue side of the project, a concern echoed by Borough President Scott Stringer when he voted against the Chelsea Market expansion in July. He also lobbied for the project to be moved away from the High Line, though he preferred moving all of it to Ninth Avenue.

The Ninth Avenue addition, which had once been taller and included a hotel. (Studios Architecture)

As part of the agreement to win approval from the commission, Jamestown agreed to remove a hotel from its plans. It also reduced the height of the Ninth Avenue addition. That piece will now rise to 135 feet, even with the neighboring roofline of the market, rather than to a height of 160 feet.

As for the setbacks on 10th Avenue, they begin at the top of the market where the new addition is pushed back 15 feet, followed by another 10 feet when the new section reaches 185 feet, with a few more setbacks from there up to a final height of 230 feet. That is shorter than the neighboring Caledonia condo building though still taller than a number of the neighboring industrial buildings.

Altogether, the modifications reduce the expansion's overall size from 325,000 new square feet to roughly 285,000 square feet. The market currently contains about 1.2 million square feet of office and retail space.

"With these modifications, I believe this will be a great addition to the West Chelsea neighborhood," Commissioner Burden said before the commission voted unanimously to approve the project. "The additional office space will serve what has become a destination for creative and technology industries, and this new development will provide critical amenities to the High Line."

Despite the funding cut, Friends of the High Line also applauded the project's approval. "The City Planning Commission made a number of thoughtful changes to various aspects of the plan," Friends co-founder Robert Hammond said in an email. "We are pleased with the way the plan is moving forward, and we will continue to work with the community."

While polling has found general support for the expansion in the city, some locals still oppose the addition. "It's fiddling with the margins," said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "When you look at how much West Chelsea has been upzoned in the past 10 years, more than any other community, when you add to that an upzoning of one of New York City's most beloved landmarks, it just adds insult to injury."

He said the affordable housing contributions are "a sham" because, like a kitty set aside from the 2005 rezoning of the neighborhood, into which these new funds will also be deposited, none of the money has so far been spent. Though that is more a problem for the city than Jamestown.

He vowed to continue fighting the expansion at the City Council, where it will be taken up in the next two months ahead of its likely approval. The project lies in Council Speaker Christine Quinn's district, who has found herself stuck between addressing the concerns of her neighborhood base in Chelsea and the demands of the real estate industry, who appear to favor her as their candidate in next year's mayoral elections. How she threads the needle on this project will be interesting to see.

Who needs a proper playground when you have this? (FotHL)

One of the chief complaints against the Chelsea Market expansion explored in this week's Observer is that the project held no benefits for the community, only the High Line, which was receiving $19 million toward a long-term improvement fund.

It is only the latest sign of the park's pull in the neighborhood and in the city, but here is another: DNAinfo dug into the city budget and found that the High Line is getting $5 million toward the creation of its third section. That is many times what neighboring amenities are getting, such as Hudson River Park, which is in much more dire shape.

[T]he nearby Hudson River Park, which has projected an $80 million deficit over the next 10 years and desperately needs some $100 million to rehabilitate a crumbling Pier 40, is only set to get $618,000 for capital projects from those appropriations, according to City Council budget documents.

The High Line has been derided as a folly for tourists, and one local advocate is complaining that only a sliver of the money going to the elevated park would help his cause to build the first playground in the neighborhood in decades.

Matt Weiss, who's spent years leading the charge to build a park on a 10,000 square foot Department of Sanitation lot at 136 W. 20th St. said that the High Line is a treasure for the city, but questioned the $5 million allocation — particularly because he said the elevated park is not a children's playground and was hard to access for families living on the eastern portions of the neighborhood.

"In reality, less than half of that amount could bring the first new playground to Chelsea in 44 years," Weiss said. "It ... makes you ask where our elected officials' priorties are."

Plans go here. (Friends of the High Line)

"I'd love to see a locomotive up there," Chelsea resident Grant Anderson said before a packed auditorium at P.S. 11 last night. His proposal for the third and final section of the High Line, encircling the Hudson Yards, was met with a burst of spontaneous applause.

Not only did it have the proper fanciful feel of the park that seems to float, as if by magic, above the hubbub of Manhattan, but it also had its antecedents.  "One of the great things about the High Line is you still get a sense of history," he continued. "Just imagine the feeling—looking up and seeing a train and boxcar down the street."

The locomotive idea caught the imagination of the some 200 New Yorkers that showed up for the first of what will no doubt be many meetings to figure out what to do with the final section of the celebrated park.

Mr. Grant's proposal was actually the most daring of the evening, surprising considering the possibilities the park seems to offer and the New York penchant for outsized plans and zany schemes. Instead, sensible schemes dominated. No giant bronze pigeon statues, no gigantic movie screens, a fashion catwalks or even a pool either. What was on offer was mostly met with a unison of sage, thoughtful, nodding heads.

Attendee's voiced concerns over whether section three would relate to the neighborhood in the same way that the first to had embraced their surroundings.  One Manhattanite commented, "I think there's a danger that it may become just another nice planted park," in light of plans for the yards to be covered up and replaced with new shiny buildings. "It could lose some of the grittiness that makes section one and two great." Though never mind that that part of the High Line is now ringed by very shiny condos.

Attendees really seemed to hop aboard the history train. "People not from New York come here and think 'when did they build this?'" said one avid High Line fan from Long Island. "They have no idea of what you guys have gone through to build this, so what about erecting a permanent display to tell the full history."

Friends of the High Line co-founder Robert Hammond answered, revealing that when planning the first two sections, they "didn't want it to be cluttered with signs," he paused and said "We maybe went too far in limiting the signage." The Friends are now talking to the Parks Department about adding more signage and a possible cell phone history tour people can avail of.

Along with the Locomotive idea, the other most popular suggestion of the night was to create a dedicated performance space. Most agreed that the obvious best place for this would be the 'dead end' spur, a section of track that kicks out at 30th Street and creates one of the widest sections of the elevated park.

"Bathrooms", was the one word suggestion posed by a lady clearly on a mission, but until the High Line headquarters is built in 2013, more restrooms seem out of the question, the organizers responded. "I don't think we can wait until 2013" said another Chelsea woman. "On a Saturday the line is just unbelievable."

"I can't get more bathrooms until 2013, I wish I could," responded Mr. Hammond.

Growing vegetables was suggest by one person who thought it would act as a great educational point for the whole community, she was told that the planting is a primary concern but a vegetable patch is a valid recommendation  it but would need more support and research.

Before the meeting was thrown to the floor Mr. Hammond made a half-hour presentation outlining the Friends of the High Line's current draft proposal, which broke down the third section into a number of promising zones, including overlooks, "event" spaces and other "microclimates."

The big news Mr. Hammond revealed that the Friends are hoping to finish the High Line to before Hudson Yards, including a temporary walkway on the western side providing access, while Related forges ahead with construction on its 23-million-square-foot project. The prospect of an early opening was met with enthusiastic approval. "Josh and I thought 'why don't we build a temporary walkway and getting it up as soon as possible?'" Mr. Hammond said, referring to his Friends co-founder Joshua David

Only one dissenting voice was heard during the night. A woman who identified herself as a member of the Police Department, went on a meandering, somewhat pointless rant. "I walk through this neighborhood everyday to work, there's potholes in the ground, with cars constantly going over and into them, there's homeless... all you hear up on the High Line is foreign voices, no one speaks English." Apparently struggling to make a solid point, the woman told how she "spoke to one of the maintenance people" who told her it takes $150 million a year to maintain.

Mr. Hammond, flanked by an eager Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, assured her that the figure to maintain the park was $3 million a year, and every cent of that is raised by private donations. There was also the fact that a recent study showed roughly 50 percent of High Line users were New Yorkers, 25 percent foreign tourists and another 25 percent from the other 49 States.

The meeting concluded amidst smiling faces and shaking hands. "I remember it in the '70s and the change is phenomenal, it enriches mine and my wife's days just to look down on it" said Warren Kass, whose apartment overlooks the park. Artist Bob Schechter came to offer up all the money from his next exhibit to the High Line fund. "This neighborhood is nothing like it once was," he said, "Years ago in the day time they sold meat. And at night they sold a different type of meat!"

"The High Line is designed in a way that moves people like a vector through the urban context," Javier Santos offered. "A lot of the settling platforms just look off onto street-ways." He added, as an endorsement of a performance space,
"A reason to sit is something I'd want."

sduffey@observer.com

You decide. (Friends of the High Line/YouTube)

That was the easy part.

Now that the High Line has become a smash success, Friends of the High Line has to decided what to do with the third and final section of the elevated park, which surround Hudson Yards. After fighting for decades to preserve and then transform the old rail line, it was not clear this section of track would be preserved or replaced by some alternative park, as the city worked to redevelop the site.

The Related Company and the Bloomberg administration both agreed it should be, and now that their work is underway in creating a new Baltimore on the West Side of Manhattan, so too is the Friends' job of figuring out what should surround it.

That all starts tomorrow night.

Unlike the first two phases of the High Line, which were created by the Friends and their collaborators at Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Field Operations, the park group has decided to open the final phase up to the public for input on what should grow on the tracks in the future.

They even put out a call on YouTube, and the first of what will no doubt be many meetings to discuss the final section of the park is being held tomorrow at 6:30 at P.S. 11 in Chelsea—which should leave enough time to catch the sunset from the High Line before hand.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

It's a good thing no one drives in Manhattan, because pretty soon there will be nowhere for repairs. (PropertyShark)

The High Line has been held up as a dynamo of economic development, generating billions of dollars in new condos, boutiques and restaurant, even attracting a museum or two to a lot where cattle carcasses once hung. It's such a big deal, there's no room for the little guys.

Alan Brownfield has run the auto body shop his grandfather founded in 1920 for decades now, but his family business was ruined in a matter of years by a few concrete benches, wildflowers and tourists, according to the Post. "I'm getting pushed out . . . [The park] has been a nightmare," he tells the tabloid.

"My grandfather started the business in 1920, horse-and-buggy time. There were no cars. He was doing the leaf springs on carriages. And now they want me out? Please."

Brownfeld said his lease ends today -- but that he's not going down without a fight. "I will pay my rent. If [the landlord] does not take it, I put it in an escrow account," Brownfeld said, adding that he pays $15,000 a month for the 50-foot-by-100-foot lot. I'm going to fight this until the judge's gavel slams down and says I have to vacate the premises."

"I want to leave with head held high, not pushed out by the city, not pushed out by the landlord, not being thrown out because of a stupid park."

Robert Hammond, one of the co-founders of Friends of the High Line tells the Post that "We enjoy the way the auto-body shop fits into the cityscape and makes the view from the High Line so interesting" but it appears the 2005 rezoning of the area makes it too enticing not to just throw up another condo.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

"Normally, the farther you get from the subway the less expensive the housing is," said [Friends of the High Line co-founder Robert] Hammond, who confessed that he rents an apartment in the West Village. "But the closer you are to the High Line, the farther you are from the subway, and still, the closer the apartments are to the High Line, the more expensive they get."

More remarkably, The Times notes that, on the eve of the opening of the park's second phase this Tuesday, it has created $2 billion of economic activity. All that from a $115 million investment in the park itself and a rezoning of the property surrounding it. So maybe cutting the city's capital budget is not the wisest thing.  

Meanwhile, the Post reports that a few new condos does not a neighborhood make:

Some residents say the wave of tourists keeps them from being able to enjoy the park. "It's bringing a lot of business," said Andrea Norlander, 45. "But there's no community there," she said. "It's not a neighborhood."

So, despite all its successes, there's no room to stop and smell the roses on the High Line. Though these kids might beg to differ.

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mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

Mr. Glimcher stood at the end of the covered entry gallery appropriately lit with hurricane lamps. The thin-lipped septuagenarian, who opened the earliest incarnation of the Pace Gallery 50 years ago in Boston, welcomed well-wishers with smiles.

"It's nice when you look at really early things like all the pop stuff that we were there selling," Mr. Glimcher mused to a guest, batting a bamboo frond out of his way. "Warhols for $200 and Oldenberg's for $150."

"How much was De Kooning?" asked Lisa De Kooning of works by her father.

"We were selling De Koonings, too. I had sold 'Women' drawings, probably the first things I sold were in the late '60s."

"The thing my father told my mother about the 'Women' series, he turned to her and said, 'Jesus, Elaine, I wouldn't wanna meet her in a dark hallway.'"

Mr. Glimcher chuckled low and appreciative, "I'm so glad you're here."

Quite literally a block party, an unrolled carpet of inch-deep fresh grass extended south from West 25th Street to the northern sidewalk of 24th Street. The graffitied walls of what is usually a parking lot under the High Line and the braille-like rivets of the track's girders were the only reminder of what the Cinderella-like space once was. Now glowing with oversize white paper lanterns and fairy lights, looped swag and jabot from the High Line's underbelly, thick bouquets of sunflowers, moss-covered settees and thickly striped black-and-white table cloths created a Narnia out of asphalt.

Artists included in the exhibition reveled under the train tracks, including Jim Dine, Joel Shapiro, John Chamberlain and Chuck Close.

Asked what 50th anniversary the artist would most like to celebrate, Mr. Close, minimalist chic in a slate silk scarf and black flannel fedora trimmed with a grosgrain ribbon, also black, replied flatly, "I don't know, I've been married 43 years and I'm getting divorced, so I'm not going to have one of those."

Über-collector Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, effervescently explained that they had flown in from Paris the night before, "especially for this!"

"We were at the opening of the Murakami exhibition at Versailles and we were also at the Jeff Koons exhibition there."

Asked what 50th anniversary he would like to celebrate, Mr. Broad smiled warmly that he and his wife already celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary five years ago.

And they're not the only ones. Mr. Glimcher and his wife, Milly, celebrated their golden anniversary earlier this year, but with a more low-key celebration: "We just had our children and grandchildren to dinner."

What was on the menu?

"Roast turkey--it is my favorite meal--with mashed potatoes and stuffing and cranberry sauce."

Like the couple's anniversary, this celebration featured hordes of Glimchers--children and grandchildren, including gallery president Marc and his wife, Andrea.

Around 9 p.m., the birthday cake floated above guests' heads on caterer's palm-up hands. Skinny tapers in thematic black and white crowned a four-tier tray of crème-brûlée-caramelized doughnuts.

Helping Mr. Glimcher celebrate his 50 years as gallerist were artist progeny, some barely half the gallery's age. The coterie of second generations included Kate Prizel Rothko, Ms. de Kooning, Chiara Clemente and Vito Schnabel.

"I would dance like nobody's looking," answered Ms. de Kooning when asked how she would celebrate a 50th anniversary of her own.

"My father said to me when I was 13, and I was getting angry about not being able to go to a party, he looked at me and he said, 'You know, Lisa, there's always another party.'

"And I thought, 'Wow, he's right.'"

It takes some chutzpah to question the wisdom of Willem de Kooning, but the Pace Gallery's golden anniversary under the High Line may prove the Abstract Expressionist wrong--there's not always another party like this.

At a back table, Mr. Close tapped his hand on his knee to the beat of Michael Jackson playing overhead: "People always told me be careful of what you do, don't go around breaking young girls' hearts ..."

--Chloe Malle

At a City Planning Commission meeting this afternoon, chair Amanda Burden said the commission is preparing the paperwork for the city to purchase the stretch--between 30th and 34th Streets and the spur over Tenth Avenue--all of which is currently owned by the rail company CSX.

"We're thrilled," said Peter Mullan, the Vice President for Planning and Design for Friends of the High Line. "It's really the linchpin for saving the High Line at the railyards. It doesn't guarantee preservation but it's the first step towards that," he said.

The acquisition would mean that any changes to the property would be decided through a public process--and what with the public adoration for the viaduct-turned-park, it would seem to be a considerable safeguard. Friends of the High Line had been pressuring the city to take control of the stretch for months, fearing that it might fall outside the public purview as the developer, Related Companies, finalized plans for the site.

But Related has insisted all along that the High Line is in its plans, and Mr. Mullan praised their commitment after today's announcement. "Putting it in their plans gave a strong signal to the city that there was no reason not to move forward," Mr. Mullan said.

The second stretch of the High Line is currently under construction, and is expected to open before the end of 2010.