Arts in NYC

It was just an ordinary day.  I was taking a stroll through New York City when I came across an entrance to the High Line.  I had heard about the High Line in the media and from my friends, but I had never actually been there before.  As I passed by the entrance on 14^th Street, I decided that I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  Everyone always talked about the beauty and the peacefulness found atop the heavenly High Line.  It was my turn to experience it.  I walked up the stairs and I thought to myself “Wow! This is really –!”  I hit the ground like a ton of bricks.  A German tourist (I know this because he was speaking German and holding a map of New York – and no self-respecting New Yorker needs a map of New York) walked into me like he was Secret Service and I was John Wilkes Booth.  As I’m recovering, standing up from being knocked down, he didn’t even stop to apologize for nearly knocking me into a coma.  But I just shrugged it off and kept walking along the High Line.  One can say the High Line is like a pinball machine.  As I walked, I was getting knocked around like a human pinball, one person smacked me into another, and he smacked me into a third, and so on.  I now had a splitting headache and I saw the exit stairs.  I was so thrilled as I walked toward them.  Then, all of a sudden, a group of about 100 speed walkers walked into me from behind like a stampede and carried me like a wave all the way past the exit stairs.  Now I’m enraged and I begin to run to reach the next exit, when I see a bunch of children playing in the grass.  This seemed genuinely peaceful, like a scene from a movie.  Some of the children were playing by the edge of the High Line, when I began to think to myself, “Huh? The rails are pretty low; the Park’s Department should –!”  One by one, the children started climbing over the edge of the rail, plummeting down to the ground below them.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  I started running again for the next exit when I saw what I feared the most.  Walking towards me was a group of yuppie Manhattanites, with their bow ties and top hats, walking sticks and tuxedo tails, and like always not a care in the world and a complete disregard towards others.  I soon found myself on the ground once again, now being trampled by the next hindrance on the High Line.  When they finally walked past me, I got myself up, brushed myself off, and ran for the exit.  I could see it … it was so close.  Right at the top of the exit stairway, there were a group of pirates!  That’s right, pirates.  I figured that they were pretty harmless, when all of a sudden, a guy walked by and one of the pirates shanked him in the back.  As the pirates started to walk down the stairs, I ran by again hoping that the next exit would be close by.  I ran, bruised, bleeding, and concussed.  I ran, and I ran, as fast as I could.  I hit a fence.  I turned around and I saw it.  I was so proud of myself.  I had made it to the end of the line.

Conceived more than 100 years apart, Coney Island and the High Line are two New York City sites which are both products of their times, reflecting different ideas about recreation, culture, and society.  The two locations are very difficult to compare, because I believe that they are somewhat different.

Both of these attractions offer its visitors an escape from the world around them.  The High Line takes its visitors above New York City, giving them a bird’s-eye view of New York.  It contains a handful of artwork dispersed throughout the walkway.  The High Line also includes benches along both the edge of the el and near the old train tracks, now overgrown with foliage.  It also contains a viewing gallery, where people can sit and overlook the New York traffic as it drives by underneath them.

Coney Island takes its visitors away from the busy streets of Brooklyn and propels them into an entirely different world.  Coney Island houses the boardwalk, a peaceful walkway along the Atlantic Ocean.  The area also contains parks, ballparks, and amusement parks, and notably an aquarium.  It’s the home of the original Nathan’s Famous and also is the end of the line for five of New York’s MTA subway lines.

“The most peaceful high place in New York right now is a stretch of viaduct called the High Line.” (Gopnik).  This is the way that Gopnik described the High Line, as opposed to the way that Gorky described Coney Island as a place where people “become a particle in a [gigantic] crowd.” (Koolhaas 68).  My personal experiences have brought me to believe that, today, these descriptions are reversed.  According to what I saw, Coney Island is a peaceful place to go; whereas, the High Line is a place where one gets lost in an enormous crowd of people, and peace is the last thing one can find.

I found that when I was at Coney Island, most of my time was spent on the Boardwalk.  I went on a Saturday afternoon, and I found the Boardwalk to be a very peaceful, relaxing place to be.  I was intrigued by the old parachute jump outside of MCU Park, due to its immense size and finding that it was composed of symmetric and repeated geometric shapes.  I feel that it is like the Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn.

I found that while I was on the High Line, most of my time was spent shielding myself from other people and tourists around me.  The High Line was anything but peaceful.  It was jam-packed with people, trendy and rude locals and tourists alike.  I felt like I was playing touch football, I would get slammed into from the left and as I was flying right, I would get slammed into from behind.  It was so full of people that I could barely walk unencumbered.  I do feel, however, that the High Line would be a potentially calm place to be, less the immense crowd.

Both the High Line and Coney Island were the opposite of what I expected to find.  Perhaps my off-season visits gave me a wrong impression of the sites.  Reading articles and seeing pictures of the High Line, people expect it to be an empty, peaceful place.  Maybe the High Line is different on a Saturday afternoon than at other times.  Likewise, people expect Coney Island to be a jam-packed, boisterous place, with crowded beaches and the hugely popular Mermaid Parade.  But in late September, it is a calm, fun place to be, with thinning crowds.  I hope to one day return to the High Line to find that empty, peaceful place, and to go to Coney Island during the peak of Summer and be greeted by a large, rambunctious, but fun crowd of Brooklynites.

 

Gopnik, Adam. “A Walk on the High Line.” The New Yorker May 21, 2001: 44-49. Print.
Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York. New York: Monacelli Press, 1994. Print.