Love traffic? Go to the High Line

My friend Brett was in from D.C. this weekend so I was trying to take him to non-traditional, no milling-about-like-a-cow-in-a-line touristy things like Coney Island (I shot the freak in the head, fyi). Boy did I fail when I took him to the High Line.

For people who don't know what it is check out the New Yorker's in-depth coverage of the High Line:Yep. That's it. Apparently this space was originally constructed in the 1930s, to lift dangerous freight trains off Manhattan's streets. Then it closed in 1980 and opened again in June as a public park.

"A public park? Let's go!" you might say as Brett and I did. We swerved through massive crowds and rushed up some steps to see...a semi-decent walkway lined wall to wall with tourists. We join the traffic in the right lane and went from 14th St to...20th St. Then we saw a line to somewhere that must be more than concrete and "native" weeds and daisies but no, it was to get back down.

So why are all these people coming here? It's new. Which means it's trendy. And New Yorkers would go to the Random White Block of Wood Museum if it was new and had a funny picture drawn about it in the New Yorker.

The largest viewing pad on the entire walkway is the space pictured at the top of this post where you can sit down on a bench and watch traffic. So that's what we did. We watched traffic.

However, I guess if you know where to look you can peep on all the High Line's neighbors. Some are having sex in their hotel rooms. Other are in their apartments doing cabaret shows. Really, it's true! As one New Yorker in the article linked to above said, if you know where to look "It's like a nudist beach in Manhattan."