No they can't take that away from me. . .or can they?

Despite it's lack of outward charm, I have always liked Tenth Avenue. I've liked it's empty sidewalks, it's tunnel entrances, car washes, and pockets of low brownstone tenements. I've liked knowing that in some of the warehouses on the side streets, painters like my friend Mary Beth McKenzie have lived and worked under the radar for years in vast, cheap, and sometimes heatless studios. But mostly what has always drawn me to choose 10th for my walk downtown as opposed to the more bustling streets to the east is that because of the low density of buildings, the vistas have been plentiful and interesting. I know that a lot of people love "the grid" of Manhattan, but I don't, particularly, and the thing about 10th and its ramshackle silhouette is that even though you are walking in a straight line, your eyes meander so you feel like you are in a city with a more idiosyncratic layout. But with the opening of the High Line and the coming of Hudson Yards, 10th is changing rapidly. All up and down the avenue the air reverberates with the sounds of construction and soon there will be high rise apartment buildings blocking the panoramic views. I am afraid that ultimately 10th Ave will become just another canyon.

I walked down 10th today from the UWS and when I got to 30th street, I climbed up on to the High Line which itself meanders wonderfully alongside of Chelsea. The High Line has the almost miraculous power of making the city look like a totally different place and along the way there are some things to see that I hope won't ever change: excellent water towers, the Empire State Building behind the rooftop of the curiously named London Towers, a wall that will always serve as canvas for great graffiti masters. But the vista that I love the most is the one out across the Hudson to the Erie Lakawanna Railroad station in Hoboken. The station with its beaux arts clock tower is landmarked, but alas the view of it from the High Line is not. See the construction site which was right at my feet? Soon there will be another building there and if I had to bet, I would bet on its being so tall that the view of the station will be gone. That, I think, is a pity.