Sunday, July 18, 2004
Aaron Nabbed By Federal Agent On High Line (!)
Well, I wanted to be adventurous... Like any self-respecting NYC-based blogger and photographer, I wanted to experience the lovely, abandoned urban anomaly on sticks that is the High Line. For my non-NYC readers, the High Line is a defunct elevated freight railway (pictured left) that citizens are fighting to preserve as a park and promenade, fighting obtuse developers that wanted to tear it down. It's private property, yes, I knew that.. But it beckoned, and off I went, in Exclesior mode, with my camera and my mp3 player.
So I headed for the Greyhound bus yard at 34th St and West Side Highway, as suggested by Gothamist, a NYC-themed blog. That's where the elevated railway touches ground, before climbing 20 feet up and extending over a mile southward, all the way to Gansevoort St in the Village, mostly running between 10th and 11th avenues. I snuck through between two large trailers (pictured left)and climbed up an embankment, on to the tracks.
Exhilerated, I began my way upward, between the rails, among the weeds and wildflowers and shattered beer bottles, past flies, butterflies, and the occasional bee, and took a few pictures, shown left and below. I'd gone about 100 feet when a loud, angry voice from below insisted that I 'get down here right now' and inquired what the hell I was doing. Startled, I looked down and saw a uniformed agent with a gun. I froze, and he reiterated, or rather shouted, that I'd better come down and not try to run away. Alas, descending his side of the tracks involved a 10 foot drop with not much to grasp on the way down. And descend, I did, landing unharmed, and I went to face an irate federal agent.
With his vocal chords on volume 10, the agent pointed to the 'no trespassing' posters and told me I could spend the next three days in jail, or just receive a summons, if I was lucky. He took my driver's license. I think I handled myself very well. I was calm, sober, polite, respectful and projected the aura of a decent person caught doing something admittedly dumb but not really harmful. I didn't speak much. He read me the riot act, and asked me questions, including why I did it (because it was pretty, I answered), where I worked, if I was working for lawyers, architects, or any of the many interested parties in the High Line struggle.
In the end, he was lenient, giving me a summons to appear in Community Court, which, similar to a speeding ticket, will not go on my record or be reported to my employer. I signed the summons (see copy below) as requested, took a copy and my license, apologized, and walked home. Not quite the adventure I had hoped for, but at least I saw a small corner of the High Line. Happily, Friends of the High Line appear to be winning the battle, and I suspect that the rustly rails will house a beautifully green and serene urban promenade by the end of the decade. I'll have to make a contribution. This, by the way, made me the second Friend of The High Line to face prison in two days. Yes, that's right, Martha is a Friend. : - )
Today my blog is exactly six months old! What a way to celebrate....
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