Highline Park, New York —

New York has a lot of quirky areas but the new Highline Park trumps most. Basically, this is a swath of floating prairie in the middle of Manhattan. At first glance, it looks like a bit of a gimmick but by the time you traverse its present nine block course, it feels like a completely natural and integral part of the city.The Highline is a 23 block railway bridge built in the 1930’s to get freight traffic off the streets. This is an impressive construction and I’m sure it was very helpful at the time but since a train hasn’t passed this way in almost 40 years, it wasn’t contributing much. Now it is.

Stepping onto the promenade at its southern end at Gansevoort Street, I had immediate criticism for the park’s gardeners. A lot of the plantings appear to be dead and the place has only been open for four months! A helpful plaque clued me in on what I was missing. During the years of it’s disuse, the Highline became home to a wide variety of wild grasses, shrubs and rugged trees such as sumac. Some smart guy (quite a few actually) thought that the structure’s history should play through in the park’s design. Hence, not only does the scrappy landscape survive but sections of the original tracks are integrated as well. It gives you an eerie idea of what may remain once we are gone.

The park also covers some fascinating urban geography. It begins in the trendy Meat Packing district. Remember that funky loft that Glenn Close had in Fatal Attraction? It was here under the Highline that she first took advantage of industrial elevators for sex. Back then, meat was still packed all along these streets but now it is a landscape of boutiques for those not suffering in the recession.

Just a few signs hint at the good old days of beef and blood.

Making your way north, you’ll notice the new Standard Hotel. Actually, you’ll walk right under it. To create a bit of sizzle, the newly opened hotel encouraged its guests to indulge in nasty behavior in front of the guest room’s floor to ceiling windows. Honest. It worked really, really well and the neighbors were super ticked and the hotel made a hasty retreat on this innovative policy. I did see a guest hammering away like crazy on his laptop. Basically, anything you do up there will be enjoyed by all.

If you are a bit disappointed that you missed out on the Standard’s exhibition policy, fear not. A few blocks up the way in Chelsea, there’s a nice billboard of Victoria and David Beckham in their underwear.

Next year, another 10 blocks of the park are scheduled to open, leading you almost all the way up to Penn Station. I look forward to revisiting this lovely new park and watching in slowly grow into maturity.