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Tenement Talk dishes inside scoop on High Line

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The pathway rises eight feet above the High Line, winding through a canopy of trees, between West 25th and West 27th Street.

BY SCOTT STIFFLER  |  It’s hard to believe at this point in the game, but there was a time when opposition to the very notion of turning the High Line into the aboveground oasis it is today came in the form of lobbying efforts whose promo material spouted zingers like “The High Line is too narrow. It won’t even be able to fit this backyard playset…our city needs money for important things.”

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That was then: The High Line, circa 1953.
Class acts that they are, Joshua David and Robert Hammond don’t dwell on how ridiculous such arguments look in hindsight. They don’t have to. The nearly 200 dynamic photos in their book do that job for them.

Read all about it, then learn all about it, when the authors discuss “High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s Park in the Sky.” The event is part of The Lower East Side Museum’s Tenement Talk series. Free. Thurs., March 15, 6:30pm. At the Lower East Side Tenement Museum (located at 91 Orchard St.; talk takes place at 103 Orchard St., corner of Delancey). Call 212-431-0233 or visit tenement.org.