“Have you walked the High Line yet?” This question kept coming back to me and my companion in community when we first found ourselves living in New York City. The High Line?? Initial explorations had taken us to numerous destinations of some renown – Times Square, Central Park, Ground Zero, the MET, St Patrick’s Cathedral, the Statue of Liberty… to name a few – but the High Line?
And so it happened that on our first Pentecost Sunday in New York, we set out for our inaugural stroll along what historically had been an elevated train line. In a nutshell, we learned that the original street-level railway, established in the mid-1850s, had run along Manhattan’s West Side transporting coal, meat, dairy products and produce.
Despite the efforts of “West Side Cowboys” – men on horses waving flags in front of the trains – the line became notorious for accidents between the freight trains and cross traffic. A much-debated improvement project resulted in the establishment of the elevated train tracks in 1934, eliminating over 100 street-level crossings, enabling the transport’s service to prosper.
With the growth of interstate trucking in the 1950s, however, the railway fell gradually into disuse. Threatened by demolition, a community nonprofit, Friends of the High Line, began lobbying, in 1999, to save and transform the city structure into public open space. Ten years later, the once abandoned railway had been reimagined as a park with a unique city perspective, and now, fifteen years into its ongoing repurposing, the route also features spaces for art displays, public performances, and nooks to relax, snack and connect with friends and neighbours.1
I have not forgotten my astonishment at the Smokebushes in full bloom that Pentecost, images of the feast’s flames leaping to the skies in celebration!
On a more recent visit, I noticed “Old Tree” for the first time, sculpted by Swiss artist, Pamela Rosenkranz, and was astonished once again. Visible from the street below the walkway, the bright red-and-pink tree archetype, made to resemble the branching system of human organs, blood vessels and tissue, stands 25 feet tall, stretching upward in sharp contrast to the surrounding glass-sheathed skyscrapers.2
Rosenkranz’s startling image resonates in me still, taking me back to community conversations over the past year in which we explored holons as part of our Thresholds of Transformation process.3 “Old Tree,” for me, uniquely depicts the global community of trees as the essential circulatory system of our earth on which all of life depends. Spending time with “Old Tree,” I love each tree more, I love our earth community’s one-ness more, I appreciate more deeply the interdependence that is our lifeblood.
There really is no telling what the love of a community is capable of doing – with an abandoned railway, or with steel, resin and paint.
When you come to visit us in New York City, we’ll take you to the High Line!
1 “History,” High Line, 2024, https://www.thehighline.org/history/ .
2 “Art,” High Line, 2024, https://www.thehighline.org/art/projects/pamela-rosenkranz/ .
3 “Thresholds of Transformation: Personal, Communal, Systemic Transformation,” 2024, https://thresholdsoftransformation.org/ . Also see the reference to this process in the blog by Sandra Stewart, “Love Changes Everything,” 24 June 2024, https://rndmcanada.org/2024/06/24/love-changes-everything/ .
Claudia Stecker is a Sister of Our Lady of the Missions (RNDM). She was missioned to the Philippines in 1997 and worked as an educator, first, in Cotabato, at Notre Dame University, and, later, in Manila, at Asian Social Institute. Her subject areas included pastoral sociology, leadership, music and education. Claudia was also employed by Kuya Center for Street Children where she took part in establishing a microfinance initiative among urban poor families. Over the years, Claudia served the congregation, too, in leadership, formation and finance management, returning to Canada in 2021. From 2023, she has been missioned to New York, USA, where she serves as a host community member in a LifeWay Network safehouse for women survivors of human trafficking.
I’ve heard of many things in NYC – and I’ve never heard of the High Line. Thanks for introducing me/us to this place – and to the creativity behind it. As you say, “There really is no telling what the love of a community is capable of doing.” When I get to NYC to visit you, I want to also visit the High Line!!