Something Old, Something New
by Marvin N. Miller, AIB President

I recently had an opportunity to visit High Line Park in the Lower West Side of Manhattan. It was a Sunday morning after a hearty breakfast with old friends – the perfect opportunity for a walk. What I experienced was not only a new way to view New York City, but it was a new way to renew decades-old friendships. Indeed, I was able to experience both growth in relationships and growth in my perspective of a city at the same time.

My childhood memories of New York City largely revolve around visits to an aunt and uncle who lived there. My uncle was a composer and his life was off-Broadway. Our visits consisted of watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and occasionally taking-in a Broadway play. As a result of those visits, I never particularly thought of New York as a green oasis of any kind. Yes, there was Central Park, as well as some other less famous neighborhood parks, but the sights and sounds of New York that stuck with me growing up were of crowds and concrete, traffic and blaring car horns, and the occasional theater marquee. New York was a nice place to visit, but I was glad we didn’t live there.


When my friends suggested we visit Greenwich Village for breakfast and then “walk the High Line,” I really had no idea what a transformational jaunt I was about to experience. Yes, I had read an article or two about this repurposed, once-abandoned, elevated railroad bed turned park. But what the High Line presented was a whole new way to view the city and a greater appreciation for my friends’ increased awareness of the role plants can play in our lives.

Walking the High Line gives visitors the opportunity to see the city from a different perspective, often about 25 feet above the streets below. The plant material, a mix of small trees, shrubs, grasses and reeds, and plenty of perennials and wildflowers, set the tone. What you are witnessing is a rebirth of an old relic, with plenty of heritage. In the process, the city has also seen a resilience, as the High Line has helped revitalize the neighborhood and has quickly become one of New York’s major tourist attractions. The blooming plants afford the visitors the opportunity to experience what walking down the middle of a large perennial border might be like. But this plant border is one and a half miles long and runs through the heart of Manhattan. Parts of the New York City skyline at times frame the High Line; at other turns in the path, the plant material frames the views. There are also occasional views of the Hudson River. Truly this is a fine example of giving new meaning to the environment by embracing the heritage of the surroundings.

As for my friends, seeing their excitement for the High Line made the experience all the more meaningful for me. Jon and Lee always knew about plants, and Jon even got his undergraduate degree in biology. But for the past 30 years or so, these transplanted Floridians have raised a family in a New York suburb of Northern New Jersey that has repeatedly been involved with America in Bloom, and they have participated in their city’s efforts to enhance that environment. They understand the mix of plants in a landscape – trees, flowers, shrubs, turf, and groundcover – add to the quality of life.

They also understand that plants are much more than pretty. Whether it is enhancing the environment, helping to create a tourist attraction, creating an oasis in the middle of an urban jungle, adding to the economy, or even helping to revitalize an entire neighborhood they understand the power that plants can have for a city. Plants have added greatly to High Line’s park-like atmosphere, and this has meant a great deal to “The Big Apple.”

It has also truly changed my perspective of New York City. I now can embrace the slogan that New York, New York, is the “city so nice, they named it twice.”