Concerned Citizens

While I was scanning through some of my news sources I saw that the High Line in New York City had recently opened. This project is  reclamation of an old elevated rail line that ran through New York City and had fallen into neglect after the rail lines moved off the elevated track. Deconstructing it would have been an expensive venture. Instead, NYC took a different approach and created a green space running throughout the city, albeit above the city. It runs on Manhattan’s Westside through the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea, Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen, and the West Railyards. The first phase recently opened and now provides residents and workers in that area a place to rest and relax. It’s a great example of urban core renewal. But is this an isolated project?

The answer to that question can be found up IH-35 in Dallas where a similar project was completed a while back along the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad line and is now called the Katy Trail. This trail also runs along an old rail line through the core of some of the most densely populated areas of the city. It’s a hiking and biking trail that runs for 3.5 miles from the American Airlines Center north almost parallel with Central Expressway. Daily you can find the trail full of joggers, walkers, and cyclists in an interesting dance of traffic. It’s almost as busy as Central Expressway at times.

I was first introduced to the Katy Trail when I visited friends who lived in the Knox-Henderson area of Dallas on McKinney. From their condo the trail was two blocks away and gave me a great place to jog in the mornings. It was great to wake up and jog through the neighborhoods without having to worry about traffic or other distractions joggers commonly have to deal with. It continues to be expanded and is serving as a way for neighbors to connect with each other along the trail. You see, the trail serves as a great place to get out and meet your neighbors. It reconnects the city.

A similar project can be found in Minneapolis with the Midtown Greenway which converted a former railroad corridor extending across 29th Street into a public open space with recreational trails and space for future transit purposes. I’m sure there are other projects with a similar approach being taken across the country. If you think about it, it’s a great way to turn something that would be hard to reclaim for other purposes due to the unique footprint of the space, long and narrow. It also helps add to the network of bike and jogging trails that cities are in short supply of as we went through our years of urban sprawl.

It something we should consider in San Antonio as we work to improve the urban core and develop new means of transportation for the city. In my Open Letter to the mayor I pointed out the need for more bike transit options within the city after talking to several friends who are moderate to avid cyclists. This could help serve as a new way to provide this functionality while reclaiming neglected space.