Real Estate That Gives a Little and Takes a Lot

“An Eden Above the City” (May 15) waxes rhapsodic about the uses of Manhattan’s disused elevated rail line. But it missed the real use being made of the “High Line”: as a real estate Trojan horse that will destroy the atmosphere of an entire swath of the city. As a 22-year Chelsea resident who has attended local meetings and studied the city’s zoning changes, I can say that most of us who live here and once supported the plan now oppose it. In return for a strip of weeds and flowers, we’re going to be walled in by 10 solid blocks of 30-story buildings, where the average dwelling currently is five stories.

The result will be a Great Wall of Chelsea that profits developers and, not incidentally, relegates the High Line to the status of a rain gutter. That the plan is fronted by folksy artists and misguided Hollywood stars reminds us that the real Trojan horse was also a putative work of art.

Don Wallace

New York City