- Title: New Yorkers soak up the sun on High Line park, nearly empty at its reopening
- Date: 16th July 2020
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 16, 2020) (REUTERS) EMPIRE STATE BUILDING SEEN FROM THE HIGH LINE WOMEN PUSHING STROLLERS WITH TODDLERS, WALKING PAST A ONE WAY SIGN AND 6 FT. APART SIGN TODDLER ON STEPS AT 10TH AVENUE SQUARE & OVERLOOK WINDOW VARIOUS OF 31-YEAR-OLD CHARLES JOSEPH AND 31-YEAR-OLD BRIDGET FARKAS SITTING ON STEPS, LOOKING OUT WINDOW (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK CITY RESIDENTS, CHARLES JOSEPH AND BRIDGET FARKAS, SAYING: CHARLES JOSEPH: "I feel good. I feel good seeing the trees again, walking around again, feeling the breeze. It's feeling like normal again." BRIDGET FARKAS: "Yeah, no, definitely. We're really excited that this has opened up. I feel like we both feel pretty safe about it. We live really close to the High Line. So we're just really grateful to be back." CHARLES JOSEPH: "I feel that it's a tough moment right now. And like, we just have to find the beauty in the tough moments and enjoy it. And that's the way we'll make it through it." BRIDGET FARKAS: "I think definitely during such a chaotic time, we're adapting, if that makes any sense. So that's nice to see. Just day by day. Definitely. But I think New York City is doing a really, really... I'm really happy we're both here. We're very happy with how um..." CHARLES JOSEPH: "We've adjusted to everything that's going on right now, because we can't live in fear forever. All we've gotta do is adjust, make sure we're careful, make sure that everything we're doing is planned and taking precautions before just, anything being reckless." VARIOUS OF 24-YEAR-OLD SAKEENA MOEEN AND UNIDENTIFIED MAN WALKING ON HIGH LINE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT, UNIDENTIFIED MAN, SAYING: "In New York, all over, it feels much like, way more normal now, way more normal. I mean, we were here in March or April and May." (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT, SAKEENA MOEEN, SAYING: "Yeah, it was very eerie. Eerie. Yeah, I think. But now it's really nice. I mean, the weather's better, so that helps. The sun's out. But I mean even with people with the masks on and everything, I think it's way nicer to have more life in the city and people are out. The new normal is quite OK. It's quite good." SIGN READING (English): 'STAY 6-FEET APART' (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE HIGH LINE, ROBERT HAMMOND, SAYING: "We're reopening the High Line, so we're welcoming New Yorkers back up here after, you know, several months of being closed." PEOPLE WALKING PAST 'ONE WAY' SIGN (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE HIGH LINE, ROBERT HAMMOND, SAYING: "It's not back to normal and, you know, it's probably never going to get completely back to normal. And so, but we hope, you know, that this is something for people to be able to do who have been cooped up. It's also, I think, going to feel really safe because there's going to be so few people." VARIOUS OF FLOWERS ON THE HIGH LINE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE HIGH LINE, ROBERT HAMMOND, SAYING: "In a day like this last year, you know, we could have anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 people. Today, we're just going to have, you know, max, probably a few thousand, and any one time, less than a few hundred." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ON THE HIGH LINE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE HIGH LINE, ROBERT HAMMOND, SAYING: "Even less than 20%. Our main priority is keeping people safe. And so that's why we've done a few things differently, we're having timed entry, one way, and, you know, encouraging everyone to wear masks, of course." VARIOUS OF THE HIGH LINE SIGN FOR THE HIGH LINE VARIOUS VIEWS OF THE HIGH LINE FROM STREET LEVEL
- Embargoed: 30th July 2020 21:51
- Keywords: COVID-19 New York The High Line coronavirus park stay-at-home orders
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001CN26YX3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A few dozen New Yorkers wandered through Manhattan's elevated High Line Park on Thursday (July 16), marveling at the lush gardens, city views and lack of crowds as it reopened with limited capacity after a four-month shutdown due to COVID-19.
The park, a 1.5-mile (2.3-km) strip of green built on an old elevated railroad that runs along Manhattan's West Side, was one of few city parks to close in March, in part because it was too narrow to permit proper social distancing, the attraction's board of directors said in a statement.
"It's not back to normal and it's probably never going to get completely back to normal," co-founder and executive director of the High Line, Robert Hammond, told Reuters. "But we hope that this is something for people to be able to do who have been cooped up. It's also going to feel really safe because there's going to be so few people. In a day like this last year, we could have anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 people. Today, we're just going to have, max, probably a few thousand, and any one time, less than a few hundred. Our main priority is keeping people safe. That's why we've done a few things differently, we're having timed entry, one way, and encouraging everyone to wear masks, of course."
The High Line that opened on Thursday, which was mostly empty and its walkway dotted with bright green circles spaced six feet apart, was an unfamiliar sight to New Yorkers who know it as a tourist haven. That made it an especially welcome respite for the lockdown-weary.
"We just have to find the beauty in the tough moments and enjoy it," said 31-year-old Charles Joseph, who lives nearby.
"During such a chaotic time, we're adapting," said 31-year-old Bridget Farkas.
One of the city's most popular tourist attractions since it opened in 2009, the High Line attracts millions of visitors every year.
Visitors now must make reservations to enter the park at a specific time under new rules in place to prevent crowding. Staff members were stationed throughout the park on Thursday, reminding visitors of another new policy: foot traffic can only move north from the Gansevoort Street entrance at the park's south end to prevent bottlenecks.
A few people sunbathed on wooden lounge chairs wearing masks and sunglasses. Others snapped selfies, pushed strollers or read books in the shade.
The city, once the epicenter of the United States' COVID-19 crisis with more than 6,000 new cases daily, has recorded fewer than 300 new cases daily in the last week with a positive test rate of about 2%.
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