A tale of two meat-packing districts. The top photo is from last week's New York Times on how the Stand Hotel downtown is such a wonder to behold. Straddling on stilts over the new Highline Park (which is snow covered in the top photo), the hotel has an angle to it and integrates itself with the former elevated railroad tracks. The neighborhood surrounding it was functioning as Manhattan's meat-packing district until recently. Restaurants, boutique hotels and luxury shops slowly but surely took over the once desolate neighborhood known formerly for prostitutes and an infamous sex club.
Photos 2-4 are of Manhattanville anchored by West 125th Street. The grand viaduct running over 12th Avenue itself is a scientific wonder compared to the meager Highline Park track and could be adapted into a park because the byway seldom has traffic worthy of its multi-lane span and could be narrowed into single lanes for each direction. Many of the structures below, ignored by government agencies, were former stable houses, factories, meat-packing and dairy centers, representing an industrial past perfectly preserved for adaptive reuse.
Columbia University considers the area blighted and is using eminent domain laws to take over businesses and residences. The Landmarks Preservation Commission will not give Viaduct Valley its blessing as an area worth protecting since Columbia has City Hall involved. Yet entrepreneurs with an eye toward revitalization have recently converted a strip of warehouses into restaurants and a nightclub at the most northern section of the valley, and pioneer businesses such as Dinosaur Bar-b-que and Fairway are thriving in comparison to some competitors downtown. A few locals believe that Columbia's demolition and rebuilding of this historic neighborhood will provide more jobs and opportunities, but it seems that Manhattanville can do fine on its own terms if given a chance to evolve instead of dissolve.
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