An hour in New York on Top of My Head

If you had an hour or two to spare in New York and were in a hurry head to the High Line, either sit on top or under, it depends. New York's unexpected skyline takes turns.

Thank the Lord Giuliani didn't get his hands on the High Line, one thing is to eliminate crime, another is to eliminate a beloved yet unused rail road sitting on top of our New Yorker heads.

I had first read about the High Line's green-evaluation for an article on ecological transformations around worldwide cities. Living in NYC for 8 years it had never occurred to me that Central Park wasn't enough. Like every New Yorker nothing could have replaced - and never will - THE park. In fact you would never address it by its name: are you going to the park? "Are you going to Central Park" just sounds phony.

Rail roads are an immense part of American History, and like anything historic, Americans will fight to the end to preserve it. This is what happened with the abandoned snake cove: the High Line. Now a park referred to as the High Line and not "the park" or "a park".

It's the addition to NYC's skyline and a message of environmental hope: detriments too can become beautiful.

During a lay-over this winter, I hopped into a cab to meet my college roommate and best friend Jenny for lunch in the city. JFK destination The Standard Hotel, time allowed: 3 hours max. Counting traffic, my coming from the East end, crossing to the meatpacking district, and still having a long enough time to hug, gossip, and eat, means I love NYC.

This was "our" table.

The Standard Grill is chic yet understated, exactly what New Yorkers like.

An hour of protein dieting, shrimp cocktail and white wine, the loveliest yet most random lunch had to come to an end. The sadness of departure was broken by my raising my head incidentally (as a real New Yorker one knows that it's seldom done) and coming face to face with the High Line.

The best thing any city can do to the ones that live there is to keep surprising them.

Text by Acelya Yonac

Find out more about the High Line on: nationalgeographic.com

Reserve your best friend lunch at the Standard: thestandardgrill.com