The New York Central Railroad ran its last train, three cars filled with frozen turkeys, along the lower-Manhattan West Side Line in 1980. The elevated spur line opened in 1933. For eighty-plus years prior to that, the New York Central used tracks along 10th and 11th avenues to transport commodities it the heart of New York City. Heavy rail did not mix well with street traffic. A 1910 study estimated 548 fatalities and 1,574 other injuries along what came to be known as “Death Avenue.”
The Westside Improvement Project, begun in 1929 and spearheaded by the infamous Robert Moses, included an elevated railroad spur to replace the grade-level tracks. The new line ran through the middle of blocks instead of over the streets, enabling the unloading and loading of rail cars inside warehouse and factory buildings. In true Robert Moses fashion, construction necessitated the demolition of 640 existing buildings.
High Line – now
After the railroad had abandoned the line, property owners along the route agitated for its demolition. A citizens group formed to promote its re-purposing. Thus was born the Friends of the High Line. After years of debate and red tape and searching for funding, work began in April 2006 for the new High Line Park.
The pedestrian-only park has become popular with residents and tourists alike. Visitors stroll along its mile and a half length, in some parts alongside rusted tracks left as a reminder of its history. Since the elevated park’s opening, the storied and deteriorating Chelsea neighborhood has seen a revitalization. New residential construction has risen along the High Line’s route. Rents are higher than neighboring apartment buildings and new residents are now complaining about the tourists. The Whitney Museum’s new digs recently opened at the base of the park.
The Friends of the High Line is responsible for the park’s maintenance and has done major fund raising for its support. They also are adamant that the park is for everyone’s enjoyment, as evidenced by prominently-placed signs.
Bridges spanning the Columbia River to connect the states of Washington and Oregon often had tolls to pay the construction costs. The tollbooths were usually removed after the construction bonds were retired. The tolls were generally collected at the Oregon side, leading one to believe that Washington was not to be trusted with the revenue.
The Longview Bridge, connecting Longview WA and Rainier OR was privately built and owned. Lumber magnate Robert Long – namesake of the town – was the driving force behind the $5.8-million bridge that opened in 1930 with $1.00 toll for cars and 10¢ for pedestrians. (No record of which end of the bridge collected the toll.) The state of Washington purchased the bridge in 1947 and discontinued the toll in 1965 when the bridge was paid for. The name was changed to Lewis and Clark in 1980. The bridge, 340 feet above the river at its peak, is 8,288 feet long.
Longview also boasts another privately-built bridge. At 60 feet, considerably shorter than the Lewis and Clark, the Nutty Narrows Bridge opened to squirrel traffic in 1963. Local resident Amos Peters was disturbed by the carnage of squirrels trying to cross Olympia Way, a busy thoroughfare in Longview. With assistance from a local architect and an engineer, Amos and a friend built the bridge. It soon received publicity and fans around the world. With construction cost of $1,000, it never had a toll, but squirrels generally do not carry cash.
The Nutty Narrows Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
A popular trope from environmental zealots has been to tell us about a plastic-garbage patch the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean. Turns out that’s just another attempt to scare us with misinformation about the coming environmental apocalypse. It’s not the size of Texas; it’s the size of TWO Texases. And it’s growing faster than anyone thought.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has attracted so much attention that scientists now use the shorthand GPGP.
Marine Conservationist Charles Moore displays a toothbrush found in the Central North Pacific Ocean whilst holding a banner which reads ‘Is This Yours?’ This is part of the Ocean Defenders Campaign in which the Greenpeace ship Esperanza MV sails to the Pacific Ocean, sometimes referred to as the North Pacific garbage patch, to document the threat that plastic poses to the environment and sea life.
The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle. Thomas Ryman, saloon and steamboat entrepreneur, spearheaded the project in an attempt to bring Christianity to the masses. In its first few decades, to help pay down construction debt, non-religious entertainment was often booked into the facility. W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin and Harry Houdini were among the many to take the stage. Teddy Roosevelt and Helen Keller lectured there. In spite of Jim Crow laws, the Ryman sometimes hosted integrated audiences.
The Ryman became famous as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 until 1974, when it moved in 1974 to Opryland USA, a shiny new entertainment-shopping-hotel complex away from downtown. Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge sat around the corner facing Broadway. It became famous on its own as a place where future stars paid their dues. Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Roger Miller got started at Tootsie’s. Ernest Tubb’s revered record store across the street is visible through Tootsie’s window.
When the Opry departed, the core downtown became a seedy place to avoid. Demolition of the Ryman Auditorium was proposed. The venerable hall was saved, renovated, and again became a popular venue for music. Tootsie’s also gained fame and became a tourist attraction of its own. Nashville promoted its reputation as the home of country music, and churned out formulaic recordings of what Tom Petty famously called “Bad rock, with fiddles.”
Gentrification has come to Nashville and along with it, a new type of tourist: bachelorettes. The city has become a destination for “Bach Weekends.” Young women from around the country come for their pre-wedding experience, which does not include the Country Music Hall of Fame. BuzzFeed News recentlyproduced an in-depth report on this new phenomenon.
Penzey’s began in 1957 as a husband-wife coffee and spice shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Twenty-nine years later, William and Ruth Ann Penzey’s son, William, Jr. began the company’s mail-order business. The company has grown and today has retail stores throughout the country.
Penzey’s Spices recognized the fifty-year anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s murder by being closed. Here is text of e-mail Bill, Jr. sent to their customers.
In the early evening of April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was taken from us by the forces of racism. For Penzeys, April 4, 2018 just doesn’t seem like a day for business as normal, so we are giving our people a paid day off and closing our stores and call center for the day. I apologize for the inconvenience this will surely cause our customers, but in a time where the same forces that took Dr. King have re-emerged to take control of the highest offices in our country, this just does not seem like the year to look the other way.
At the heart of cooking is the belief that when we care about others the world becomes a better place, that through kindness and compassion better futures can be set in motion. Even if this new wave of racism stopped today there would still be a great deal of healing to be done and Cooks would once again be the ones to do it. As a Cook, your kindness and compassion really are the glue keeping this world together. Right now our country and the world needs what you do more than it has in a long time.
All forms of hate are destructive, but there is something particularly soul-crushing about the hate that is racism. That it should be surging once again in the 21st century 50 years after Doctor Martin Luther King’s murder is tough to take. If there’s any silver lining to today’s racism, it’s that those with power and privilege who choose to fan the flames of racism know they can no longer do it openly. In King’s time it was those fighting racism that needed to be ever vigilant. These days, at least for now, it’s those promoting racism that realize their need for discretion because they know that so many would see their views as monstrous, especially the young.
Today as we remember the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s murder, with how incredibly sad that day was, there will be the urge to say that this is just about Memphis and just about 50 years ago. Please resist that urge. With the open racism that has taken hold of the modern Republican Party, this anniversary is very much about today, and very much about all our back yards. Especially ours.
At Penzeys our locations straddle both Milwaukee and Waukesha counties here in Wisconsin. Milwaukee is a wonderfully rich in diversity community. Waukesha is where most all the families who felt the need to flee that diversity ended up. Both communities are full of kind, decent people, but Waukesha still has a smaller contingent crossing all classes that are very much there for the racism. Mostly it’s kept out of sight, but at times you catch glimpses and it’s never pleasant to see.
So many have worked so hard in Waukesha to move things forward, and they are making progress every day, but there are still those fighting to keep out diversity in any way they can. A few months back, Memphis brilliantly orchestrated the removal of two confederate war statues from city parks. The next night our family attended a Waukesha school event where we witnessed the extended family who sat down in front of us share their disgust at the statues’ removal. They kept their voices low, but their anger radiated. I just don’t get how people with so much privilege can see goodness in being so hurtful to those facing so many obstacles. Change needs to come now.
Ever since our Cooking Trumps Racism email and Facebook post after the presidential election, I’ve received tens of thousands of emails from people sharing their experiences and thoughts on racism. Somewhere in reading those letters it occurred to me that maybe there’s a quicker way forward on racism. Up until now it’s only been those on the receiving end of racism that end up having to pay its considerable costs. As long as those doing the racism pay no price it’s going to continue. What if instead of turning a blind eye to those doing racism we took a conservative approach and asked those responsible to pay the costs of their actions?
One thing I’ve noticed about Cooks over the years that I think plays into why they have more positive outcomes in their lives, is that Cooks tend to be optimists. As a Cook myself, I look at the recent student-led activism in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting and see in the leadership of this new generation such hope. Not just for pragmatic gun control, but for the environment and for all forms of discrimination as well. This whole not accepting Fox’s apology until they take responsibility for what they’ve done seems to be a blending of the best of both the liberal and conservative traditions. In these young people I see so much hope for the future.
And once again, sorry to everyone who takes time out of their day to visit one of our stores or calls our call center only to find we are closed. What Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has meant to all that is good about this country is too much to not try to, in some way, show respect. Please, if you can today and in the coming days, give thought to Dr. King and all those who sacrificed so much to move equality forward in America. They paid so much to make this country great. Now is no time to slide back off the Mountaintop. Now is the time to reach for the summit.
Sacramento Kings (Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee/TNS via Getty Images)
Sacramento police officers, no doubt well trained in the use of deadly force, fired twenty shots at Stephon Clark after they chased him into his grandparents’ back yard. Eight of the twenty bullets hit Clark.
If armed – and well trained – classroom teachers hit 40 percent of their shots intended for a school intruder, what or whom will the other 60 percent of the bullets hit?
Is it a gun, is it a knife Is it a wallet, this is your life It ain’t no secret … No secret my friend You can get killed just for living in your American skin
The pedestrian-only park has become popular with residents and tourists alike. Visitors stroll along its mile and a half length, in some parts alongside rusted tracks left as a reminder of its history. Since the elevated park’s opening, the storied and deteriorating Chelsea neighborhood has seen a revitalization. New residential 
construction has risen along the High Line’s route. Rents are higher than neighboring apartment buildings and new residents are now complaining about the tourists. The Whitney Museum’s new digs recently opened at the base of the park.
