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QueensWay Proposals Turn Abandoned Rockaway Rail Line Into a Photoshop Utopia


March 26, 2014 | Marina Galperina

Could the 3.5-miles of the abandoned, rusty, trash and tree-covered Rockaway Rail Line become the new High Line? Eh, they’re working on it. The latest “QueensWay” update is a series of proposals for the imagined “pedestrian and bicycle pathway” connecting Rego Park, Forest Hills, Richmond Hill and Ozone Park. They are:

– a zip line
– a dog park
– outdoor ping pong
– “an adventure playground for kids”
– a canopy walk
– a giant slide
– mounds, trees and shrubbery to protect the privacy of nearby residents
– security cameras to protect the privacy of nearby residents
– Park Enforcement Patrol officers to protect the privacy of nearby residents
instead of a park, a new subway line that would ease the lives of Queens residents whose average daily commute to Manhattan is 80 minutes just kidding

The new Photoshop proposal renderings are some of the most idyllic ones we’ve ever seen, complete with ephemeral rays, speed-walking seniors, politely-adventuring children and women without helmets biking peacefully past butterflies on steroids. It’s like a Watchtower heaven centerfold and it makes the High Line’s bowl-shaped garden proposal look like a bowl of crap.

That path? I’d hit that.


(Image: The Friends of the QueensWay)

I would not hit this path.


(Photo: Nathan Kensinger/Curbed)

(Lead image: The Friends of the QueensWay)