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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Robert Hammond, Co-Founder and Former Executive Director of The High Line
1:46:42
·
89 sec
Robert Hammond, co-founder and former executive director of The High Line, urges the council to reject the proposed development plan for the Western Rail Yards site. Despite his general support for development and tall buildings, he sees this as an important fight between the community and powerful developers.
- Hammond views potential community victory as a positive story in difficult times
- He emphasizes the importance of government listening to local residents and community groups
- Hammond draws parallels between this fight and The High Line project's wider impact
Robert Hammond
1:46:42
Hi.
1:46:43
I'm Robert Hammond.
1:46:44
I was or I guess I am a co founder of The High Line.
1:46:48
I was executive director for about twenty three years of The High Line.
1:46:51
I love change.
1:46:53
I actually like development.
1:46:55
I actually like tall buildings, but in this case I would strongly urge you to reject this.
1:47:02
And I'm actually not gonna talk about all the deficiencies of the plan.
1:47:05
I think other people can talk about that more eloquently.
1:47:08
These are depressing times we're ending for many of us, and someone asked me what are optimistic about?
1:47:14
And actually I told them this story about this fight.
1:47:18
This is a fight against a developer and an out of town Las Vegas Casino Operator against people in the neighborhood, the city, community groups, block associations.
1:47:32
And I think we feel I feel so overwhelmed with what's happening in government.
1:47:38
And again, this is not going to fix the bigger issues we face, but if this is an example where the government actually listens to the people that live in our neighborhood and our city, to me that gives just like the High Line on one hand was a small community project, but it had ripples all over the country.
1:47:57
And so I think this victory of the community and citizens against this project is a great happy story in these very tough times.
1:48:08
So I urge the council to vote no.