HighWaterLine

A never ending story

Today is Sunday, October 7. It’s the last day of the HighWaterLine project (in the chalking stage at least). I drew the line from the edge of the largest oil spill in US History and then on to the Queens border on Onderdonk Avenue. I was joined by a young man named Jay who we met in East Williamsburg. He enjoyed exploring his neighborhood, learning about the flood zones, the oil spill and most importantly, getting up close to his local waterway. (Which he pointed out, was coated with oil, filled with trash and smelled something awful).

So how did it feel to be finished? I think it was a little anti-climatic. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I just felt, well done with the chalking. I guess because there are some spin-off projects going on, and because its not like I stopped climate change or anything, that I just felt, okay done with that, let’s get other things going. Don’t get me wrong, it felt great and it has inspired me to want to share the stories through the map I mentioned yesterday, but I am through with the chalking.

So that evening we hosted a wrap party at the Can Factory in Gowanus (a half a block from the line). A big thanks to everyone who came out to support the project, it felt really good to have all your support and interest. We hung the 119 maps that I used for drawing the project, and it was pretty stunning to think, yes I covered that much ground. Again I think the online map is important because even though the maps are impressive, its the people and places along the way that really tell the story. We also aired the fantastic short film that Justin at Cicala Filmworks has put together from the footage on the project. It was really wonderful to see that and to condense the story of the project down to 7 minutes! We are still working on the film and are adding in the more recent footage so if you want to know when thats done sign up on the mailing list.

Like I mentioned before, I am working on some projects around the HighWaterLine, including the online map with images and stories, some collaborative maps with Deborah Balk, a demographer at CUNY who has been studying data around the world of people living on the coast - trying to get a better understanding of the impacts of climate change on coastal communities. I also hope to work with Center for Urban Padagogy on some youth mapping projects, and anything else that might come up!

That and I have already started work on the green roof project!

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it–

Today was the first day that I didn’t speak to any one at all. I was drawing through Williamsburg by myself and even though I passed many people, no one asked what I was doing. This might have been because people are pretty jaded about all of the truly massive construction going on down at the waterfront (I hope they are building in flood protection). So I had a lot of time to consider what the project means if no one asks me what I am doing. There is the outside chance that someone will see the blue chalk line and google it, coming across my site that way, or maybe someone who knows about the project will cross the line and tell their friends about it. But since I cannot rely on that happening I considered more my actions in the street. I covered quite a lot of ground on Saturday, traveling from South 5th up around Manhattan Avenue, then down through the North Brooklyn Industrial Zone to Greenpoint Avenue where it meets Newtown Creek (near the huge egg-shaped digesters and the new Newtown Creek Nature Walk).

And here’s what I realized, I may be the only person in New York who has walked the entire 10′ above sea level line - that crucial flood zone line - at least through Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. I wrote earlier about bearing witness. Well its true, now it is up to me to find ways to get out and talk about what I have seen. The places where the line passes through the scrap metal yards, where the line divides a neighborhood or submerges a park. I have lots and lots of pictures from the line, so what I thought would be useful would be to put together an online map of the line that has images from along the way. I have pretty good visual memory, so I am fairly certain I can map pretty close to exactly where all the images were taken. I can also include the stories I heard from the people I talked to along the way. That way I am sharing this wealth of knowledge that has built up in my head. Maybe I can even have other chances of sharing the information, of getting it out to as many people (particularly community groups, city agencies) as I can. A great thing about the project was that I really had *conversations* with people. I didn’t just hand over information and walk away, I stopped and talked and listened. And I heard some interesting stories along the way.

So if you want to sit down with me sometime and hear about all the people that I met, let me know, I am happy to share.