THE ECONOMY

Hudson Yards: Museum of Capitalism

New York’s new “mall” is a gorgeous empty space

This morning, in a very sweet effort to help me lose my extra pandemic poundage, my boyfriend suggested a morning pre-work walk around New York City. At 8am, coffees in hand, we took to the High Line. For those outside the city, the High Line is a beautiful elevated park that was built from, well…a leftover freight track that ran up-and-down the city’s west side. Hailed as a feat of urban landscape architecture when it opened (it is), the park runs from 14th Street up to 34th Street, about 15–20 feet above the ground, weaving its way through tall warehouses, luxury condo buildings, major hotel brand flagships, and the remnants of an older New York that one can spot in once-but-no-longer hidden spaces along the way.

The north end of the Line leads to Hudson Yards, the $25B — yes, you read that correctly — $25B retail, residential, and office development that opened just a year before the pandemic. While I never had a ton of sympathy for the development’s owners, Related Companies — their founder and head Stephen Ross was the one that started the Equinox and SoulCycle shit-storm when he threw a lavish fundraiser for the Trump re-election campaign — it is hard to see anyone’s dream crushed. (I know what it feels like; my first movie opened…