In fact someone who was so put off by tourists visiting and taking pictures of the High Line and surrounding areas they put up a ridiculous flyer claiming "West Chelsea is not Times Square. It is not a tourist attraction."
Um, dumbass, yes it is. Look, if suddenly the world's ugliest gum wrapper is stuck to a lightpole in SoHo and thousands of people for some reason feel the need to make a pilgrimage to see it, that gum wrapper is now a tourist attraction. Sorry, it is how tourist attractions work. You, local resident do not get to decide what is and isn't a tourist attraction.
Now of course the person or persons who wrote the screed left around the neighborhood as seen here have many other complaints about tourists and their cameras visiting the High Line. Among them:
*Please consider how you would feel if 3 million people a year from around the world trampled your street, your neighborhood. (Sorry, you CHOSE to live in Chelsea. We're real sorry the High Line is popular.)
*If you see an empty space, leave it empty. Otherwise there will be no spaces for New Yorkers (What huh?)
*3,000,000 (3 million) of you come to West Chelsea and walk the High Line a year. 40,000 (forty thousand) people live in Chelsea. That’s roughly a ratio of 100 tourists on the streets of Chelsea and walking the High Line to 1 resident trying to get to the store, ride her bike, take a stroll, go the gym or just have a quiet moment with his dog. (#1 thats some BAD math. We thought you had to be good at math to live in those tony areas. #2 again, you chose to live in Chelsea. People go there)
This city dwellers trying to impose suburban living rules in their neighborhoods are clowns. Polite tourists and clean tourists are the goal, we get that. But not once does this person say they are throwing trash or empty beer bottles or having sex in the streets. No, they are most upset that tourists take pictures of residential buildings and that they clog the sidewalks.
If that's your gripe? Boo hoo.
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