The High Line's Back Story

A memoir for Jerry Gottesman

In 2006, Jerry Gottesman, the founder and chair of Edison Properties, asked me to produce a memoir that traced the privately-held company's role in the history of the High Line, the popular park-like viaduct in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

The High Line was once a railway line that mostly carried meat products from slaughterhouses to outlying areas. While Edison Properties is best known as a parking lot company, its late founder pioneered storage parking and mini-storage in Manhattan. Edison owned storage parking and several floors of mini-storage space under and adjacent to the High Line, and organized the Chelsea Property Owners Association, a group that sued for the viaduct's demolition.

The association dropped the suit in 2005 when Mayor Bloomberg's Administration agreed to change the area's zoning from industrial to residential. New zoning instantly raised the value of  Edison's parcels from $4 million (the investment in the mid-1970s) to $300 million. In 2017, Edison sold two parcels under the Highline for $875 million.

The Loopy Page Turner Incident

A memoir for Victor Parsonnet, M.D.

While Victor Parsonnet is best known for his pioneering work as a cardiac surgeon and impact on Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, he grew up around classical music and chaired the board of the New Jersey Symphony for many years.

Victor thought he might publish a book, and I worked on editing his essays on any number of topics: childhood memories, his family's historic ties to Beth Israel Hospital (where he served as director of cardiac surgery), his educational and medical training experiences, and some of his pioneering kidney and cardiac work. Among my favorites was this essay on Dame Myra Hess, a renowned concert pianist. Victor, who was always very self-effacing about his writing and musical abilities, sat alongside Hess on some of the nation's great concert stages and made sure that she was in sync with the music.