A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City
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0:01 - 0:03My dream is to build the world's first
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0:03 - 0:05underground park in New York City.
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0:05 - 0:08Now, why would someone want
to build an underground park, -
0:08 - 0:11and why in New York City?
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0:11 - 0:13These three tough little buggers
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0:13 - 0:16are, on the left, my grandmother, age five,
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0:16 - 0:17and then her sister and brother,
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0:17 - 0:19ages 11 and nine.
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0:19 - 0:21This photo was taken just before they left
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0:21 - 0:23from Italy to immigrate to the United States,
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0:23 - 0:26just about a century ago.
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0:26 - 0:27And like many immigrants at the time,
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0:27 - 0:29they arrived on the Lower East Side
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0:29 - 0:30in New York City
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0:30 - 0:33and they encountered a crazy melting pot.
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0:33 - 0:35What was amazing about their generation
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0:35 - 0:38was that they were not only building new lives
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0:38 - 0:40in this new, unfamiliar area,
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0:40 - 0:42but they were also literally building the city.
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0:42 - 0:44I've always been fascinated by those decades
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0:44 - 0:46and by that history,
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0:46 - 0:48and I would often beg my grandmother
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0:48 - 0:50to tell me as many stories as possible
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0:50 - 0:52about the old New York.
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0:52 - 0:54But she would often just shrug it off,
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0:54 - 0:56tell me to eat more meatballs, more pasta,
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0:56 - 0:58and so I very rarely got
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0:58 - 1:01any of the history that I wanted to hear about.
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1:01 - 1:03The New York City that I encountered
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1:03 - 1:05felt pretty built up.
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1:05 - 1:07I always knew as a kid that I wanted
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1:07 - 1:08to make a difference, and to somehow
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1:08 - 1:10make the world more beautiful, more interesting
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1:10 - 1:11and more just.
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1:11 - 1:13I just didn't really know how.
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1:13 - 1:15At first, I thought I wanted to go work abroad,
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1:15 - 1:17so I took a job with UNICEF in Kenya.
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1:17 - 1:19But it felt weird to me that I knew more about
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1:19 - 1:23local Kenyan politics than the
politics of my own hometown. -
1:23 - 1:25I took a job with the City of New York,
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1:25 - 1:27but very quickly felt frustrated
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1:27 - 1:30with the slowness of government bureaucracy.
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1:30 - 1:32I even took a job at Google,
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1:32 - 1:35where very fast I drank the Kool-Aid
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1:35 - 1:37and believed almost wholeheartedly
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1:37 - 1:40that technology could solve all social problems.
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1:40 - 1:44But I still didn't feel like I was
making the world a better place. -
1:44 - 1:46It was in 2009 that my friend
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1:46 - 1:48and now business partner James Ramsey
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1:48 - 1:51alerted me to the location of a pretty spectacular site,
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1:51 - 1:52which is this.
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1:52 - 1:54This is the former trolley terminal
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1:54 - 1:57that was the depot for passengers
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1:57 - 1:59traveling over the Williamsburg Bridge
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1:59 - 2:01from Brooklyn to Manhattan,
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2:01 - 2:04and it was open between 1908 and 1948,
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2:04 - 2:06just around the time when my grandparents were
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2:06 - 2:08living right in the area.
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2:08 - 2:10And we learned also that the site
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2:10 - 2:13was entirely abandoned in 1948.
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2:13 - 2:15Fascinated by this discovery,
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2:15 - 2:18we begged the authorities to draw us into the space,
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2:18 - 2:19and we finally got a tour,
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2:19 - 2:22and this is what we saw.
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2:22 - 2:23Now, this photo doesn't really do it justice.
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2:23 - 2:26It's kind of hard to imagine the unbelievably magical
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2:26 - 2:28feeling that you have when you get in this space.
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2:28 - 2:32It's a football field of unused land
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2:32 - 2:35immediately below a very crowded area of the city,
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2:35 - 2:37and it almost feels like you're Indiana Jones
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2:37 - 2:39on an archaeological dig,
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2:39 - 2:41and all the details are all still there.
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2:41 - 2:43It's really pretty remarkable.
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2:43 - 2:45Now, the site itself is located at the very heart
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2:45 - 2:47of the Lower East Side,
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2:47 - 2:49and today it still remains one of the most
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2:49 - 2:51crowded neighborhoods in the city.
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2:51 - 2:53New York City has two thirds the green space
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2:53 - 2:55per resident as other big cities,
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2:55 - 2:58and this neighborhood as one tenth the green space.
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2:58 - 3:00So we immediately started thinking about how we
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3:00 - 3:02could take this site and turn it into something
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3:02 - 3:03that could be used for the public,
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3:03 - 3:06but also could potentially even be green.
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3:06 - 3:07Our plan, in a nutshell,
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3:07 - 3:10is to draw natural sunlight underground
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3:10 - 3:13using a simple system that
harvests sunlight above the street, -
3:13 - 3:15directs it below the city sidewalks,
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3:15 - 3:17and would allow plants and trees to grow
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3:17 - 3:20with the light that's directed underneath.
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3:20 - 3:22With this approach, you could take a site
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3:22 - 3:24that looks like this today
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3:24 - 3:26and transform it into something
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3:26 - 3:28that looks like this.
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3:28 - 3:32In 2011, we first released some of these images,
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3:32 - 3:33and what was funny was,
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3:33 - 3:35a lot of people said to us, "Oh, it kind of looks
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3:35 - 3:37like the High Line underground."
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3:37 - 3:42And so what our nickname ended up becoming,
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3:42 - 3:43and what ended up sticking,
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3:43 - 3:46was the Lowline, so the Lowline was born.
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3:46 - 3:48What was also clear was that people really wanted
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3:48 - 3:50to know a lot more about how the technology
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3:50 - 3:51would look and feel,
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3:51 - 3:53and that there was really much more interest in this
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3:53 - 3:55than we had ever thought possible.
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3:55 - 3:58So, like a crazy person, I decided to quit my job
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3:58 - 4:00and focus entirely on this project.
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4:00 - 4:02Here is us with our team
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4:02 - 4:04putting together a technology demonstration
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4:04 - 4:06in a warehouse.
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4:06 - 4:09Here's the underbelly of this solar canopy
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4:09 - 4:12which we built to show the technology.
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4:12 - 4:14You can see the six solar collectors at the center there.
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4:14 - 4:17And here's the full exhibit all put together
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4:17 - 4:19in this warehouse.
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4:19 - 4:20You can see the solar canopy overhead,
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4:20 - 4:22the light streaming in,
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4:22 - 4:24and this entirely live green space below.
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4:24 - 4:26So in the course of just a few weeks,
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4:26 - 4:29tens of thousands of people came to see our exhibit,
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4:29 - 4:31and since that time, we've grown
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4:31 - 4:33our numbers of supporters both locally
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4:33 - 4:36and among design enthusiasts all over the world.
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4:36 - 4:38Here's a rendering of the neighborhood
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4:38 - 4:40just immediately above the Line's site,
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4:40 - 4:42and a rendering of how it will look
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4:42 - 4:45after major redevelopment that is coming
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4:45 - 4:47over the course of the next 10 years.
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4:47 - 4:49Notice how crowded the neighborhood still feels
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4:49 - 4:51and how there's really a lack of green space.
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4:51 - 4:53So what we're proposing is really something that will
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4:53 - 4:57add one football field of green space
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4:57 - 5:00underneath this neighborhood, but more importantly
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5:00 - 5:03will introduce a really community-driven focus
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5:03 - 5:05in a rapidly gentrifying area.
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5:05 - 5:07And right now, we're focusing very closely
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5:07 - 5:09on how we engage with the City of New York
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5:09 - 5:13on really transforming the overall ecosystem
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5:13 - 5:15in an integrated way.
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5:15 - 5:16Here's our rendering of how we would actually
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5:16 - 5:18invite people into the space itself.
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5:18 - 5:21So here you see this iconic entrance
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5:21 - 5:23in which we would literally peel up the street
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5:23 - 5:26and reveal the historical layers of the city,
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5:26 - 5:29and invite people into this warm underground space.
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5:29 - 5:31In the middle of winter, when it's
absolutely freezing outside, -
5:31 - 5:32the last place you'd want to go would be
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5:32 - 5:35an outdoor space or outdoor park.
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5:35 - 5:37The Lowline would really be a four-season space
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5:37 - 5:39and a respite for the city.
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5:39 - 5:41So I like to think that the Lowline actually brings
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5:41 - 5:44my own family's story full circle.
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5:44 - 5:46If my grandparents and my parents were really
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5:46 - 5:49focused on building the city up and out,
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5:49 - 5:51I think my generation is focused on reclaiming
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5:51 - 5:53the spaces that we already have,
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5:53 - 5:55rediscovering our shared history,
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5:55 - 5:58and reimagining how we can make our communities
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5:58 - 6:01more interesting, more beautiful and more just.
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6:01 - 6:03Thanks.
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6:03 - 6:04(Applause)
- Title:
- A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City
- Speaker:
- Dan Barasch
- Description:
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Dan Barasch and James Ramsey have a crazy plan—to create a park, filled with greenery, underneath New York City. The two are developing the Lowline, an underground greenspace the size of a football field. They're building it in a trolley terminal abandoned in 1948, using technology that harvests sunlight above-ground and directs it down below. It's a park that can thrive, even in winter.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 06:17
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City | ||
Madeleine Aronson accepted English subtitles for A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City |