For years, New Yorkers have been hearing about a new park that would hover just above their heads and stretch out along West Side of Manhattan. The High Line project would transform an old elevated train track from a useless remnant of a bygone line into a uniquely urban green space, one of the city and, quite literally, transcending it at the same time.

But while a new Trump tower or Starbucks franchise can appear almost overnight in New York, parks take a little while longer.

Finally, five years after the City agreed to let the space be made into a public park, phase 1 of the High Line is open. From the Meatpacking District to 20th Street in Chelsea, and between 10th and 11th Avenues, the park welcomes visitors to walk the old tracks, which date back to the 1930s, and enjoy some reprieve from the city while being still in the heart of it. Phase 2 of the project will extend the park up to 34th Street.

In Chicago, another project is underway that will transform three miles of old railroad tracks into a public park that will weave through some of the city's most bustling neighborhoods. Friends of Bloomingdale Trail started the project in 2003, and now consists of 200 members who are dedicated to urban renewal and creating a public space out of the derelict tracks.

Maybe if efforts like these persist, our cities really will become the landscapes of the future imagined by science fiction writers: people ambling about on new roads built not for cars, but bikes and pedestrians, while the old byways fall to ruin beneath their feet.

If nothing else, at least I have a new place to go running every once in a while.

[Image: Joel Stemfield, The High Line tracks, pre-renovation, at 30th Street]