(rshsdepot) NYC, NY

[Jim Dent <jdent1_@_optonline.net>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/nyregion/18station.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

Plan for New Rail Station Appears Stalled Once Again
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: August 18, 2006

The $900 million plan to transform the city’s former general post
office building on Eighth Avenue into a dramatic new transit hub
connected to Pennsylvania Station appears to be delayed again.

State and city officials had hoped that the Public Authorities
Control Board would approve the long-awaited project, which would be
called Moynihan Station, at its meeting in Albany today. They want
construction to begin this fall on what proponents say would be a
grand gateway to New York City and a necessary expansion of the
nation’s busiest transit center. But that now seems unlikely.

Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, who controls the state board
together with Gov. George E. Pataki and Joseph L. Bruno, the state
Senate majority leader, said yesterday that there are still too many
unresolved questions.

In addition, he said, there is also a new, more comprehensive
proposal to modernize and expand Penn Station on both sides of Eighth
Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, by moving Madison Square
Garden a block west to the back of the post office building that was
to be converted into Moynihan Station.

“There are a lot of questions about the financing and what the final
project will look like,” Mr. Silver said in an interview yesterday.
“It does not appear we’ll have the answers in time for tomorrow’s
meeting.”

Mr. Silver’s decision was supported by Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer, who is running for governor. He expressed concern that the
plan had been rushed before the state board.

“Unfortunately, this is part of a pattern of irresponsible actions by
the outgoing Pataki administration,” said a spokeswoman for Mr.
Spitzer, Christine Anderson, who added that the state board “should
not approve this project until these unanswered questions are
resolved.”

The prospect of yet another delay angered some proponents of the plan
and delighted others.

State officials bristled at Mr. Spitzer’s criticism. “We should move
forward with what this Moynihan Station was all about from the
beginning, expanding Penn Station to meet the needs of transit riders
today and in the future,” said Charles A. Gargano, the state’s top
economic-development official. He said that going forward with
Moynihan Station now would not preclude doing the larger proposal,
which, he added, would take a minimum of 18 months to put into place.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who died in 2003, championed the
conversion of the James A. Farley post office building into a great
train station for more than a decade. Much of the financing was put
in place in 2001. Last year, the state selected two developers —
Steven Roth, chairman of Vornado Realty, and Stephen M. Ross,
chairman of the Related Companies.

Aside from the political sparring, the nub of the issue today is that
the developers subsequently put together what some are calling Plan
B: the complete renovation of Penn Station, which sits below Madison
Square Garden, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The current Garden
would be demolished to make way for office towers, a soaring glass
canopy and a commercial complex. Across Eighth Avenue, the post
office would be converted to an adjunct train station.

The nascent proposal has sparked widespread interest.

“This larger project has so much more economic benefit that it’s
really important to focus on getting the entire project, including
Madison Square Garden, locked down,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of
the Partnership for New York City, who supports the delay.

But city officials and some civic groups said that work on Moynihan
Station should begin now. The developers, who declined to comment on
the vote in Albany, have told state and city officials that the work
on the Farley building would not preclude the larger project. “We’d
like to see something move forward now,” said Deputy Mayor Daniel L.
Doctoroff. “There’s no downside to going ahead with the current plan.
It will not compromise our ability to work out the larger plan.”

The Municipal Art Society, which has long supported the Moynihan
Station project and has expressed reservations about the larger plan,
also opposed further delays. “Whatever the virtues of Plan B, it is
years away from starting,” said Kent Barwick, the society’s president.
- -- 
Jim Dent
Oakland, NJ

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1409
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org