RE: (rshsdepot) New York, NY [Penn Station]

["Paul Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

The Port Authority should just do what they did before the World Trade
Center went up...Use eminent domain, condemn Madison Square Garden (the
Knicks would justify it on their own), demolish it, rebuild the original
Pennsylvania Station, leaving the companion McKim, Meade and White Post
Office alone, at least until MSG has no other choice but to not only build
their new arena on top of the rear of that PO, and without any public
assistance, as well as a block away from the reborn station.


> [Original Message]
> From: J. Henry Priebe Jr. <root_@_bluemoon.net>
> To: RSHS EMail List <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
> Date: 3/31/2008 5:55:12 PM
> Subject: (rshsdepot) New York, NY [Penn Station]
>
>
>
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/03/27/2008-03-27_madison_square_gar
den_backs_out_of_penn_.html
>
> Henry
>
> J. Henry Priebe Jr.    Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
> www.bluemoon.net       Internet Access & Web Hosting
> www.railfan.net        Railfan Network Services
>
> Madison Square Garden backs out of Penn Station redevelopment plan 
> BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN 
> DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER 
>
> Updated Friday, March 28th 2008, 3:37 AM 
>
> Madison Square Garden dealt a potential death blow to the faltering
Moynihan
> Station Thursday night by abandoning a plan to move across the street as
the
> centerpiece of the new rail hub.
>
> The Garden's owners will instead renovate the 40-year-old arena. The
stunning
> decision could kill the plan to replace gloomy Penn Station with a
handsome
> new hub named for the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
>
> Keeping the storied sports arena in place on Eighth Ave. also undermines
> another $11 billion in public-private plans to build 7 million square
feet of
> office and retail space in the drab neighborhood along 33rd St.
>
> That's because shifting the Garden to the Ninth Ave. side of the Farley
Post
> Office would have freed up development rights for 4.5 million square feet
of
> new construction that cannot be tapped if the arena stays put.
>
> Furor against the Garden's corporate parent - Cablevision, the Long
> Island-based behemoth long reviled by New Yorkers for running both the
arena
> and the Knicks into the ground - was instant and emotional.
>
> "The announcement demonstrates a callous disregard for both the future of
the
> Moynihan Station project and the future of New York City - as well as
> disrespect for the legacy of Sen. Moynihan," City Council Speaker
Christine
> Quinn said.
>
> Some officials close to the development labeled the Cablevision
announcement a
> "bargaining tactic" that would not scuttle the sparkling mini-city
planned for
> west midtown's core.
>
> "We don't think it's in [the Garden's] best interest to stay there," one
> official said. "They probably know that themselves, and probably will come
> back to the table."
>
> The Related Companies/Vornado Realty partnership, which hopes to build six
> skyscrapers as part of the Moynihan Station initiative, remained
optimistic.
>
> The much-ballyhooed development was foundering before the Garden picked
up its
> marbles.
>
> Funding commitments for the $3 billion Moynihan Station had fallen $1.2
> billion short, and the state economic development official running the
show
> bailed after ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer quit in disgrace.
>
> A ray of hope surfaced early Thursday when Sen. Chuck Schumer called for
the
> Port Authority to "immediately take over the design, management and
> implementation of the project" to get it back on track.
>
> Hours later, Garden spokesman Barry Watkins threw out a bombshell. In a
press
> release that clearly caught Albany and City Hall off guard, he said,
"After
> exploring several alternatives, it has become clear that the only viable
> option is a renovation."
>
> dfeiden_@_nydailynews.com
>
> With Kirsten Danis
>
>
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