Wednesday’s Headlines: The Squared Circle Edition
Meh
That’s really the only reaction you can have at seeing the new “exclusive” renderings of Penn Station published by Gothamist yesterday (no “meh” on them!).
On the plus side, as Gothamist reported, “The renderings depict a dramatic transformation of the notoriously dark and dingy station, which dates back to the 1960s when the original Penn Station was buried beneath Madison Square Garden. They show rows of long wooden benches, a nod to the original station’s seating and a departure from the lack of seating at the Moynihan Train Hall and Grand Central Madison, the city’s two newest railroad stations.”
And the outside isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been (though look at what it could have looked like if the Garden had been moved as was proposed 10 years ago).
The bad news? A real expansion of Penn Station — difficult because of all the columns that hold up MSG — isn’t in the Gothamist documents.
“The plans obtained by Gothamist show the feds aim to address the problem on at least one platform by removing some columns and adding new access points to reduce crowding,” the outlet reported, emphasis added.
And, worse, nothing in Gothamist’s story talks about how this will be financed in a way that doesn’t soak New York taxpayers, a concern raised in our previous coverage. The same concern was raised in an Evan Simko-Bednarski story the Daily News foolishly buried on the Friday of the holiday weekend (and we picked up today).
In the latest twist, House lawmakers seem to want to squeeze blue New York while at the same time shirk their responsibility to properly fund inter-city rail by allowing Amtrak to acquire properties around Penn Station to generate revenue to pay for the station. But that’s our tax money! Rep. Jerry Nadler said all the right things in voting against the amendment to the Build America 250 legislation, but the measure passed.
The bill itself faces a long road to passage, as Streetsblog USA has been reporting.
In other news from the return from holiday blur:
- Lots of outlets covered the latest rift between Mayor Mamdani and Police Commissioner Tisch over her desire to tamp down on any events where fun can break out. (Hell Gate, Streetsblog)
- Speaking of the Knickerbockers, our own Dave Colon was on WNBC4 talking about his basketball jones.
- And speaking of over-policing, the gates may be coming to Washington Square Park. (NYDN)
- Do school bus “stop” arm cameras go too far? (404 Media)
- We know that New Jersey’s e-bike bill did go too far. (NJ.com)
- Cosmetics company + influencers + non-existent transit issue = dumb idea. (Seriously, the G train goes directly from Greenpoint to Prospect Park.) (Gothamist)
- That said, Greenpoint merchants aren’t too pleased about the MTA’s G-train shutdown schedule. (NYDN, amNY)
- The state legislature passed Gov. Hochul’s version of the Stop Super Speeders bill, the climax of years of work by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Emily Gallagher. (NY Post, Streetsblog Empire State)
- On the down side, Gov. Hochul completely backtracked on the state’s climate goals. (Heatmap, Gothamist)
- Why aren’t more reckless drivers’ cars seized like these on Long Island? (NY Post)
- The answer? Sometimes the crash is so bad that the car is sawed in half. (NY Post)
Read More:
Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.
