Thanks to available federal stimulus dollars and renewed attention to the project from Senator Charles Schumer, the Times editorial board expresses hope that the Farley Post Office can finally be converted into a new train hall as Senator Moynihan envisioned 15 years ago.

With a significant financial contribution from the Port Authority, $100 million (or more) from the federal stimulus bill, and the funding pledged by New York City, New York State and the federal government years ago, the first stage of the project -- a new train hall in Farley -- could finally move forward.

Full copy of the editorial on the jump.

Continue reading "NYT Editorial Sees Renewed Hope for Moynihan Station " »

In a letter to Governor David A. Paterson, the Friends of Moynihan Station endorsed Senator Charles Schumer's call to spend stimulus funds on Moynihan Station, and asked the Governor to publicly announce his support for the project and invite the Port Authority to act as a co-lead agency with the Empire State Development Corporation. If the $100 million that Senator Schumer requested from Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration is not spent on Moynihan, it will likely go to out-of-state projects.

A copy of the letter can be downloaded here.

In a statement released yesterday and reported by the New York Times today, Sen. Charles Schumer, the Senate's Number 3 Democrat, requested that $100 million of the funds secured as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act be used to jump-start the Moynihan Station project. He also called for the Port Authority to become the lead agency in the project's planning and construction process, an idea first mentioned by Gov. David Paterson last fall.

Specifically, Sen. Schumer called for the $100 million to be spent out of one two pots: either the $1.3 billion allocated to Amtrak, or the $8 billion allocated to the Federal Railroad Administration for high-speed rail projects across the country. (It could also come out of the $21 billion allocated to New York State, though Schumer stayed away from that statement, for obvious conflict of interest reasons.)

Amtrak's system is in dire need of repairs and basic upgrades, and it is not clear whether the agency was planning on spending any of its allocation on Moynihan Station.

In the New York Times article, Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward hinted at the fact that the costs of building Moynihan Station -- even just the Farley Post Office component of the project -- had increased in recent months, and that the Port Authority may not have the necessary funding to move forward without additional sources of revenue.

In this weekend's New York Times, Nicolai Ouroussoff inventories the list of New York City buildings that ought to be torn down for being ugly and having a "traumatic effect on the city."

Coming in at the top of his list? Madison Square Garden and Penn Station. Ouroussoff calls Penn Station "one of the city's most dehumanizing spaces: a warren of cramped corridors and waiting areas buried under the monstrous drum of the Garden." Ouch.

After describing Gov. Paterson's efforts to transform Penn Station despite the Garden's decision not to move, Ouroussoff calls for a much more aggressive plan to build a contemporary version of the old Penn Station, with light and airy spaces and cavernous entry halls. "Any other plan is just fiddling around." A difficult sell in these times of over-stretched budgets, but nonetheless an entertaining article.