One of the co-chairs of the Friends of Moynihan Station, Municipal Art Society, will be hosting a public forum on Tuesday May 13, about "What needs to happen next at Moynihan Station?".

Panelists will include: Kent Barwick, president, Municipal Art Society; Richard L. Brodsky, Assemblyman, New York State Assembly; Anna Hayes Levin, chair, Community Board 4; and Daniel A. Biederman, president, 34th Street Partnership. The discussion will be moderated by Charles Bagli, reporter, The New York Times.

Tuesday, May 13, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society.

The New York Observer reports that Governor Paterson is "fed up with the delays" at Moynihan Station and wants to put the project back on track by making the Port Authority the lead agency on the project, instead of the Empire State Development Corporation. In addition, the Governor is expected to announce this afternoon that Chris Ward, managing director of the General Contractors Association and a co-chair of the Friends of Moynihan Station, will be appointed Port Authority Director.

Overall this is good news for Moynihan Station. A move to the Port Authority, especially with Ward at its head, will infuse the project with new leadership and funding. (An ESDC Chair to replace Pat Foye, who resigned last month, still has not been announced.) There is legitimate concern, however, that the Port in the past has sometimes operated too secretively; the Friends will work with the agency and make sure it is held accountable.

A New York Times editorial published on Saturday called for the major decision-makers involved in Moynihan Station -- Governors Paterson and Corzine, Mayor Bloomberg, Jim Dolan (the owner of Madison Square Garden), as well as Steve Ross and Steve Roth (the owners of Related and Vornado, the developers) -- to meet and hammer out a final agreement for Moynihan Station.

We believe that it is not too late to get Madison Square Garden back at the bargaining table, but the City and State will have to act quickly. We call on the City and State to make Moynihan their top priority after the budget and congestion pricing are finalized, hopefully this week. Active leadership from the public sector, coupled with a enforceable timeline, is our only chance to see this project through.

Full editorial on the jump.

Continue reading "NY Times editorial calls for decision-makers to finalize deal" »

The Friends of Moynihan Station urge Madison Square Garden, the City and the State, to return to the negotiating table and continue discussions.

Moynihan Station is the most important transit and economic development project of this generation. It will provide jobs in a time of economic uncertainty, build a great transit facility on both sides of Eighth Avenue for the half-million people who endure Penn Station every day, and stimulate the growth of the West Side into a major business district.

A new train hall must be built in the Farley building as Senator Moynihan envisioned. But the most significant transportation and economic benefits of the broader project can be realized only if the Garden is relocated.

While the news of Governor Spitzer being caught hiring a prostitute is washing away discussion of most else right now, there has been other news in recently - some of which highlights just how much responsibility rests on the governor's shoulders.

After several reports in the past week about a possible break-down of political and economic will, the sense is Moynihan Station is on the brink of being added to the infamous list of "greatest projects never built."

Not so.

The project has been declared dead many times before - most recently in October 2006 - yet it keeps coming back. Why? Because it's a great project. Here New York has the opportunity to build a modern, state-of-the-art train station on the site of the existing "pit" of Penn Station; breathe new life into the historic Farley Post Office building by creating a new train hall in its old mail-sorting room; construct a terrific new Madison Square Garden; and revitalize an entire Moynihan District with 8 million square feet of new retail and office space. Most of all, we have an opportunity build a great train hall for the users of the nation's busiest rail station.

Continue reading "No, Moynihan Station is not dead" »