Were my father alive today, I know that he would champion this new plan, and he would bring together the developers, preservationists and civic leaders together to make it work.

We do not have his guiding hand, but we have his vision, and thanks to our New York Senators and Representatives, we still have the funds he left to the city he so loved. And now we have a vigorous new team in Albany that wants to hear jackhammers. The Mayor’s office wants to hear them too. The Garden is willing to move. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: This chance will not come again!

Some preservationists and planners have questions about moving Madison Square Garden into the James A. Farley Post Office building. There are important issues to consider, such as how moving the Garden into the landmarked building will preserve its form and beauty, but let us not allow pre-emptive objections to stall this critical public works project. Let us not waste any more time, because we have no time to waste.

RPA recently held its annual Regional Assembly. It is always a lively and illuminating affair, but this year it conveyed urgency, because the theme was global warming. As I listened to Mayor Bloomberg and the other distinguished speakers present their data, I was relieved to see so many professionals taking Al Gore’s cause seriously. I was also alarmed – terrified is perhaps more accurate - to face the fact that we are lurching towards catastrophe if we don’t make changes. I was also gratified that the Mayor’s long term plan for climate change includes funding for Moynihan Station. We need to invest in more public transportation, in energy efficiency, in green technologies, not in ten years, not in five years, but right now.

We are entering a time of crisis on this planet. We are at war. We know that this is not the time to argue, nor is it a time to demand perfection from any project or any plan. Surely the people of New York have endured the indignity of the Pit long enough.

After the death of my father in 2003, I created the Friends of Moynihan Station, a citizens’ group dedicated to getting the station built. Our group includes preservationists, urban planners, transportation analysts and architects, and resides at Regional Plan Association. We do not want to see the architectural crimes of the past repeated; we want what our late Senator labored for: a public space that is beautiful, a train station that is functional, and a chance to reincarnate the late great Penn Station from what Lewis Mumford called a “cheap jukebox,” which chokes the space that was once as grand as the ancient Baths of Caracalla. Above all, we do not want to lose the one billion dollars of government funding that Senator Moynihan secured for this critical public works project in the city that he so loved, because we know this chance will never come again.

During a contentious meeting on the train station project in the mid 1990’s, Sen. Moynihan stood up, silenced the warring crowd, raised his arms and said, “Everyone must hold hands and come together.”

We can come together on this. We know it. Let’s do it, now. I believe that the people of New York, and their late Senator, deserve nothing less.

– Maura Moynihan, Senior Fellow, RPA