Three years, 4 years, 5 years, 10 years and eternally. These time spans aren’t how lengthy New Yorkers must wait till the Knicks will win one other NBA title after their 50-year drought. What they do symbolize are various proposals for a way lengthy the Knicks’ house, Madison Square Garden, ought to be granted a particular allow by the City Council to function a big area as metropolis zoning guidelines in any other case solely enable a facility of two,500 seats (MSG can maintain shut to twenty,000 spectators).
But nevertheless lengthy the sports activities heart stays in place, Penn Station squatting beneath isn’t going to considerably enhance till its derelict proprietor, Amtrak, agrees to optimize its effectivity for all of the railroads utilizing it and discard a horrible concept to tear down an enormous chunk of Midtown for an unneeded dead-end annex.
When the headhouse of the unique 1910 Penn Station, the architectural masterpiece by McKim, Mead & White, was demolished beginning in 1963 to make method for MSG, the Garden was granted a 50-year particular allow. In 2013, when the allow expired, the Garden wished a everlasting proper to function, however the metropolis prolonged it just for one other decade, as there was some hope that mercurial proprietor Jim Dolan would possibly transfer the world. Well, it’s 10 years later and Dolan didn’t transfer, so time’s up once more and Dolan once more desires an infinity allow.
The City Planning Commission declined Dolan’s request for everlasting permission and really helpful one other 10-year keep, supplied that the Garden makes some minor streetscape modifications to the realm.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine says that the Garden ought to be restricted to a 5 12 months allow and in change he desires Dolan to surrender the unused midblock taxiway for a brand new skylight into Penn Station beneath in addition to give up the theater that has lived below many names beginning because the Felt Forum for a brand new entrance to the station alongside Eighth Ave. That is a key a part of the Penn plan as supplied by the agency ASTM.
The Grand Penn Community Alliance, which has an alternate Penn plan, desires a 4 12 months allow, to push Dolan to comply with accommodate station enhancements. Community Board 5 and the neighborhood’s elected state legislators need the Garden’s allow capped at three years. They need a brief leash, not trusting Dolan to make the required concessions for Penn.
As for the MTA, its personal Penn plan contains the taxiway, however doesn’t embody taking the theater for an Eighth Ave. entrance.
Today the Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises adopted by the Land Use Committee are scheduled to take up the particular allow. With all these totally different gamers and totally different plans, what can’t be misplaced is that Penn is a awful pit as a result of Amtrak let it develop into one.
The LIRR has made critical enhancements, like extending all tracks to 12-car size and constructing the Central Corridor and West End Concourse (which connects to the brand new Moynihan Train Hall), however that’s just for half of the station. The Amtrak/NJTransit half stays a shame.
Amtrak and NJT don’t need to replicate LIRR’s good work however desire to grab Block 780 to the south. Instead of fixing Penn, they need to replicate its Balkanized issues with a brand new $11 billion boondoggle.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com