What is this plan anyway?
The Governor's Plan
- Builds ten new glass skyscrapers as gentrified, “class A” office space
- Evicts more than 2,300 residents – including rent stabilized tenants, seniors, condo and co-op owners – and demolishes their homes
- Kills off 10,000 small business jobs by demolishing over 1,300 places of business — offices and storefronts.
- Demolishes over 40 stunning buildings that are important to New York City’s cultural and architectural history.
- Casts shadows that reach all the way to New Jersey
- Violates our city’s zoning rules and bypasses approvals from City politicians
- Leaves Penn Station underground with lipstick-on-the-pig improvements to the current rats nest.
- Funnels riches and opportunity to Vornado … who is already plenty rich
- Would cost well over $10 billion.
Our Better Ideas
- No need to demolish anyone’s homes or any historic buildings that are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places
- Renovate and repurpose where needed!
- Move the blighted Madison Square Garden (often talked about as an option in real estate circles) to the current parking lot next to the Javits Center
- Rebuild the old Penn Station and create a fabulous public realm in the area
- Do the easy modifications to the underground parts of Penn Station to make it a “through-running” station rather than a terminal station. Then it can be the center of a regional unified train network which would cheapen transport costs for everyone and spread prosperity around more fairly.
- Would cost about $6 billion less than the Governor’s plan
