[NYguy]

Steve Cuozzo's absurd commentary. He's obviously serving as somebody's mouthpiece.


https://nypost.com/2018/04/05/beware-cuomos-penn-station-power-play-is-still-a-live-threat/

Beware: Cuomo’s Penn Station power play is still a live threat


By Steve Cuozzo
April 5, 2018

Be afraid, be very afraid, of Gov. Cuomo’s ambition to wrest control of planning authority for the Penn Station area from City Hall — despite his pretending to have backed off from it.

...Cuomo’s notion to promote large-scale office development to help pay for a new Penn Station is absurd in a district where there’s zero demand for new office towers.

In fact, the “Pennsylvania Station Public Safety Improvement Act” tucked into the budget made it clear that Cuomo has hardly given up. Making unspecified changes to the station “is a major objective for the state to resolve and should be made a top priority,” it said.

Sure, it said the state “should coordinate and consult” with the community, business groups and federal and city government. But it also said, ominously, “the state will provide funds to UDC [Urban Development Corp., the legal name for the ESDC] to begin with the planning of any such redevelopment.”

That automatically puts Albany in the driver’s seat, because ESDC has all the authority it needs to run roughshod over the city and local businesses. It can buy out owners of “blighted” (a highly subjective term) properties and demolish them. It can hand out tax breaks to developers willing to play ball.

https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/...crapers-near-penn-station-good-idea.html

New skyscrapers near Penn Station are a good idea
It's the ideal way to finance the station's reconstruction.

By JONATHAN ENGLISH
APRIL 4, 2018

In most cities, a politician fearing the transformation of a neighborhood into a forest of skyscrapers would describe it as being turned into Manhattan. That convenient metaphor was unavailable to New York state Sen. Liz Krueger, however, when she wanted to inveigh against legislative proposal from Gov. Andrew Cuomo that, in an early version, would have enabled the state to take over the planning of redevelopment around Penn Station, bypassing municipal control entirely.

So instead Krueger said, rather confusingly, “I don’t want Singapore in the middle of Manhattan. And I certainly don’t want one person up here to be deciding whether or not we’re going to have Singapore in the middle of Manhattan with no community participation or process or local government role.”

The law will facilitate a potential eminent domain claim against Madison Square Garden, strengthening the state’s hand in negotiations over the acquisition of the 5,600-seat Hulu Theater beneath the main arena. Cuomo wants to use the theater area for a new grand entrance to the station on Eighth Avenue, as part of a larger renovation. The governor says that such a claim will not likely be necessary, but it provides additional leverage in bargaining.

Krueger and other critics of the legislation are right to suspect that Cuomo wants to build more skyscrapers around Penn Station, and their concerns about eliminating avenues for local input are well-grounded, but they are wrong to oppose significant new development. New York City needs more offices, hotels and housing; the city’s centrally-located regional transit hub is exactly where they should go. The real risk is not that too many tall buildings will go up, but that Cuomo’s desire for a monument to his achievement will overshadow the more important work of making Penn Station function better for daily riders.

A decade ago, many locals were wary of large-scale development in the area. Preservationists were concerned about the loss of the historic Pennsylvania Hotel for a new skyscraper. Others lamented the interference with the city’s existing skyline.

The inclusion of Steven Roth, Vornado’s chairman, on Cuomo’s committee for planning the rebuilding of Penn Station is also a sign that a larger real estate development project may be in the works.

Cuomo’s legislative proposal may have tipped his hand, indicating that another large-scale redevelopment plan is in the works. If the state is able to develop a good plan for upgrading the station, including necessary operating improvements, selling air rights may be able to help pay for it. Transit riders can hope that this renewed planning will bring about the operational improvements that the station desperately requires – and they should not worry if the city gets a few new skyscrapers in the bargain.