Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH
For the record, this decision was anything but hasty. There was a long series of public meetings, opponents were given the opportunity to introduce alternative re-use plans, there were competing economic studies, and so on.
The main problem was the simple fact the Arena was a huge impediment to redeveloping the surrounding parking lots. You can see that as they are currently preparing the site--they are doing all sort of regrading and introducing new streets that would not be possible if the Arena was still there. This was the result of the Arena being built in an era when planners were basically ignoring any sort of best practices for urban areas.
Another problem was that just maintaining the Arena was expensive, and reconfiguring for other uses would also be very expensive. It was actually a quite complex structure
Old train halls are a contrast in both respects. Generally they were fit into existing street grids, and so the only land at stake is the land they directly occupy. And they were generally very basic structures that could more easily be re-used.
In any event, again, this wasn't a hasty decision. But it was ultimately doomed by the fact that its original planners had ignored best practices, and there was no practical way to preserve it within the context of a good plan for the entire area. Indeed, near the end of the process, the opponents were basically arguing that the development plan was way too ambitious, and that is a bad position to be in (arguing that you might as well save the Arena since there is no way that land can be successfully re-used anyway).
|
I don't think we're in disagreement here.
The arena would be huge and difficult to maintain, and even if you stripped it down to the shell and built a market platform above a parking structure (plenty of internal space to do that), you'd be left with a market platform well above street level on the downtown side. And so on.
But my point is not to disconsider something because of
who said it -- rather, to consider the ramifications of it and at least give it some thought before you decide it's not going to work. In the end (unlike repurposing a train hall), there is a good argument to be made that the arena couldn't be purposed as a market hall ... and its existence on the site made it difficult to achieve the city's other major goals (i.e. rebuilding some facsimile of the urban fabric the poorly-considered arena destroyed
to begin with).
Random thought: Given how little it's used, maybe make Penn Station's main waiting hall a central market?
Prev
Linear Mode
