This week's journey. A billionaire GOP donor is backing a plan to redesign Penn Stationin keeping with Trump's taste; Newark TSA caught a guy trying to sneak a turtle in his pants past security; A curious commuter wonders what happened to Metro-North quiet cars, and more.
When it comes to big transit projects, NYC suffers from paralysis by analysis
New York City was once the construction capital of the world. Now it’s better known for what doesn’t get built.
Across the five boroughs, transportation upgrades worth billions of dollars remain in a state of arrested development as government officials commission study after study for infrastructure projects that never move forward. Those reviews add to lengthy, legally mandated environmental review processes that experts bemoan as obstacles to putting shovels in the ground.
Frustration over this reality is at the center of discussions within the Democratic Party about how it can rebrand itself following Republicans’ clean sweep in 2024. In his new book, “Abundance,” influential New York Times columnist Ezra Klein proposes that liberals embrace ambitious projects by cutting red tape for the public good.
“The Empire State Building was built in 17 months. If you tried to build it today, it might take 17 years,” Mitchell Moss, a policy and urban planning professor at NYU, told Gothamist.
Take a new report published by the city transportation department this week on the Cross Bronx Expressway’s future. New York officials in December 2022 used a $2 million grant from the U.S. DOT’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program for a study to “reimagine” the highway, which displaced communities and polluted the borough when it was built in the mid-20th century.
Local elected officials like U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres wanted the study to examine “capping” sections of the highway with parks, plazas and green spaces. But after 26 months, it resulted in a 61-page report stating even more studies would be needed. “Each potential cap would require its own design and environmental review process,” the not-so-insightful report read.
It’s a similar story with the triple-cantilever section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Brooklyn Heights, which is past its useful life and at risk of crumbling. For more than six years, city officials have pitched, studied and rescinded plans to fix the structure without deciding on a permanent solution.
And don’t forget multiple plans to rebuild Penn Station — and expand it a block south — that have been proposed, studied and reviewed by two New York governors for nearly a decade without meaningful progress.
The cycle of pouring taxpayer money into engineering and architecture firms to propose ideas that yield little more than fancy renderings can seem never ending.
A rendering of a redesign for Penn Station proposed by the group Grand Penn Community Alliance, which is pushing to relocate Madison Square Garden away from its location atop the train hub.
“The real problem is that it's easy for a member of Congress or a member of the state Legislature to get money for study, but it's very difficult to get it for a project,” Moss said.
Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said politicians are to blame for delays to the city’s infrastructure needs.
“We can do big things. We just only do the big things that the political class favors,” said Gelinas. “Nobody important enough actually cares enough about the Cross Bronx, so we don't do it.”
Gelinas pointed out many people blame onerous review processes that can take several years to complete before construction can begin on major projects. U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler said reforms are long overdue to the state and federal environmental regulations.
“ I think people want to do these projects, but they see it as too ethereal. They see it as too far in the future,” Nadler told Gothamist. “And I think if you had the permitting reform… then people wouldn't see it as too far in the future.”
Curious Commuter
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“Why has Metro-North canceled the quiet car service? It was a wonderful program and would be great to reintroduce since congestion pricing is encouraging more commuters to use the railroad.”
- Stephen, Westchester County
The MTA killed the quiet car service on Metro-North during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to give riders more space for social distancing.
MTA officials said they have no plans to restore no-talking carriages because riders remain hesitant to sit next to one another, and want to give as many passengers as possible the option to sit alone without doubling up on benches.
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The Penn Station redesign pitch that aligns with Trump’s taste. A nonprofit funded by a wealthy Trump donor would give the city’s busiest rail hub a makeover in keeping with the president’s affinity for “traditional” architecture.
“Classical architecture is not just about unparalleled aesthetic excellence; it is the architecture of American democracy.”
