Three years, four years, five years, 10 years and forever. These time spans aren’t how long New Yorkers will have to wait until the Knicks will win another NBA title after their 50-year drought. What they do represent are varying proposals for how long the Knicks’ home, Madison Square Garden, should be granted a special permit by the City Council to operate a large arena as city zoning rules otherwise only allow a facility of 2,500 seats (MSG can hold close to 20,000 spectators).
But however long the sports center stays in place, Penn Station squatting underneath isn’t going to substantially improve until its derelict owner, Amtrak, agrees to optimize its efficiency for all the railroads using it and discard a terrible idea to tear down a huge chunk of Midtown for an unneeded dead-end annex.
When the headhouse of the original 1910 Penn Station, the architectural masterpiece by McKim, Mead & White, was demolished starting in 1963 to make way for MSG, the Garden was granted a 50-year special permit. In 2013, when the permit expired, the Garden wanted a permanent right to operate, but the city extended it only for another decade, as there was some hope that mercurial owner Jim Dolan might move the arena. Well, it’s 10 years later and Dolan didn’t move, so time’s up again and Dolan again wants an infinity permit.
The City Planning Commission declined Dolan’s request for permanent permission and recommended another 10-year stay, provided that the Garden makes some minor streetscape changes to the area.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine says that the Garden should be limited to a five year permit and in exchange he wants Dolan to give up the unused midblock taxiway for a new skylight into Penn Station below as well as surrender the theater that has lived under many names starting as the Felt Forum for a new entrance to the station along Eighth Ave. That is a key part of the Penn plan as offered by the firm ASTM.
The Grand Penn Community Alliance, which has an alternative Penn plan, wants a four year permit, to push Dolan to agree to accommodate station improvements. Community Board 5 and the neighborhood’s elected state legislators want the Garden’s permit capped at three years. They want a short leash, not trusting Dolan to make the necessary concessions for Penn.
As for the MTA, its own Penn plan includes the taxiway, but doesn’t include taking the theater for an Eighth Ave. entrance.
Today the Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises followed by the Land Use Committee are scheduled to take up the special permit. With all these different players and different plans, what can’t be lost is that Penn is a lousy pit because Amtrak let it become one.
The LIRR has made serious enhancements, like extending all tracks to 12-car length and building the Central Corridor and West End Concourse (which connects to the new Moynihan Train Hall), but that’s only for half of the station. The Amtrak/NJTransit half remains a disgrace.
Amtrak and NJT don’t want to replicate LIRR’s smart work but prefer to seize Block 780 to the south. Instead of fixing Penn, they want to replicate its Balkanized problems with a new $11 billion boondoggle.
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