Good afternoon. I’m Brian Fritsch, Manager of Advocacy Campaigns for Regional Plan Association. For nearly 100 years, RPA has developed and promoted ideas to improve the economic health, environmental resiliency, and quality of life of the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area including considerable work on improve transit options and ensure equitable access for all.
We strongly believe that a well-functioning Penn Station, which acts like the heart of our region’s transportation system, is crucial for a healthy, equitable, and prosperous regional economy. Over the long-term, we will need more capacity at Penn Station, especially as we recover from the Coronavirus but continue to grapple with climate change. For many years, RPA has supported the overall goal of this effort – to add capacity at Penn Station, to unify the transit complex, and to plan for the development of the district to take advantage of that growth and provide support for public investment.
That is why, while we are pleased to see this draft scope for the Empire Station Complex, the lack of detail provided on key parts of the plan-including the renovations to Penn Station, the configuration of Penn South, and the public realm improvements-makes it impossible to fully assess this plan. Having a clearer picture of the proposed public spaces both in and surrounding the station is particularly important as we hope to avoid the problems plaguing the existing station and instead use the funding to construct a modern through-running station that is fully integrated into a unified station complex. Essential safety improvements must include better access for riders with disabilities, combined station signage, improved wayfinding, better vertical circulation, and widened concourses and corridors with better connections to the subways and street. In short, what will the public get in terms of public space and transit improvements from this proposal?
Moreover, we are concerned that the narrow boundaries of the proposed district will make it very difficult if not impossible to consider all of the potential options that a truly comprehensive district planning process should evaluate. At very least, the boundaries should include Herald and Greeley Squares, all of 34th street from 6th to 8th Avenue, and the entirety of the blocks with parts of Penn Station South. While we agree that the extraordinary transit capacity and connectivity provided by Penn Station and the subway system make this area uniquely suited for dense development and an appropriate area for future growth, bringing over 200,000 additional riders and pedestrians to an already crowded station and neighborhood once Gateway and the Penn Access projects are fully completed will require transit and public space improvements far beyond the current boundaries of the proposed project space and should be included in this project’s process.
We also urge Empire State Development (ESD) and the project partners to engage the public in a robust urban design strategy and consider creating a great public amenity at the existing Penn Station by carefully considering removing the Hulu Theater or even moving Madison Square Garden to a new location to allow for both a world-class facility and improved pedestrian flows throughout the complex. Madison Square Garden is an important part of the Penn Station district, and their long-term needs must also be considered as part of this plan.
As we lay out in much more detail in our report from earlier this year, The Case for Penn South, we believe that there is extraordinary potential for this project to be successful, but there is also the possibility of repeating some of the same mistakes from a half-century ago. We believe public discussions like this one are crucial to reaching a more positive outcome that truly benefits the public. As such, until the questions and concerns in this testimony are addressed, we can not be supportive of how this project is advancing.
Many thanks to ESD, the state, and all of the Penn Station agencies for your service during this extraordinary time and the opportunity to make this public comment.
