Dear Friends,We are excited to share the news that the New York City Council voted today to allow Madison Square Garden to remain in its current location above Penn Station for 10 more years. This historic decision paves the way for the city to find a new home for the Garden in Manhattan and to remake Penn Station into a world-class transit hub.
As Council Speaker Christine Quinn noted before the vote, New York should have a 21st century transportation hub worthy of the greatest city in the world, and significantly improving Penn Station while Madison Square Garden sits atop it has proven to be an intractable problem. Identifying a new home for Madison Square Garden in Manhattan is crucial to creating a transit gateway that can accommodate our growing region and sustain Midtown’s economic vitality.
Some half a million commuters and visitors pass through Penn Station every weekday. They face severe overcrowding, grim corridors and confusing, shabby public areas. The New York metropolitan region has endured this depressing state of affairs for half a century.
With today's vote, residents of the metropolitan region can begin envisioning the day when their commutes no longer start or end in misery, when the nation's busiest transit hub also is a welcoming civic space, and when the station and the arena bring new life to the surrounding community.
The
Alliance for a New Penn Station, a consortium of civic groups, businesses and individuals founded by
Regional Plan Association and
Municipal Art Society, looks forward to supporting the process of relocating Madison Square Garden, rebuilding Penn Station and revitalizing west Midtown.
Sincerely,
Robert D. YaroPresident
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