[NYguy]

https://gothamist.com/news/long-over...st-walkthrough

"Long Overdue": Visitors Marvel At New Moynihan Train Hall In First Walkthrough





BY STEPHEN NESSEN, WNYC
JAN. 2, 2021

The public got its first chance to walk the halls of the new Moynihan Train Hall across from Penn Station Friday, two days after officials cut the ceremonial ribbon to the mammoth, $1.6 billion train hub.

For some visitors, the stop was merely intended to gaze at the enormous hall complete with an enormous skylight roof and Art Deco clock. Many were spotted craning their necks to take in the open skylight, pivoting their hips taking scenic, panoramic photos. Others searched for fresco portraits created by Kehinde Wiley, which are prominently displayed at the 33rd Street entrance, or the spacious and modern Amtrak lounge on the upper floor.

Self-proclaimed train and travel nerd Christian Keesee, 59, from the Upper East Side was one of the first people at Moynihan Friday morning, declaring it a true gem for the city.

“This is a New York station made for New Yorkers, it’s fantastic,” he said. “The light, we need that, I don’t like being underground. I like being above ground, I like the sunshine, the seasons, I think it’s fantastic.” His partner Larry Keigwan, 48, added, “Long overdue, so amazing, it feels appropriate for the new year, and it’s inspiring, I really really like it."

Jess Allen, 45, from Chelsea, brought her 6-year old son Wolf to see the train hall. Overlooking the 225,000-square-foot space from the upper level, where a food court is expected to open later this year, Wolf marveled at the open space.

“The one thing is, it’s very very big, and it doesn’t get crowded like the small station, Penn Station,” Wolf said.

With few people traveling Friday by train, children as young as 18 months scooted across the squeaky fresh marble floors. Tim Mulligan, 27, from the Upper West Side, brought his toddler to see Moynihan.

“It gives us something to be proud of and excited for when you’re coming into Penn Station, and that’s something that’s been missing for a long time,” Mulligan said. “I honestly dread coming to Penn Station, but now I’m looking forward to have a reason to take the train so I can experience it for real.”

https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/1/10/22...han-train-hall

Homeless Feel Unwelcome at Gleaming New Moynihan Train Hall as They Stick to Penn Station


BY JOSE MARTINEZ
JAN 10, 2021

When a homeless man who goes by “Kush” first stood outside the new Moynihan Train Hall and peered in, he quickly realized he would be avoiding New York’s newest transit showpiece.

“I’ve seen it from the door and I know it’s not for me,” Kush said. “It’s very visible that it’s not for me, so I sleep somewhere else.”

Just after midnight last Tuesday, “somewhere else” was across Eighth Avenue in a corridor with several other homeless people on the upper level of Penn Station, alongside a shopping cart stuffed with garbage bags of aluminum cans.

Inside the famously grungy rail hub, homeless New Yorkers told THE CITY that the Jan. 1 opening of the sparkling train hall for Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road customers doesn’t change a thing for them.

The hall closes daily between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. — the same hours of the overnight subway shutdown. The space has no public seating, except in areas limited to ticketed passengers.

“It’s a way of ostracizing,” Kush said. “It’s like they say, ‘Oh, not those people.’”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other state officials have touted Moynihan Train Hall as a transformative gateway to the city after decades of train travelers crowding inside the low-ceilinged Penn Station, which replaced the Beaux-Arts hub infamously demolished in the 1960s.

But advocates for the homeless say Moynihan Train Hall’s hours and seating limitations are designed to stem the migration of those who take refuge in the station across the street.

“I think it’s just another example of places being unwelcoming to actively homeless people or people who appear homeless,” said Giselle Routhier, policy director at the Coalition for the Homeless.

The overnight closure of Moynihan Train Hall, which opened to praise of its design and skylit marble waiting area, is not an unusual one at transit facilities.

Grand Central Terminal is closed between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Lower Manhattan’s Fulton Center closes during the hours when there is no passenger service in the subway. Union Station in Washington is off-limits to the public from midnight to 5 a.m.

Among the city’s newest transit halls, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, which opened in 2016, and the Fulton Center, which opened in 2014, have been criticized for a lack of seating in public areas.

Additional seating at Moynihan Train Hall is planned once retail areas are completed, said Matthew Gorton, a spokesperson for Empire State Development Corporation, the state authority that oversaw the building conversion.

Gorton said the 255,000-square-foot train hall closes for maintenance and cleaning overnight — when 30 LIRR, NJTransit and Amtrak trains arrive and depart from Penn Station.

The decision to permanently close Moynihan Train Hall for four hours each night was made, Gorton said, by representatives from the Empire State Development Corporation, Amtrak, the MTA, the U.S. Postal Service and Vornado Realty Trust, which is developing 120,000 square feet of retail space inside the building.

Penn Station stays open around the clock, a draw for those without shelter, with many people spread out on floors or congregating near the turnstiles after the subway closes.

“On one side of the street, it’s alright for us to be there,” said Nolan Gonzalez, 33, a homeless man who was resting by the turnstiles closest to the newly remodeled subway entrance at 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue. “On the other side, it’s not alright.

Of the new Moynihan Station, he said: “Ultimately, this isn’t our house.”