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Originally Posted by aquablue
Oh I certainly blame him, but I place more blame on the city of NY for letting the whole mess start in the first place and allowing Penn to be demolished and MSG put there. Dolan is not the whole story here. After all, he's just another business owner looking to make as much profit as possible. The city has a responsibility of good stewardship and they made a choice.
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Of course, in hindsight Penn Station should not have been destroyed. But there was nothing the city could do to stop it. It did lead to the preservation of Grand Central and other landmarks, so there is a little ray of light in that. But as far as the move to the Farley Building, it was absolutely Dolan's fault. His temper tantrum with not being able to put MSG signage over the front (8th Ave side) of Farley - the landmarked portion - is one of the reasons he backed out.
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I also think this is the end for Penn Station's possible redevelopment. Sad, but there doesn't seem to be other sites that Dolan would find appealing available in the area unless something massively changes. No doubt, the annex is now off the table unless something crazy happened down the line and the developers were willing to do another deal - unlikely if the mall and office space is successful.
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I doubt Dolan would welcome any new deal to move into Farley for the reasons listed above.
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What Penn really needed was fundamental track changes, not just pretty head houses. The current project is a nice improvement over the old place for Amtrak and some LIRR pax, but it doesn't serve enough people, doesn't fix the transport and capacity issues with Penn Station, and doesn't help fix the old Penn's ugly appearance.
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I have to disagree with you there. I have to commute through Penn Station daily, and it is a dangerously overcrowded mess when things are in order. The new extension into Farley is not meant to be a replacement to Penn Station, rather an extension that would allow for more free movement in the station, along with improved everything else. It will be a grand entry for Amtrak passengers and others who will once again enter into the city in a building worthy of it (no one emerges in the current Penn Station with and delusions of awe). It will be something the city can be proud of, rather than ashamed of. And rather than waiting for an MSG move that may never come, and after decades of talk, we are finally getting what was promised.
In a perfect world, we would get a new Penn Station on the current site (something also questionable due to the ballooned population of Penn Station on that site). But the perfect should not be the enemy of the good. And what we're getting at Moynihan is good, very good.