Empire Station Complex vexes opponents who fear
displacement and call for public approval process
BY MARK HALLUM
The Empire Station Complex is
problematic in any number of ways
if you ask opponents who rallied on
Seventh Avenue on Wednesday morning.
Senator Brad Hoylman believes Governor
Andrew Cuomo’s pet project that
was passed in Albany the previous day
is wrought with loopholes that should
be reviewed by city offi cials who at this
point have no say in how the development
proceeds.
With room for ten towers built into the
$1.3 billion plan to beautify Penn Station,
chair of Human-Scale NYC Lynn Ellsworth
wants to the see legislature to create a new
planning process for state projects such as
this as the current plan approved in the
fi scal year 2022 budget does not seem to
provide specifi cs for transit improvements.
“We call for a state managed public
hearing and a temporary commissioner of
inquiry enabled by our state senate and assembly
to examine alternatives… A creative
alternate planning process should include
electeds from both the city and state and
should include a citizens referendum on the
future of this area,” Ellsworth said. “We do
not need top-down visions imposed upon
Senator Brad Hoylman
us from the real estate industrial complex,
real democracy is the answer here.”
According to Hoylman, 20 million
square feet of new offi ce space is not justifi
ed when the vacancy rate in Midtown
stands at around 17%, especially after the
$5 billion development of Hudson Yards.
Nonetheless, the $1.3 billion approved in
the budget essentially puts a down payment
on the Empire Station Complex with no
cost assessment on the plan as a whole.
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
“How does it make sense that the local
community board, local elected offi cials
like myself and the city of New York still
don’t know what the Penn Station master
plan?” Hoylman said.
The senator believes the project to expand
Penn Station through redevelopment
a block to the south would displace up to
200 rent stabilized tenants and 500 small
businesses. This also includes a 150 year
old church and other historic buildings.
“The language passed in the budget
says transportation improvements connected
with the Penn Station plan, it
doesn’t defi ne what the Penn Station plan
is, and the clause of the bill begins with the
premise that the $1.3 billion can be used for
the demolition and acquisition of property
for the furtherance of the Empire Station
Complex,” Hoylman added. “Eminent
domain is on the table and will probably
be used if the property isn’t purchased.”
Hoylman voted against the Empire Station
Complex which seems to be a point of
contention among legislators who feared it
was a simple giveaway to real estate.
Above ground improvements as well as
revitalizing Penn Station itself seem to be
a murky concept apart from proposals to
bring more natural light into the transit hub.
Even proposals to move Madison Square
Garden from atop Penn Stations to restore
its former glory before it was torn down and
rebuilt in the late 1960s and early 1970s
does not seem the be getting far in Albany,
according to Hoylman, who described the
talks as progressing only in “fi ts and starts.”
“It’s not on the table now because it
seems that the people who have devised
this plan have taken it off the table,” he
said.
De Blasio to launch ‘Clean Up Corps’ to
spruce up city for a vaccinated summer
BY MARK HALLUM
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
walk-up vaccination locations for
seniors will increase from three
to 25 sites on April 6 as well as growth of
a fl eet of buses and vans that will be out in
the streets giving out jabs to New Yorkers.
New Yorkers 75 and older can simply
walk up to vaccination the 25 sites across
the city instead of having to book an appointment
and wait, a decision which
coincides with the universal eligibility for
anyone over 16 years old as authorized by
embattled Governor Andrew Cuomo.
But the larger scope of the mayor’s presser
was a recovery plan inspired by Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s New Deal; the administration
plans to create 10,000 jobs through community
cleanup programs meant to whip
the city into shape after a year in pandemic.
“It’s all going to depend, of course, on
exactly when everyone comes on board, but
our goal is to hire up as quickly as possible,
get this in gear this spring this summer so
you really feel the impact,” de Blasio said. “I
NYC MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY UNIT Mayor Bill de Blasio
think you’re gonna see a whole lot activity
in this city this summer and a huge amount
of outdoor activity cultural activity open
restaurants open streets, we want that
whole situation beautifi ed and then especially
for the, for the fall for September, we
expect lots of businesses to reopen lots of
workers to come back, schools coming back
full force. But we’ll get to the exact dollar
fi gure as it develops.”
Workers will get paid $15 an hour, and
while there is not an exact projection for
total cost of the Clean Up Corps that will
set these efforts in motion, the de Blasio
believes vaccinations levels in the city
are moving forward fast enough prompt
preparations for a good summer.
Some of the primary jobs of the Clean
Up Corps will be dealing with graffi ti and
as the program launches today with an
initial hiring wave of 1,000 people and with
it coming into full swing by July.
The de Blasio administration’s vaccination
goal was also to reach 5 million
administered doses by the July, but with the
current tally at 4.6 million as of Tuesday,
the mayor said it’s more likely that they will
hit that benchmark by next week.
The Clean Up Corps marks city coming
a long way from where it was in September
when the Mayor de Blasio was forced to
consider cutting 22,000 municipal jobs
at a period when the fi ve boroughs were
still reeling from health crisis reaching
its pinnacle over a summer of unrest that
resulted from the death of George Floyd
at the hands of Minneapolis police offi cer
Derek Chauvin.
Since then, New York City has been
green-lighted to receive $6 billion through
the federal American Rescue Plan which
will be delivered to without filtering
through Albany.
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