Congress Member Jerry Nadler and fellow New York elected officials railed on Sunday against President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Penn Station.
The Trump administration announced last month a plan to completely redesign the iconic Big Apple transit hub, pledging some $8 billion. While MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said he was “excited” about the prospect, as long as the restructuring does not touch the Long Island Rail Road, others are not so easygoing about the construction.
Standing just across the street from Madison Square Garden, Nadler expressed great concern over the funding, charging that he believes it will come with strings attached.
“What we do know is this: The President of the United States, himself a real estate developer, has allowed his administration to put one of the most valuable public infrastructure projects in America into the hands of private interests with every incentive to turn Penn Station into a real estate deal, that should outrage every New Yorker,” Nadler said. “Penn Station’s future should be shaped by riders, New York City, New York State, and the public interest, not by a backroom process that benefits politically connected developers.”
In a letter penned to Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy from the likes of Nadler, Assembly Member Tony Simone, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and others demanded answers as to how Penn Transformation Partners, a private developer consortium, became “master developer” for the Penn Station renovation during behind-closed-door deals.
“This process has been conducted in secret, without public input, without transparency on costs, and without meaningful participation from the public agencies, elected officials, and communities that will be most affected by this decision. It is unacceptable — and we will not let it stand,” part of the letter read. “We all agree that Penn Station desperately needs to be renovated. But a project of this scale —affecting the busiest transit hub in the nation, billions of dollars in public investment, and the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers — cannot be handed out through a closed-door process controlled by Washington.”
Nadler went on to say that, despite reports of a much larger sum, Washington has only contributed $43 million to the project, leading him to conclude that the majority of the cost will be borne by taxpayers. Meanwhile, Simone pointed to ongoing construction at the White House as a reason Trump should not take the lead on the project.
“This is beyond unacceptable, and New Yorkers should be outraged, and they will be once they learn about this land grab. Look at the state of the White House today, dominated by an empty pit where the East Wing once stood. It is gross and disgusting. So, get your hands off our Penn Station,” Simone said. “We cannot allow Midtown to be scarred by another Trump failed project. New Yorkers’ worst developer became America’s worst president. He should never be in charge of building anything in the city ever again.”
The plan is set to fit Penn Station with a fresh entrance to the train hall on Eighth Avenue and expanded track capacity. While one proposal suggested moving the entertainment Mecca that is Madison Square Garden, this iteration will leave it in place. President Trump is expected to visit the arena on Monday evening for the third Knicks final.
“We know Donald Trump will be here on Monday. He may think he’s going to be measuring the drapes at Penn Station, but we hope that New Yorkers give him a piece of their mind that they want New York to control Penn Station, not Donald Trump, not the federal government,” Hoylman-Sigal said.
