Advocacy Alert: Speak Out Against the Penn Area Plan
Penn Station needs to be improved, but the current Penn Area Plan is not the answer. Join us in speaking out against it!
What's at stake
The League included the Penn Area Neighborhood on our Seven to Save list because Empire State Development's (ESD) proposed Penn Area redevelopment plan would demolish multiple city blocks, including over 40 historic buildings and structures, displacing thousands of residents and businesses. The negative environmental impact of this needless demolition would be a catastrophe. The plan itself raises numerous, serious questions that have yet to be answered, especially regarding how the project will be paid for. The lack of transparency is an insult to locals, and this kind of top-down governmental overreach poses a threat to communities across the state — not just our largest city.
Click here to read an open letter to Governor Hochul from League President Jay DiLorenzo.
What can you do?
From our colleagues at Human-Scale NYC and the Empire Station Coalition:
Write to the Public Authorities Control Board and tell them to reject the General Project Plan for Penn Station. It is fiscally irresponsible and puts taxpayers statewide on the hook for an unknowable amount of money. This is contrary to the public interest. The project speculates on a revenue stream that might never come to fruition after what Empire State Development says will be a 22-year build out of supertall office towers by Vornado. This project does nothing for transit efficiency. Instead of doing real economic development, this project merely turns our government into a real estate speculator.
Write or call the members of the Public Authorities Control Board today:
Assemblywoman Amy Paulin: PaulinA@nyassembly.gov
Senator Leroy Comrie: comrie@nysenate.gov
Assemblyman Joseph M. Giglio: GiglioJ@nyassembly.gov
Empire Station Coalition is a group of concerned community organizations led by co-coordinators Sam Turvey of RethinkNYC and Lynn Ellsworth of Human-Scale NYC, who banded together in 2020 to fight the Penn Area Plan. ESC has worked tirelessly to push the Plan's many flaws to the forefront of public attention.