The area around Penn Station isn't some blank slate just awaiting the attention of developers and Pritzker-winning architects, but a vibrant jumble of businesses and residents. kvelsey spoke with locals about the area's redevelopment plan
Photo: Kim Velsey In the past few weeks, Governor Kathy Hochul’s $7 billion plan to redevelop Penn Station and a surrounding swath of midtown has cleared several major hurdles, winning the approval of the Empire State Development Corporation and the Public Authorities Control Board, which nixed Amazon’s plans for Long Island City .
I spent a few days talking to business owners and residents on the block, asking them for their thoughts about the redevelopment. Here’s what a few of them had to say. Tearing down the church and 19 other buildings? That’s too much. Where would we put our food pantry? We feed thousands of people a week. We also have AA meetings. You can move those, but not the food pantry. Tearing down the block won’t get rid of the homeless. You move them from this area, they’ll go to the next.”
Olness: “I don’t want to get booted again. When we moved into this space, this area was dead because of COVID and it just started coming back to life. I feel like redevelopment will kill that.” This area also has a lot of homeless. When you see homeless outside, how do you feel buying something really nice?
The most recent person who rehearsed here was Joan Jett’s drummer, Thommy Price. That was about four years ago. It’s not a commercial recording studio anymore, but people play here all the time. I met a blind guy and I host sessions for blind and disabled musicians now.
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