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NEW YORK (AP) -- Madison Square Garden on Thursday derailed an ambitious, $14 billion plan to renovate Penn Station and redevelop the drab neighborhood around it by backing out of negotiations to move the sports arena one block away to a landmark post office. 1010 WINS AUDIO: Al Jones ReportsMSG said it would move forward with plans announced years ago to renovate its existing arena, which sits over the nation's busiest train station and is home to the New York Rangers and the New York Knicks. ``After exploring several alternatives, it has become clear that the only viable option is a renovation,'' MSG spokesman Barry Watkins said in a statement. The arena, on Manhattan's West Side, had been negotiating for months with city, state and federal officials to move into the James A. Farley Post Office, allowing developers to tear down the arena and renovate the dark maze of tunnels and train tracks that run underground. But the project stalled when enough funding never materialized; the state official overseeing the project, Patrick Foye, left his job this month after former Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned. State officials didn't immediately comment Thursday. MSG, owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., one of the nation's top telecommunications and entertainment companies, would need state and city permission to move ahead with its renovation. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said MSG's decision shows ``a callous disregard'' for the future of the West Side. ``It really takes a project and puts it into some level of chaos,'' she said. MSG said Quinn didn't understand that its decision to renovate ``will not affect the project one bit.'' ``We fail to understand why Ms. Quinn would not want to help us deliver a renovated arena to our more than 4 million annual fans, most of them New Yorkers,'' it said. A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as the private development venture that planned to rebuild the station and create new office space and shops, reiterated a commitment to completing the train station and developing the surrounding area. ``While we understand the frustrations of Madison Square Garden after three lengthy years of pursuing this grand but complex plan, we have every faith that our city, state and federal leadership will enable this project to become a reality for all New Yorkers,'' said Vishaan Chakrabarti, president of Moynihan Station Venture, a joint venture of The Related Cos. and Vornado Realty Trust. The city has feuded publicly with Cablevision before, when Bloomberg sought permission to build a new stadium for the New York Jets on the West Side and Cablevision lobbied to torpedo it. The new train station is to be named after the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who sought more than a decade ago to create an atrium like Grand Central Terminal's in the landmark post office. Amtrak, which owns Penn Station, urged MSG to keep negotiating the new station project. ``While we understand Madison Square Garden's frustration with the pace of the Moynihan Penn Station project, we firmly believe that the plan is a good one,'' Amtrak said, ``and we are still confident that we can make this revitalized train station a reality.'' Preservationists had expressed concern that the Garden, which would share space in the post office building, would overwhelm the train station with a planned glass wall facing the concourse or drape billboards over the building's Corinthian columns. MSG said in its statement that it supported development on the West Side and praised Sen. Charles Schumer. The senator earlier Thursday proposed having the bistate Port Authority of New York and New Jersey oversee the renovation, which drew statements of support from Gov. David Paterson and Port Authority officials. Schumer's office declined further comment after MSG's announcement. |
Tunnel only part of original WTC remaining
Not all history has to be stored in a museum.
As the last aboveground remnant of the World Trade Center was hauled away Sunday for safekeeping, a preserved piece of the center's life below the street hummed along as it has for decades.The stately marble passageway that took PATH commuters to the towers and shopping mall remains in use 6.5 years after the attacks, and despite some rust from leaking water and general wear, has retained its pre 9/11-look. It displays the same subway signs, the same travertine flooring, and even the same doors that opened up the World Trade Center to thousands of people every day.
"People's picture of Ground Zero is of horrendous destruction, but the elements that weren't destroyed, that survived, are an important symbol because people did survive, and just as importantly, the city survived," said Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. "When you walk along that corridor, you understand you are walking along a path that millions of people took everyday, some of whom are no longer with us. It gives you pause."
After the attacks, the passageway, along with the now-removed staircase, the slurry wall and the outline of the tower footprints were listed in the state and national register of historic places, Breen said.
The National Historic Preservation Act forces any project using federal funds, such as the rebuilding of Ground Zero, to take into consideration the impact the project will have on historic artifacts.
Today, much of the PATH station is a maze of yellow caution tape and is open to the elements. Port Authority officials, however, say it will become a vital link in the new downtown when it reemerges as the Santiago Calatrava-designed transit hub in 2011.
"It will be a symbol of the rebirth of a critical part of the city," said Stephen Sigmund, director of public affairs for the Port Authority. "It's an enormous priority for us."
Preservationists and survivors initially fought to have the "Survivors' Stairway" kept in the place.
But developers and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which coordinates the rebuilding of Ground Zero and the surrounding area, said that was logistically impossible, given office tower construction.
Many, though, were grateful to at least keep the subterranean passageway to the past.
"The World Trade Center mezzanine and shopping area was always such a lively and bustling area of commerce and commuters and 24-7 use," said Richard Zimbler, president of the World Trade Center Survivors Network. "So the fact that it can return to something like that is very fitting."
Copyright © 2008, AM New York
Riders got the hike, but they won't get the service improvements the MTA promised would go along with higher fares -- at least not right away.
Citing a gloomy real estate market, the MTA put on hold yesterday $30 million in bus and train service improvements that were to start rolling out in June.
Revenue from MTA real estate transactions came in $32 million below expectations in March alone. Total year-to-date real estate revenues are $21 million below budget, officials added. The agency will watch the market and decide in June how to move forward with the 32 service improvements.
"They're not getting the money they expected, but in retrospect maybe they should have held off on the good news announcements," said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. "They trotted them out to take the edge off the fare hike."
Straphangers packed into crowded trains on the No. 1 line yesterday questioned why they were paying more.
"I think that if they're charging us more, then the service should improve," said Craig Kanig, 24, a student who lives on the Upper West Side.
The improvements, which include adding trains to shave wait times on the congested No. 1, 4 and 6 lines, were approved in December at the same time as the fare hike The agency suggested yesterday that some improvements could go forward as planned.
"Trying to predict what the future is in these volatile markets is something we can't do," said Gary Dellaverson, MTA finance chief.
Three weeks ago, MTA CEO Elliot Sander promised in his State of the MTA address that the improvements would move forward, and the agency was expected to seek board approval this week.
It¹s not the first time this year the MTA announced delays. Last month, the agency announced the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway's completion would again be delayed, until 2015, because of escalating construction costs.
The City Council's Transportation Committee will hold a hearing today that investigates the impact of cost overruns of three transportation agencies, including the MTA.
Some riders yesterday complained of slow service or train delays, which transit officials said yesterday increased early this year. On-time trains decreased by 3.5 percent this January compared to the same month last year, according to the latest statistics.
The agency lowered the goal for on-time trains to 92 percent in 2008, down from the 97-percent level that's been in place for the past two years.
Transit officials did not say Monday why they lowered the goal, but said that reasons for delays include more track work on the line and customers holding doors.
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Some of the proposed service improvements facing delays:
Increase evening service on the 1, 4 and 6 lines and additional early morning service on the 4 line to shave off about two minutes between trains
Increase weekend service on the 7 line to reduce wait times by about two minutes.
Add hours of service on the W and B lines during weekday evenings.
Extend M service to Manhattan on weekday evenings and weekends.
Establish a new bus route from Fordham Plaza to LaGuardia Airport
Extend the B67 service to DUMBO.
Establish a new bus route between Flushing and Fordham Plaza.
Establish a new bus route from Williamsburg to midtown Manhattan.
Copyright © 2008, AM New York
Playing America's second president in HBO's " John Adams" was quite the hands-on experience for Paul Giamatti.
On a break from his governmental duties at his Massachusetts farm, Adams shows his son, John Quincy, the finer points of working with manure - manually. "He was obsessed with coming up with a better kind of manure," the actor explains. "And that was real manure ... of some kind."
As unpleasant as it might have been for the actor, Giamatti insisted the producers keep the scene intact. "It was eccentric," he says, "but Adams took great pride in the fact that he was a real farmer, and it was emblematic of his being a real person."
The seven-part miniseries (which premiered Sunday and airs at 9 p.m. this Sunday) is, in fact, loaded with realistic portrayals of both the people and the period which, its creators feel, will depict the American Revolution in a way not previously available to audiences.
"I think it's as close as anything has ever been to bringing those people and that timealive in a fashion that I don't think people will ever forget," says historian David McCullough, whose book "John Adams" is the basis for the series.
"Anything else would have been a waste of time," adds executive producer Tom Hanks, shaking a bag of John Adams golden dollar coins he keeps on his desk.
Founding feathers
Everything from the Boston Massacre and the vote for independence to the Adams family's primitive farm life, smallpox outbreaks and barbarous practices like tarring and feathering are portrayed with gritty accuracy.
"It was very important to all of us that it be a sensory experience," explains Laura Linney, who plays Abigail Adams. "It was not an elegant time."
Perhaps most important, though, is the portrayal of America's Founding Fathers as more than the one-dimensional, schoolbook images. "We tend to think of them as godlike characters - marble deities or folk figures," McCullough explains.
"We have stereotypes about what the Declaration of Independence was and who these men were," Linney adds. "We know they were great men - but why were they great men?"
The most intriguing, of course, is Adams himself, who, says HBO Films president Colin Callender, was nothing short of the complicated figure Giamatti portrays.
Adams was a "rational man," he notes, "and yet a man who's impetuously impulsive and often acts without thinking. He's humble, yet madly ambitious. He was a simple man, who was very vain. He was a man who loved his family, yet spent half his life away from them. And Paul is fearless in portraying all of this, warts and all."
His wife was his strength
As if those weren't enough personal issues for one founding father, Giamatti adds that Adams was "neurotic and he was depressive. And he was a hypochondriac. He would have complete collapses, and it was never entirely clear what was wrong with him."
Balancing out Adams' shortfalls were the strengths of his wife, Abigail, who suffered those long gaps away from her husband - as long as five years - forcing her to run the farm and family alone.
Despite such separation, however, the two maintained a durable and relatively close relationship, as evidenced by their letters to each other - all of which Linney read in her preparation for the role.
"From the letters, you not only get the deep affection that they had for each other, but also that they were true partners," the actress notes. "She understood where he was and why he had to be there. But it was tough on her. She wasn't a saint."
Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. is designing the cars under a $499 million contract to build a new fleet. The new cars will feature:
* Three-door sets on each side to allow for faster entrances and exits
* On-board video
* Closed-circuit television recording capability
* Improved lighting, air conditioning and heating
* Prerecorded station announcements
* Better signs
* Capability for passengers to communicate with the crew
The new cars are part of an $809 million PATH modernization program that also includes car maintenance equipment, renovations to PATH's Harrison Car Maintenance Facility and preliminary work on a new signal system. It is the largest single investment in the rapid-transit system since the Port Authority acquired the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad in 1962.
The Port Authority expects to have the first of the new PATH cars in service in 2008. The entire fleet will be replaced by 2011.
There had always been rumors, legends really, that there was some sort of tunnel underneath Atlantic Avenue, an important artery in New York City's borough of Brooklyn. A few people even claimed to be able to hear trains rumbling somewhere underground in the dark of night-or was that the plumbing acting up again? But no records of a tunnel could be found, and no one in living memory had succeeded in demonstrating a tunnel's existence, even on paper.
Walt Whitman spoke of "a passage of Acheron-like solemnity and darkness, now all closed and filled up, and soon to be utterly forgotten."
In the late 1970s, Robert Diamond, an engineering student, became curious about the mystery and unearthed a map of the area in 1850; there, amazingly, was the lost tunnel. Pursuing this lead, he encountered massive resistance and disbelief from the city's engineers, who were understandably reluctant to believe that, unknown to them, a major railroad tunnel underlay one of the borough's main thoroughfares. But an item in the Brooklyn Eagle from 1911 mentioned a set of tunnel plans found in the borough president's garbage, and a duplicate copy proved to be moldering away in the borough's archives.
Diamond finally inveigled the local gas company into opening up a long-undisturbed manhole, right in the middle of a busy intersection. At first, he encountered only walls of dirt on all sides, but the ceiling of the chamber was arched and made of brick. Between the ceiling and the top of the dirt was enough space to crawl through, and eventually he dug through to a concrete wall, where a hole had been patched up with bricks and cobblestones. With help from the gas workers, he broke through, and suddenly he was greeted by a blast of cold air. Even after clambering down a portable ladder, they found themselves in a huge enclosed space. They had found what they were looking for.
What Diamond calls the world's oldest subway tunnel was constructed in 1844 by the Long Island Rail Road to cover a vital section of track running through a rapidly urbanizing stretch of what was then the growing city of Brooklyn. Passengers disembarked from the South Amboy, N.J., ferry at the foot of Atlantic Avenue and boarded the train. It carried them out to the end of Long Island, where they caught another ferry to Connecticut, ultimately linking up with the Boston & Providence rail line and cutting days or weeks off travel times to Boston.
The railroad was itself largely responsible for the area's growth. By the early 1840s, the dirt road at the edge of town where the tracks were laid had turned into a lively commercial street clogged with horse-drawn carriages and carts. Many of these vehicles found that the tracks made an ideal parking spot. Pedestrians, too, thronged the busy street, frequently falling on the tracks or being hit by trains. There were complaints about flames and soot. A tunnel under the street seemed best, but Brooklyn sits on a glacial moraine and has no bedrock to tunnel through. It was necessary to use the cut-and-cover method, basically digging a ditch and covering it over.
The tunnel itself took seven months to construct at a cost of $66,000- a considerable sum in those days. Stone for the walls came from excavations in Manhattan, and the trench was covered over with an enormous barrel arch of brick. Over this, the street was rebuilt. For tracks, cast-iron straps were attached to 6-by-6-inch timbers that in turn rested on stone cubes in place of ties.
The tunnel remained in use until 1861, at which time one Electus Litchfield contrived to obtain a contract to close the now-superseded tunnel and fill it in completely. It seems, though, that he confined himself to walling off the tunnel at both ends and filling in only the outer portions. This maneuver, of course, allowed him to pocket a tidy sum. Thanks to this ancient fraud, there is still a tunnel to explore.
Half a century later, with World War I raging in Europe and memories of the old tunnel still alive, the conviction arose that somehow the tunnel was crawling with German spies busily mixing up batches of mustard gas. To gain access, investigators started digging test pits on Atlantic Avenue and eventually broke through into the tunnel, but nary a saboteur was to be found. The manhole that was left as the sole means of access in 1861 was not noticed, and it remained unremarked in the middle of a busy intersection for more than a century.
Diamond, the tunnel's rediscoverer, is now trying to restore trolley service to the section of Brooklyn known as Red Hook through his Brooklyn Historic Railway Association. He hopes to hook up this line to one running through the old tunnel; he has already had to fight off a proposal to use the tunnel to carry sewage. If all goes well, the rumbling sounds beneath Atlantic Avenue may someday be heard once again, even by those without overactive imaginations.
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) -With the Super Bowl on the line, look who had the perfection thing down Pat: Eli Manning and the road-conquering New York Giants .
And what a beauty their 11th straight road victory was, a 17-14 Super Bowl win Sunday that shattered the New England Patriots ' unblemished season.
In one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, Manning, New York's unlikely r. Cool, hit Plaxico Burress on a 13-yard fade with 35 seconds left. It was the Giants' fourth consecutive postseason away win and the first time the Patriots tasted defeat in more than a year.
''There's something about this team,'' Manning said. ''The way we win games, and performed in the playoffs in the stretch. We had total confidence in ourselves. The players believed in each other.''
It was the most bitter of losses, too, because 12-point favorite New England (18-1) was one play from winning and getting the ultimate revenge for being penalized for illegally taping opponents' defensive signals in the season opener against the New York Jets .
''I don't rank them,'' Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. ''It's disappointing.''
The Giants had the perfect answer for the suddenly imperfect Patriots: a big, bad defense and the improbable comeback led by Manning. Yes, Eli Manning , who outplayed league MVP Tom Brady and furthered the family legacy one year after older brother Peyton led Indianapolis to the title.
''I talked to Peyton and he said, 'Go in there, have some fun, you can do it.'''
It was how Eli and the Giants did it.
After Brady found Randy Moss for a 6-yard touchdown with 2:42 to go, New England's defense couldn't stop a final, frantic 12-play, 83-yard drive. It featured Manning's unlikely sack-avoiding scramble and a spectacular leaping catch by David Tyree , who had scored New York's first touchdown on the opening drive of the fourth quarter.
''It's the greatest feeling in professional sports,'' Burress said before bursting into tears.
''That's a position you want to be in,'' said Manning, who followed Peyton's MVP performance last year with one of his own. ''You can't write a better script. There were so many big plays on that drive.''
And now the 1972 Miami Dolphins can pop another bottle of champagne in celebration of a record still intact, the NFL's only perfect season.
''As for the 1972 Dolphins, I don't take joy in the fact the Patriots lost - period,'' said Jim Mandich, the tight end on the 17-0 team. ''But I do relish and savor the fact that there has only been one unbeaten team in the history of the NFL, and it is the 1972 Miami Dolphins .''
The Patriots were done in not so much by the pressure of the first unbeaten season in 35 years as by the pressure of a smothering Giants pass rush. Brady, winner of his first three Super Bowls, was sacked five times, hurried a dozen more and at one point wound up on his knees, his hands on his hips following one of many poor throws in New England's lowest scoring game of the season.
''They played well,'' a dour Belichick said. ''They made some plays. We made some plays. They just made a few more. We played as hard as we could. We just couldn't make enough plays.''
Hardly a familiar position for the record-setting Patriots and their megastar quarterback. This time, it wasn't the Patriots but the Giants making the game-winning rally. This time, the unflappable quarterback making the clutch play wasn't Brady but Manning, who had been booed by Giants fans for most of his four seasons for a lack of emotion.
Oddly, it was a loss to the Patriots that sparked New York's stunning run to its third Super Bowl and sixth NFL title. New England won 38-35 in Week 17 to finish the spotless regular season. But by playing hard in a meaningless game for them, the Giants (14-6) gained something of a swagger and Manning found his footing.
Their growing confidence carried them through playoff victories at Tampa, Dallas and Green Bay, and then past the mightiest opponent of all.
''Every team is beatable, you never know,'' Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. ''The right moment, the right time, every team is beatable.''
Not that the Patriots were very mighty this day. They even conceded with 1 second on the clock as Belichick ran across the field to shake the hand of Coughlin, then headed to the locker room, ignoring the final kneeldown.
That it was Manning taking that knee was stunning. He showed the maturity and brilliant precision late in the game usually associated with, well, Brady.
Peyton Manning was seen in a luxury box jumping up and pumping both fists when Burress, who didn't practice all week because of injuries, caught the winning score.
''We just hung in there on offense, kept executing,'' said Burress, who wasn't far off on the 23-17 prediction he made a few days ago. ''It came down to one play and we made it.''
The Giants became the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl; four AFC teams have done it. They also are the second wild-card champions in three years, following the Pittsburgh Steelers after the 2005 season.
''It's the way we went about our work,'' Coughlin said of the 11-1 road record. ''The road signified the coming together of a team. We rode that emotion all the way through.''
The upset also could be viewed as a source of revenge not only for the Giants, but for the other NFL teams over Spygate back in September. That cheating scandal made headlines again late in Super Bowl week, and could have placed an infinite cloud over New England's perfection.
Until the frantic fourth quarter, the only scoring came on the game's first two drives.
The Giants did almost exactly what they sought with the opening kickoff, using up nearly 10 minutes to go 63 yards. Almost exactly, but not quite, because they settled for a 32-yard field goal after converting four third downs on the 16-play series. The 9:59 drive was the longest in Super Bowl history.
That 3-0 lead lasted for the rest of the quarter, but only because the Patriots were stopped at New York's 1 as the period expired. On the next play, Laurence Maroney scored.
New England's 12-play drive was aided by a 16-yard pass interference penalty on linebacker Antonio Pierce in the end zone. It began with Maroney's 43-yard kickoff runback.
It was the fewest possessions in the first quarter of a Super Bowl.
New York's first series of the second quarter looked dangerous after Amani Toomer 's lunging sideline catch for 38 yards. But rookie Steve Smith mishandled Manning's throw at the New England 10, Ellis Hobbs intercepted and returned it 23 yards.
Those are opportunities teams can't waste against a strong opponent, let alone the Patriots. It was Manning's first interception of the postseason, albeit entirely not his fault; the last was by Hobbs in the season finale.
The Giants survived rookie Ahmad Bradshaw 's fumble, which he recovered, on their next series, because their league-leading pass rush came alive when the Patriots got the ball back. New York sacked Brady on successive plays, forcing a punt, but the Giants' were hurt by an illegal batting of the ball penalty on Bradshaw after reaching the New England 25.
Justin Tuck 's second sack, in the final seconds of the half, forced a fumble recovered by New York teammate Osi Umenyiora . The Giants' celebrated defensive line controlled much of the half, holding the most prolific offense in NFL history to a measly 81 yards and seven points. New England had the ball only 10:33.
''We played them five weeks ago and it was a three-point game,'' Brady said. ''And they made enough changes and really eliminated what we did offensively.''
But New York's mistakes left the Giants with just three points at halftime - and there are no moral victories in Super Bowls.
So the Giants got a real one as the maturing Manning hung in to find Tyree for a 5-yard touchdown to cap an 80-yard drive for a 10-7 lead.
Pressed unlike they are accustomed to, the Patriots responded with their own 80-yard march as Brady finally got some time. Moss, who caught a record 23 of Brady's record 50 TD throws this year, scored with 2:42 to go when cornerback Corey Webster fell. The first 19-0 season was right there.
Eli and the Giants snatched it away.
Re:Construction channels the energy of Downtown’s rebuilding process by recasting construction sites as ‘canvases’ for innovative public art and architecture. This initiative comes at a time when Lower Manhattan is experiencing one of the largest public and private construction undertakings in the nation’s history. In response, Re:Construction bridges the efforts of multiple public partners and the creative community to both highlight and enliven the process of rebuilding while improving the quality of life in Lower Manhattan through the creation of places of attraction, curiosity and anticipation.
Re:Construction could not have been realized without the generosity and guidance of Governor Eliot Spitzer and the State of New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City of New York, Speaker of the State Assembly Sheldon Silver, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, NYC Department of Small Business Services, NYC Economic Development Corporation, NYC Department of Transportation, NYC Department of Design and Construction and the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.
The three pilot projects are:
- Best Pedestrian Route - John Street, East of Broadway
- Fulton Fence - Fulton Street, East of Broadway
- Concrete Jungle - Broadway, between John Street and Ann Street
