Fix Penn Station, Don’t Demolish the Neighborhood!

Fix Penn Station, Don’t Demolish the Neighborhood!

Started
March 23, 2022
Petition to
Signatures: 1,951Next Goal: 2,500
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Why this petition matters

Dear Governor Hochul, Attorney General Leticia James, Mayor Eric Adams, Borough President Mark Levine, Head of NJ Transit Kevin Corbett and Head of the LIRR Phillip Eng,

2,371 residents of the Penn Station neighborhood live under threat of eviction, many from affordable housing where they’ve lived for decades. 

1,296 businesses also await eviction, and iconic New York architecture like the Hotel Pennsylvania, the Gimbel’s Sky Bridge and the 1872 St. John the Baptist Catholic church are slated for demolition.

It’s all due to the Empire State Development Corp’s plan to bulldoze more than 40 buildings and give the land to private developers to create a “Vornado Campus” of supertall office towers. 

Every single neighborhood organization in the area has come out in opposition, as have both affected community boards and multiple civic and nonprofit organizations. Public Advocate Williams has come out against it, and 15 New York State Senators.

It’s time to junk this plan. 

The financing scheme is vague, risky to taxpayers, and simply unnecessary given the high level of matching support of the Federal government for Penn Station improvements.  

The plan doesn’t address the issues behind Penn Station’s dysfunction, and fails to consider cheaper alternatives that would make Penn Station the crowning center of a regional, unified train network. 

Please withdraw support for this project and investigate alternatives for a transit plan and a new Penn Station worthy of this City and Region —  one that doesn’t evict hard working New Yorkers and destroy the culture and history that draw millions of visitors every year. 

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Signatures: 1,951Next Goal: 2,500
Support now
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