Development: Damn the Torpedoes!

This week’s Chelsea Now has articles on two huge new destruction/construction projects.  But while reading the articles I couldn’t help noticing that neither of the projects seems to make any sense from anything but a development-at-all-costs perspective.  In the first, the proposed new St. Vincent’s complex in Greenwich Village, two huge buildings will be torn down so that two even more monstrous skyscraper can be tossed up.  But the real kicker is that, since they plan to make a large portion of the new buildings into condos for rich people, the hospital will actually wind up with less space!  Though it wasn’t mentioned in the Chelsea Now article, I remember reading somewhere that one of their main concerns was to modernize their facilities, but surely it would cost a lot less to simply upgrade the old buildings.

            It pisses me off that St. Vincent’s want to screw up the Village, but even worse is what Vornado wants to do to the Penn Station area, which involves tearing down Madison Square Garden and the Penn Hotel, and maybe even Macy’s, and altering the old Post Office in some ungodly way as yet to be determined.  For one thing, everybody’s crying that the city needs more hotel rooms, to the point where landlords are converting their buildings into hotels illegally, and here developers are going to demolish a huge hotel, which, though it may not be as luxurious as it once was, is actually somewhat affordable.

But the most ridiculous part of the whole “New Penn Station” project is that it is being sold to the public as a way to redress the much-lamented demolition of the old Penn Station, which has been used as a rallying cry by preservationists for four decades now.  Perhaps, in the end, we’ll be getting a new Penn Station to rival the old, but that’s rather like believing in Santa Claus, now isn’t it.  (What we’ll most likely end up with are a bunch of non-descript glass towers.)  So tell me once again how tearing down more iconic buildings is supposed to make us feel better about the loss of Penn Station?

Where development in this city is concerned, it’s full speed ahead, and logic and common sense be damned. -- Ed Hamilton

Public Hearing on St. Vincent’s/Rudin Luxury Condo & New Hospital Development Plan
at PS 41 (116 West 11th Street, west of 6th Avenue) Tuesday, January 22 at 6:30 pm
For more information visit the GVSHP website.

This week’s Chelsea Now has articles on two huge new destruction/construction projects.  But while reading the articles I couldn’t help noticing that neither of the projects seems to make any sense from anything but a development-at-all-costs perspective.  In the first, the proposed new St. Vincent’s complex in Greenwich Village, two huge buildings will be torn down so that two even more monstrous skyscraper can be tossed up.  But the real kicker is that, since they plan to make a large portion of the new buildings into condos for rich people, the hospital will actually wind up with less space!  Though it wasn’t mentioned in the Chelsea Now article, I remember reading somewhere that one of their main concerns was to modernize their facilities, but surely it would cost a lot less to simply upgrade the old buildings.

            It pisses me off that St. Vincent’s want to screw up the Village, but even worse is what Vornado wants to do to the Penn Station area, which involves tearing down Madison Square Garden and the Penn Hotel, and maybe even Macy’s, and altering the old Post Office in some ungodly way as yet to be determined.  For one thing, everybody’s crying that the city needs more hotel rooms, to the point where landlords are converting their buildings into hotels illegally, and here developers are going to demolish a huge hotel, which, though it may not be as luxurious as it once was, is actually somewhat affordable.

But the most ridiculous part of the whole “New Penn Station” project is that it is being sold to the public as a way to redress the much-lamented demolition of the old Penn Station, which has been used as a rallying cry by preservationists for four decades now.  Perhaps, in the end, we’ll be getting a new Penn Station to rival the old, but that’s rather like believing in Santa Claus, now isn’t it.  (What we’ll most likely end up with are a bunch of non-descript glass towers.)  So tell me once again how tearing down more iconic buildings is supposed to make us feel better about the loss of Penn Station?

Where development in this city is concerned, it’s full speed ahead, and logic and common sense be damned. -- Ed Hamilton

Public Hearing on St. Vincent’s/Rudin Luxury Condo & New Hospital Development Plan
at PS 41 (116 West 11th Street, west of 6th Avenue) Tuesday, January 22 at 6:30 pm
For more information visit the GVSHP website.