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TODAY Monday 9 February 1998 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site. |
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TODAY Monday 9 February 1998 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site. |
TODAY IN THE WORLD: Remember Penn Station
Thirty five years ago the modern American preservationist movement was born when the Penn Central company razed one of the most beautiful big buildings in the country. Pennsylvania Station was built in 1910 from a design by McKim, Mead, and White that evoked the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Everyone loved it. It was the private property of Penn Central, though, and they tore it down to make way for an office tower and the current incarnation of Madison Square Garden. There was no landmark designation in those days, and protest was futile. But protests were made nonetheless, enough to prompt the president of the company to write a letter to the editor saying that he hoped that no one was seriously arguing the an owner could not demolish his own building just because other people found it beautiful.
[Well, yes, as a matter of fact.]
What is called Pennsylvania Station today is the basement of the office tower built in 1963. Low ceilinged, crowded, cheesey. Across the street, however, is a big beautiful building, erected in 1914, that was designed and still serves as the General Post Office, home of the Ground Zero of zip codes, good old 10001. It has been the unswerving ambition of the most learned member of the United States Senate -- Daniel Patrick Moynihan -- to convert the Post Office into the new Penn Station, and thereby make a impressive home for the hub of what he hopes will be a Northeast network of high-speed trains.
Federal funding is the big question, of course, and these are not kind times for federally-subsidized rail. Our friends at the Surface Transportation Policy Project tell us that President Clinton's new budget, with all its new spending initiatives, proposes a reduction in the capital budget of Amtrak and elimination of operating subsidies altogether (thereby bringing federal rail expenditures to about 2.6 percent of federal highway expenditures; details are available from the US Department of Transportation).
If it weren't for Moynihan's status as ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, a proposal to direct about $100 million of national funds to convert a New York post office into a New York train station would be met with derision. But the White House is going along and Moynihan is calling in his chits, so it just may happen. In this morning's New York Times, David Dunlap says the Senator is optimistic that the Postal Service's objections can be met (it seems the mail carriers are not enthusiastic about giving up the lion's share of their facility) and some kind of deal can be struck between the two semi-public corporations.
Is there an enviro stake in all this? Yes, certainly in the sense that rail moves people in a more energy-efficient, less land-gobbling way than a highway does. And also in the sense that making urban facilities attractive and convenient is a good idea since people living in cities occasion much less environmental harm than people living in the suburbs. But in addition to these material ecology factors, there is also a spiritual ecology consideration. Environmentalism is all about preserving the natural inheritance; it's a small step away from the preservation of the human interitance. We are the true conservatives. Remember Penn Station!
TODAY ON THE SITE
Busy Monday. Two fresh articles are posted: Bill Belleville on Cuban marine ecology and Michael Lerner on the new edition of a book which argues (persuasively) that multiple-chemical sensitivities are no joke. At Lib Tree, we cover the waterfront. And speaking of covers, the cover art and pretty much all the other graphics you see on this site are rendered by John Leamy, an artisan of this city, who divides his time between Adobe Photoshop and the drum kit he mans as percussionist for the rock band Satellite. Last week John and Satellite were about to go on at CBGB right after the appearance of Sean Lennon and his band. John had a panic attack when he couldn't locate his drummer's stool. Sean, an affable sort, lent him his. When John mounted the stage he looked out in the audience and saw that Yoko Ono was sitting on the missing stool. How many other Websites can offer you such a small number of degrees of separation?
Recent "Today" columns:
2/6: Adam Smith and Automobile Efficiency
2/5: Clean Water, Naturally
2/4: Roll, Storms, Roll
2/3: Land Purchase Fever
2/2: Groundhog Day in the Persian Gulf
1/30: Trees and Hormones
1/29: Things To Come (2)
1/28: Things To Come
1/27: 'Bye, 'Bye Brazil
1/26: Jaywalking and Jaydriving
1/23: Good Biotech, Bad Biotech
1/22: No More Roads
1/21: Swordfish
1/20: Electromagnetic Sleuthing
1/16: Good News Way Down Under
1/15: Twenty-Four Forty or Fight!
1/14: Your Tax Dollars at Work
1/13: Johnny Mobil Appleseed
1/12: Superbowl, Scientific Uncertainty, and the Future of Al Gore
1/9: Goodbye, Delaware
1/8: Leaf Blowers, Old Cars, Class Conflict
1/7: The Great Improvement That Didn't
1/6: Proactive, Shmoactive
1/5: Mediocre Landscapes and Hope for the Planet
1/2: The Greatest Environmental Cause of the Year
12/31/97: The Top Twelve Environment Stories of 1997
To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.