The_Lone_Apple t1_j24t7rr wrote on December 29, 2022 at 5:45 PM

Reply to comment by kickit in Why New York State Insists That the Penn Station Area Is ‘Blighted’ by mowotlarx

Then maybe better quality buildings that don't look like they've been caked in filth for 100 years might at least make it seem nicer.

kickit t1_j251umx wrote on December 29, 2022 at 6:40 PM

Forgot to include this, but the article also mentions that one of the plan's ringleaders is one of the principle owners in the area, and has let the properties deteriorate.

> Some properties with faulty conditions or unresolved violations are owned by Vornado Realty Trust, the neighborhood’s largest landowner, which the state has said will develop some of the new towers. Vornado, a public company that is among the city’s largest owners of offices, has accumulated more than a dozen properties in the area over the last 20 years, holding onto them in anticipation of a larger redevelopment. Of the eight sites that would be redeveloped, Vornado owns four of them and a share of another.

> Over the years, state projects aimed at eradicating blight have been criticized for rewarding developers whose properties had seemingly contributed to it . . . the lawyers noted that Vornado’s chief executive, Steven Roth, once boasted about letting a Manhattan property languish on purpose to spur the government to offer financial assistance.

zipzak t1_j25qssi wrote on December 29, 2022 at 9:22 PM

yes, just want to add that a huge reason the neighborhood is so nasty is because its covered in vornado sidewalk sheds, dirty sidewalks they are responsible for cleaning, and empty vornado realestate

fattythrow2020 t1_j2715bq wrote on December 30, 2022 at 2:45 AM

Why are they bringing up a building that Vornado waffled over 30 years ago? He didn’t even get government assistance to build it — he demolished it and waited until he signed a big anchor client to make rebuilding worthwhile.

You also removed an important part of that quote that you replaced with ellipses — that the previous statement is not the case here.

Those lawyers (and you) are grappling at straws. Just rebuild the area. It is a piece of shit that annoying people are protecting in the name of a handful of decrepit buildings.