Results tagged “portauthority”

To make room for the planned extension of the 7 train, the Port Authority will evict the city's largest homeless drop-in center at the end of March, according to the Daily News. The Open Door shelter — which every day provides meals and showers to some 200 homeless men and women — would have closed sooner, but the city was able to convince the transit agency to delay a part of the line extension project to keep shelter visitors off the streets during the winter. Though the Open Door shelter doesn't have beds, an average of 94 people slept there per night in September. One of the regulars, 63-year-old Lee Parker, told the tabloid he has slept in a chair at the shelter each night for the past two months. "It's better than sleeping out on the street," he said. "It's safe and warm."

Over the weekend, a Manhattan man survived falling into the PATH train tracks—and having a train roll over him! According to the Star-Ledger, the man, 32, "appeared intoxicated" when he "fell off the platform" at the Pavonia station and "rolled into the center of the tracks at around 9 p.m."

As the NY Times noted, the artists are also bringing empty storefronts to life — something that's been happening in other boroughs as well. They explain these particular spaces were "donated or leased by building owners unable to rent or develop them." Starving artists are making out well during this recession with prime real estate! The benefit for developers? "The artist gets a gallery or studio, and the landlord gets a vibrant attraction that may deter crime and draw the next wave of paying tenants."

Port Authority officials continue to fight off the terror threat posed by Canada geese, employing techniques from falconry to to shotguns to killing their eggs. With Captain Sully being given a hero's welcome back to the skies as he returned to work this week, it seemed time that we better check in on the villain that was disposed of, lest they come back bigger and stronger than ever. Officials from the PA say they are doing just that, not losing any momentum after over 1,000 were "rounded up" this summer.

We've received multiple reports that the Port Authority Bus Terminal is currently "on lock down" because of a suspicious package. A reader tells us there are "cops with M4s, and people being evacuated." Another reports "limited access from the subway level." We'll keep you posted as the situation develops. Update: The emergency response team is "already out of the area," according to one witness.

Real estate developer and free EZ Pass fan David Mack resigned from the MTA Board and Port Authority Board after it was revealed he didn't cooperate with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation of the state police's possible political interference. In fact, Mack pleaded the Fifth Amendment 37 times. According to Cuomo's report, a previous state police superintendent "had been pressured to appoint...Mack, a real estate developer and Pataki fund-raiser, to the uniformed post of deputy superintendent, though Mr. Mack had no law enforcement experience. Mr. Mack went on to appear at official functions in a full dress uniform, angering rank-and-file troopers." (Apparently he's a police buff!) Governor Paterson rescinded his re-nomination of Mack to the Port Authority board and called on him to resign, but Mack refused until yesterday. In his statement, Mack said he was honored to serve the state agencies (and said he did so "diligently and faithfully"), "As I write this note during observances of 9/11, I can’t help but remember eight years ago when both the Port Authority and M.T.A. confronted extraordinarily difficult times.

Tomorrow is the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. And, the Port Authority tells us, there has been "major progress" at the site of the future National September 11 Memorial & Museum—apparently relatives of victims will be able to walk on the street-level plaza for the first time. Other stats: About 80% of the Memorial's steel (equivalent of 6,500 tons) has been installed, 20% of the concrete has been poured, and the Last Column was installed.

Now that the sleepy George Washington Bridge guards have been fired, WCBS 2 says that it may only be the "tip of the iceberg," as Port Authority sources say "there are many incidents involving these guards. One guard reportedly lost his job for playing canned laughter over the police radio frequency so the cops couldn't talk to one another. In another instance a guard was reportedly asleep when a man walked by and jumped to his death of the bridge." The PA say the guards really just check security clearance of bridge workers, but "Port Authority police sources said they are also tasked with alerting them to suspicious activity on the bridge." Which is why Joe Lepore, the bicyclist who blew the whistle on the sleepy guards, said, "Maybe you just nod off at that one moment when somebody decides to sneak by some liquid nitrogen or some explosives and start to do damage. And I explained it to one of the guards on the other side. I said look if this bridge blows up, we're all going, including you... I didn't do this with a vendetta or any personal issue with anybody. It's safety for all of us."

After a bicyclist caught two George Washington Bridge guards sleeping on the job multiple times—and sent the pictures to Cliffview Pilot which published them yesterday—the Port Authority announced the two men were fired, "The two guards have been fired by the security contractor, FJC Security. The Port Authority takes the safety of its passengers and facilities very serious and has spent more than $4 billion dollars on security since 9/11. The Port Authority welcomes the public's vigilance on matters of safety and security and we encourage our customers to contact us if they encounter anything out of the ordinary." Another bicyclist told the Daily News, "Normally, they are not sleeping. But I guess you should be attentive at this job, especially after 9/11."

The Port Authority says it will turn over the World Trade Center site to developer Larry Silverstein in the next few days. Which means that the Port Authority, which owns the site, is within its target handover period the agency mentioned last month—yet it's still over a year past the various deadlines set to turn the land over. These delays have resulted in tens of millions in penalties (they rack up at $300,000/day) the Port Authority must pay to Silverstein.

Get ready to rumble: State Senator Bill Perkins (D-Harlem) says that his Senate committee, the Committee on Corporations, will hold a public meeting discuss development—or, rather, the slow pace of development—at the World Trade Center site. He told NY1, "We are literally still at ground zero when it comes to the monument and development of that site. It's a site that has local, national and international importance and it's important that we try to play a role in moving it along."

Friday morning a Port Authority cop faced off against a group of nine gang members aboard the PATH and took them all down without having to step off the train. Officer John Roche was fetched down while aboard a PATH train in Jersey City by 37-year-old Shine-Amon Sky around 6 a.m. Friday. Sky had woken up after dozing off during his morning commute to find one of the young Bloods nearby had stolen his cigarettes. The large group of teens and young adults then pounced on Sky when he confronted them about it. When Officer Roche tracked down the gang and saw how poorly his odds looked against so many of them, he ordered the train conductor to lock down the train just past the Grove Street stop as he waited for backup. Once his fellow officers arrived, they were able to round up all nine of the Newark gangbangers, who were charged with everything from riot and disorderly conduct to recruitment of a street gang. Two of the female teenagers were also hit with making terrorist threat when they said that they would kill Roche as he apprehended them.

      

Another week, another World Trade Center dispute! Since the Port Authority—which controls the land at Ground Zero—and WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein have been at odds over the funding of the massive redevelopment project, Governor Paterson decided to personally negotiate with Silverstein a few weeks ago. Paterson had given Silverstein an ultimatum to work with the PA or get out. But Silverstein has rejected Paterson's development proposals—the NY Times reports that in Silverstein's eyes, those plans "were unlikely to lead to building two of three skyscrapers planned for the World Trade Center site," which is what Mayor Bloomberg and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver want, too.

Hey, guess what? Over a year after missing the July 1, 2008 deadline to turn over the World Trade Center site to developer Larry Silverstein, now the Port Authority says the site will be ready! The Daily News reports, "Agency brass say that within the next two months, they'll turn over 'construction-ready land' to the developer - and stop paying him $300,000-a-day in late fees they've paid for more than a year. The handover of the World Trade Center parcel will start the clock ticking on a contractual deal that requires Silverstein to construct the Church St. buildings within five years - or else."

Now that the State Senate stalemate isn't occupying his time, Governor Paterson is directing this energy towards another mess: Ground Zero! World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein and WTC owner the Port Authority have been squabbling over who will finance planned towers—Silverstein wants the PA to foot most of the bill while the PA wants Silverstein to raise the money. Paterson said yesterday that public financing was out: "I think it’s unfair to the taxpayers, because you could go to the private equity firms, and they don’t want to extend that kind of credit. So I don’t think that the taxpayers should run a greater risk than what makes good business sense for a number of private institutions." He also floated the idea of public-private partnerships. The Port Authority said, “We appreciate Governor Paterson’s leadership and agree with his principled position on protecting public resources. In the meantime, the Port Authority will continue to make daily and visible progress on the Memorial, One World Trade Center, the Transportation Hub and the other public infrastructure," while Silverstein said, "I appreciate the governor’s direct involvement. I look forward to continuing these discussions.”

In the latest round of World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein vs. World Trade Center owner Port Authority, Reuters reports that the PA has "rejected the use of more public money to guarantee financing for two private office towers" at Ground Zero. Apparently Silverstein only wants to put $75 million in equity into the two towers, which are estimated to cost $4.2 billion. The PA released the letter it sent Silverstein, which includes, "You demand that the public take on the risk that you and the private sector will not take. It is unrealistic of Silverstein Properties to demand this extraordinary level of public subsidy, and it is not going to happen." Silverstein had previously rejected the PA's demand that he raised $625 million towards the project. The slow pace of progress—not to mention rising costs—have raised suggestions that some buildings be scrapped or drastically downsized and Silverstein has threatened to take the matter into arbitration, which could delay construction even more.

Surprise, surprise: In the weeks since the various players in the World Trade Center's development met, nothing has happened! Even though politicians, including Mayor Bloomberg and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (in "a startling alliance"!), have criticized the Port Authority for slowing the progress of Ground Zero's future, since the PA refuses to pay for all the towers that developer Larry Silverstein wants, the Port Authority hasn't budged. Now Silverstein has given the Port Authority two weeks to come to an agreement, or else he'll take the whole thing to arbitration. Which could mean more delays.

Earlier this month, the NY Post reported that a Port Authority police lieutenant Coretta Smith was being investigated after she "tried to get a gun-toting sailor with a mental disorder onto a jet at Kennedy Airport -- two days after orchestrating his release when his first attempt failed." Smith's response at the time was, "I'm aware of my mistake, and I'm handling it my way." Now the Post says Smith, who may be Rep. Charles Rangel's niece, "helped spring a trio of suspected pot smugglers from jail," prompting another Internal Affairs investigation. When a driver on the George Washington Bridge was stopped on suspicion of being intoxicated, the driver admitted to smoking a joint and a police dog smelled pot in a purse, which contained bundles of cash with had "a strong odor of marijuana all over the money." Smith, working at the NJ stationhouse where the driver and two teen girls were brought in, then "refused the request by...the arresting officer, to alert the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office" and "refused to authorize a criminal history check of the trio"—and it turned out the driver had a history of various drug and weapons convictions. According to the Post, "insiders believe she is getting lenient treatment because of her high-powered uncle, who has great influence over federal grants to the agency as dean of the New York congressional delegation."

The Post, which basically called war on Canada geese after Flight 1549, continues to cover the geese culling/killing, reporting that 300 geese have been killed on Monday and Tuesday: "Death squads targeting Canada geese before they bring down any more commercial jets launched an amphibious assault on Fort Totten Park in Queens -- where they used an armada of kayaks to herd the flying menaces to the shore. Workers from the US Department of Agriculture and city Parks Department then rounded up gaggles of the pesky honkers, put them in crates and drove them on a flatbed truck to a secret location at Kennedy Airport. Officials wouldn't say if they were gassed there or transported to another location to meet their doom." And there are pictures, too. The city and Port Authority are trying to eliminate at least 2,000 geese from the area, in hopes of improving airline safety. Protesters gathered outside the PA's offices in Manhattan; one said, "This is a terrible precedent to set, that anytime there is a problem with wildlife — to just slaughter them is not a way to solve the issue."

Mayor Bloomberg expressed further support for the city and Port Authority's joint plan to kill 2,000 geese during their molting season in order to prevent accidents like the one that left Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. On his radio show yesterday, Bloomberg said, "There are people who care very much about the geese. But in the end, safety of the public is No. 1. There is not a lot of cost involved in rounding up a couple thousand geese and letting them go to sleep with nice dreams. We're trying to strike a balance. In the safety of flying, the public trumps the rights of the geese...(This way is) less stressful way of eliminating geese. They actually use carbon dioxide, and they just sort of go to sleep." Geese in various city parks within five miles of local airports will begin getting rounded into portable pens where they're killed with cabon dioxide-filled chambers on Monday. Wayne Johnson, a "free-land activist," told the Post, "There's a ton of nonlethal alternatives," such as chemical repellents and goose-frightening pyrotechnics.

In other Flight 1549 news, the city and Port Authority are embarking on a plan to kill at least 2,000 pesky Canada geese living within 5 miles of airports. Mayor Bloomberg said, "The serious dangers that Canada geese pose to aviation became all too clear when geese struck US Airways Flight 1549. The incident served as a catalyst to strengthen our efforts in removing geese from - and discouraging them from nesting on - city property near our runways."

The Port Authority has suspended all PATH service, due to a fire at the PATH's Jersey City control center. And the Port Authority doesn't know when service will be restored. WCBS 2 reports, "All power is out to PATH trains while firefighters and emergency units tend to the scene." However, the most recent PATH Alert says, "3:06:04 PM Concerning the earlier signal problem, all PATH train service has resumed." We hope so!

With all the squabbling over World Trade Center development—not to mention delays and ballooning budgets and talk of cutting buildings—a number of players (like the Port Authority's Anthony Coscia, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, WTC developer Larry Silverstein,NY Governor David Paterson), met at Gracie Mansion today. But don't expect anything to come out of it. Mayor Bloomberg told reporters, "There will not be a grand announcement at the end of [this] afternoon that the days of wine and roses are here again.... If we can be a catalyst and provide a forum for them to get together - I would like to do that. It is in the interest of the city and this country to get development going at the World Trade Center site...There's no easy solution here. We'll try and come to an agreement."

A week and a half ago, it was revealed that the Port Authority was considering scrapping three of the planned towers at the World Trade Center site. Towers 2 and 3, designed by Sir Norman Foster and Sir Richard Rogers respectively, would instead be transformed into 4-5 story "stumps" (Tower 5 would be abandoned for now). Today, the Post shows renderings of the stumps, which are given the more marketing friendly term "retail podiums."

                     

Yesterday morning, the FDNY, NYPD, Port Authority Police, Office of Emergency Management and additional agencies converged on the World Trade Center PATH station in lower Manhattan to participate in a full-scale exercise—Operation Safe PATH 2009— to test their response to an improvised explosive device detonation. While PATH service was suspended and the immediate area were closed off to vehicular and pedestrian traffic, over 800 emergency responders, plus 150 volunteers who portrayed victims, participated in the drill, which involved two (simulated) explosions that occurred on a NJ-bound PATH train about 1000-1200 feet into the tunnel.

Tomorrow morning, the area around the World Trade Center site will be closed for a "full scale training exercise" held by the NYC Office of Emergency Management and the Port Authority of NY and NJ. The exercise will simulate an explosion in one of the PATH train tunnels and will include over 800 first responders. The following streets will be closed to pedestrian and vehicular traffic between 6 a.m. and about 11:30 a.m.: Greenwich Street, West Broadway, and Church Street between Vesey Street (included) and Warren Street (not included); Vesey Street, Barclay Street, Park Place, and Murray Street between Broadway (not included) and West Street (not included). Also, the PATH will be not stopping at WTC—here are more details on PATH service tomorrow morning.

Yesterday, the Daily News reported that the Port Authority may consider to scrap three of the planned towers—Towers 2, 3 and 5— at the World Trade Center site, due to costs, delays and the economic downturn. Now the Post throws out the idea that the PA may actually opt for building luxury hotel and apartments at Tower 5, which seems "a stronger bet than holding out for a commercial tenant, now that JP Morgan is out of the picture." And Globe St. suggests that the PA only wants to delay Tower 2 and 3 construction until the real estate market is better (and needs millions more square feet). The PA and WTC developer Larry Silverstein have been at odds over Ground Zero plans, with the developer asking for more financial help and the PA unwilling (thus far) to pitch in any more. Silverstein Properties president of WTC properties Janno Lieber said, "The Silverstein team has not wavered on rebuilding the World Trade Center, and we never will." [Via Curbed]

Last Friday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said, "Seven years and eight months after the attacks, I am fed up with the stalling and exasperated with the current state of the World Trade Center project," outlining that two of the towers must be completed by 2014 and urging developer Larry Silverstein to take on more of the risk, with help from the Port Authority. Now, the Daily News reports that the Port Authority is proposing a drastic change to the plan that would reduce the square footage from 10 million to 5 million:

The sources say the agency's new vision for the site calls for scrapping one tower that would have been taller than the Empire State Building and nixing two others that would have dwarfed the nearby Woolworth Building.

Continue reading "Three WTC Towers May Be Scrapped From Ground Zero"

Patience is a necessary virtue when it comes to the World Trade Center site: According to the Daily News, a new study says "the World Trade Center won't be fully rebuilt and occupied until 2037 - a full 36 years after terrorists reduced it to rubble." The Port Authority commissioned the study from Cushman & Wakefield, which also predicts: 1) "Freedom Tower, won't be filled with tenants until 2019"; 2) it may take "12 years to fully lease [Larry] Silverstein's Tower 2" which might be "finished in 2014, but it won't be filled until 2026"; and 3) that Tower 3 construction won't start until 2026 with completion in 2030 and "full leasing in 2037." The Port Authority has control of Freedom Tower, while the three other towers at the site are being developed by Silverstein; Silverstein's company told the News, "The Port Authority's position seems to be based on a totally pessimistic attitude about New York's economic future. Our view is that New York will bounce back strongly over the next five years while we are building these buildings." Well, we can't wait until the Port Authority next timeline—see this one from last October for fun.

If you want to sigh just a little more about the development of the World Trade Center site, here you go: The Daily News reports, "The Port Authority is paying Larry Silverstein $21.5 million to develop the Freedom Tower - even though he has absolutely no role in building the 1,776-foot icon." Even though Silverstein handed over control of the building site to the Port Authority, the agency has been paying him $500,000/month in "development fees" and will keep receiving them until the middle of next year, which the News helpfully points out is the equivalent of "2.7 million George Washington Bridge tolls or 12.3 million PATH fares." The fees were written into the 2006 agreement, which also says the Port Authority can request Silverstein's company's help, but the News says the agency has never done so. The Port Authority says it's siply abiding by the contract, while Silverstein's spokesman told the paper, "We believe our expertise in office tower construction would be of tremendous value in getting the 1 World Trade Center project back on schedule, and our team remains at the Port's disposal."