Regarding your April 9 article “Steven Roth teases strategy shift toward apartments,” Steven Roth is right: people want to live in New York, and the city desperately needs additional housing. If Mr. Roth truly wants to unlock the “promised land” around Penn Station, there’s a big opportunity right in his backyard.
It starts with moving Madison Square Garden one block over on Seventh Ave. where the Hotel Pennsylvania once stood to create the greatest economic opportunity and civic initiative in New York City. Then rebuild Penn Station as a great train station with a great public park where the Garden sits now and grow a world-class, mixed-use neighborhood around it. Vornado owns much of the land that makes this possible and way more valuable.
Across the globe, vibrant new districts have grown around new arenas—from London to Los Angeles. New York has still been shackled to the past, but the politics are changing, the momentum is shifting, and the public is watching. What was once considered unimaginable has now become a viable business alternative—for the Garden, for Vornado, and for New York.
Alexandros Washburn is the chief architect, Grand Penn Community Alliance.
