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Port Authority Crippled With Self-Loathing Over $4 Billion WTC Transit Hub
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Feb 23, 2016
Modified Feb 23, 2016
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Port Authority
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Feb 23, 2016
Modified Feb 23, 2016
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The Port Authority is very disappointed that the Port Authority went $2 billion over budget on the $4 billion World Trade Center Transit Hub. So when the Hub opens the first week of March, do you think that means “party time”? Some grateful words over continental breakfast? Weary smiles over Amstel Lights? Little plastic clamshell ice cream cups with paper lids? Rush hour PATH Train kegger? Bobbleheads? No. There will be no ribbon cutting ceremony or any other kind of ceremony.
Politico New York reports that while the PA was considering having some sort of public acknowledgement that the most expensive, publicly-funded train station in the world was open to the public, the PA’s executive director Pat Foye let it be known that he would not become a pawn for this shrine to decadence.
Foye, who is leaving his job soon, told Politico that he was “proud of the work that the Port Authority and hundreds of skilled union workers performed on the Hub,” but not proud enough to stand up in front of a group of reporters and hold novelty scissors and pretend everything is OK.
(Anyway, he already did that in 2013 when the pedestrian walkway opened, and when the Hub was projected to open in 2015, a mere five years after its original projected opening date.)
(Getty Images)
“Since I arrived here, I have been troubled with the huge cost of the Hub at a time of limited resources for infrastructure so I’m passing on the event,” Foye said.
He later told Politico, “The thing is a symbol of excess.”
Drape Calatrava’s dino bones in a black sheet: We should all be ashamed of ourselves.
In unrelated news: Governor Cuomo says that the LaGuardia Air Train he wants to build will only cost $450 million.
Tagged
port authority
this will teach those legacy-blinded politicians and those graft-thirsty contractors
WTC Hub
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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