Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press

The owners of Madison Square Garden deployed celebrities this month to dazzle New York City Council members into letting them stay perched atop Pennsylvania Station “in perpetuity.” But apparently even a pro-Garden pitch from Spike Lee did not do the trick.

By a vote of 7-0, the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises agreed this week to give the Garden a ten year permit, at the end of which period the owners will either have to relocate, or go back through the permission process. The full Committee on Land Use concurred, by a vote of 18-1. Since City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has already endorsed a ten-year renewal and a commission to study how to find the Garden a better home, the signs point to final approval by city planners and final passage by the Council in late July.



For fifty years, ever since the lovely old Penn Station was torn down and replaced by today’s subterranean eyesore, numerous architects, planners, developers and politicians have tried to untangle the Garden and the station. So far, no one has come up with a workable plan for what has become the busiest train station in the country. Even with the Council’s nudge, it will take leadership from Governor Andrew Cuomo and from Washington to move the Garden and re-make the station into a safer, more suitable gateway to New York.

The most famous quote about the difference between the old Penn station and today’s comes from architectural historian Vincent Scully Jr., who said: “one entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.” Until things change, that quote should be carved over the Penn Station doors in recognition of the sufferings endured by 600,000 passengers each day.