Photo Friday: Carriage Barn

Photo by Preservator

Sunday, October 3, 2010. Morning at the Coach Barn at Shelburne Farms, built 1902.

Gov. Christie Derails ARC Tunnel

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is making The Preservator’s blood boil. Today Gov. Christie announced that he is pulling New Jersey’s funding for the ARC (aka Access to the Region's Core) Transit Tunnel under the Hudson River.  Gov. Christie put a moratorium on the construction of new tunnels for commuter rail lines under the Hudson River, citing concerns about the project’s budget.  It has been widely reported that Gov. Christie was expected to pull state funding from the project. In doing so, Gov. Christie has made a decision that would adversely affect the entire Northeast Megaregion by choking commuter rail travel even as ridership increases.

Proposed map of ARC Tunnel project. Image via arctunnel.com, by NJ Transit and the Port Authority of NY and NJ

Despite this announcement today, Transportation Nation reports that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Gov. Christie intend to meet tomorrow to discuss alternatives so that the ARC Tunnel project may continue.

Right now Amtrak and New Jersey Transit share the two century-old rail tunnels between New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan. These tunnels are at capacity; meanwhile ridership has more than quadrupled since 1984, and has increased 150% in the last 10 years.  The ARC tunnel would double the existing commuter rail capacity between NJ and NY, carrying an additional 100,000 passengers daily.

On the Manhattan end, this tunnel is a component of the intricate planned expansion of New York Penn Station and the restoration of the old Farley Post Office, set to become the new Moynihan Station. After years in the planning, the ARC tunnel construction phase began in 2009 and tunneling began this year. Of the $8.7 billion budget, the Port Authority of NY and NJ and the Federal Transportation Authority are each putting $3 billion toward the project, and the State of New Jersey had pledged about $2.7 billion to the project. According to Gov. Christie's estimates the actual project budget is anticipated to top $11 billion.

Gov. Christie’s excuse for stalling and canceling the project is that New Jersey would be on the hook for cost overruns. He says that because New Jersey is broke, the taxpayers cannot afford any additional costs. And, by the way, Gov. Christie reportedly wants to use the $2.7 billion committed to ARC to plug the impending bankruptcy of the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, which is used to maintain the state’s roads and rails. At best, transit advocates say, this funding will only solve the state’s transportation funding for a few years.

If U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has his way, New Jersey will have to reimburse the $300 million (plus interest and penalties) of federal dollars already put toward the project. Essentially, the state would be breaking its commitment to the project, in exchange for which New Jersey received Federal funding. If that weren’t enough, Lautenberg asked the Port Authority this week to commit to covering any overruns.

Gov. Christie’s decision is outrageous. While it’s true that New Jersey is struggling financially, the tunnel project is anticipated to turn a profit for the state after it is built. A report by the Regional Plan Association (RPA) this summer projected significant property value increases (and therefore property tax revenue) for homes near rail stations in New York and New Jersey.  Additionally, the same RPA report notes that because the ARC tunnel would shorten commute times, the number of commuters will increase.

The Preservator takes the long view on just about everything. When we’re forward looking, it’s to a deep future, not the next 5-10 years. Times may be hard today, but New Jersey cannot and should not make decisions out of political expedience at the expense of real long term gains. 

Many transportation advocates have suggested that New Jersey should raise its absurdly low gas tax, which has remained stable for decades and contributes to the state’s low prices at the pump. Raising the gas tax may even push more commuters out of the driver’s seat and into the state’s rail system.

In killing this project Gov. Christie would commit one of the worst decisions for the entire region of the century. America can no longer be in the business of building fossil-fuel dependent transportation. The ARC tunnel project has been 20 years in the making and is the precise sort of project that the America of the 21st Century needs. We need more efficient and sustainable ways of moving regional populations to work. Any transportation planner will tell you that you cannot build your way out of a traffic problem by increasing road capacity. It simply doesn’t work. Our nation’s rail system (freight, Amtrak, regional rail) has been woefully underfunded and the Obama administration is working hard on reversing that trend.  (It helps that Vice President Biden was an Amtrak commuter as a Senator.)

You can thank Gov. Christie for keeping the Northeast Megaregion trapped in the 20th Century, with punishing commutes on aging infrastructure. You can thank him for filling New Jersey’s potholes and robbing the region’s future to do so.

Photo Friday: Empire Stores

The Empire Stores c. 1869. 1885.  53-83 Water Street, Fulton Ferry Historic District, Brooklyn. September 13, 2010. 10:52am

Stars Shine at Eldridge Street Synagogue

An early design illustration of the new window stained glass window design. Photo illustration by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates

 On October 10th The Museum at Eldridge Street (aka Eldridge Street Synagogue) will celebrate the installation of a magnificent new stained glass window designed by Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans, created by The Gil Studio. 

The new east window was commissioned to replace a glass-block window installed in the 1940s after the original was damaged and ultimately removed.  The monumental round window will occupy the focal point of the sanctuary. While there was no documentation of the original window's design, the new window design is a sensitive, yet modern, intervention into this National Historic Landmark.

On Monday, Eyewitness News aired this bit about constructing the window:

According to the Museum's website, the project has been substantially supported by the likes of  American Express, The David Berg Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The David Geffen Foundation, and the City of New York.

For those still curious, here's a bit from The New Yorker written by Paul Goldberger about the window project. "She Does Windows"

For those even more curious, The Museum at Eldridge Street will host a conversation with Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans on Wednesday, November 17th at 6:30pm. Tickets are $15, $12 for students and seniors.

Photo Friday: Feast of San Gennaro

The Feast of San Gennaro along Mulberry Street, September 21, 2010 5:29pm. Photo by The Preservator.

This week the 85th Feast of San Gennaro is being celebrated along the length of Mott and Mulberry streets in New York City's Little Italy (Chinatown? Five Points? Two Bridges?).  The feast honors the martyrdom of San Gennaro, the Patron Saint of Naples, and has been held in Little Italy since 1926, centered around the National Shrine to San Gennaro at the Church of Most Precious Blood (just around the corner at 113 Baxter Street). The feast runs through Sunday, September 26th.  

For a full and colorful explanation of the Feast, check out this two part series from The Bowery Boys in 2007.
Part 1: Blood and Sideshows
Part 2: Most Precious Blood

Choose Your Scaffolding Adventure: urbancanvas Design Competition

One of the eight urbancanvas finalists: "My Urban Sky," by Jen Magathan

New York City's urbancanvas Design Competition is aiming to dress up dress up the otherwise bland fixtures of  construction sites - sidewalk sheds, construction fencing, scaffolding and protective netting - in a temporary artsy new skin. The contest is being held by the departments of Buildings and Cultural Affairs in an effort to create a positive, attractive, and interesting additions to New York City's urban environment while buildings are under construction. The hope is to enhance the public realm with artwork that is broadly accessible, created in a flexible system that can be adapted to different scale buildings in different settings.

Of the 700-plus artists who registered for the competition, eight finalists were selected by a jury this summer. Today the finalists were announced and are currently up for public vote until October 1. The four artists that get the most votes will not only see their designs beautifying New York City's construction sites but will receive $7500 from the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. And, of course, we the people get something to enliven the otherwise unattractive city-owned buildings under construction.

View and vote for the designs here.

Old Fulton Street

 Three historic buildings on Brooklyn's Old Fulton Street are facing the possibility of demolition. Numbers 11, 13 and 15 Old Fulton Street were built in the late 1830s when this was a busy commercial district around the Fulton Ferry landing at the river's edge. They predate the Brooklyn Bridge by nearly 50 years.

The three properties have been under vacate orders for months because their rear wall is in danger of collapse.
One reason the buildings are unstable is because they are built on poor fill, and the ground has settled over time. Another reason appears to be owner neglect. The good news: the owners recently removed tons of debris to lighten the loads within the buildings, and are now in negotiations with the city to avoid demolition.

The Fulton Ferry Historic District was designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1977. It's a small district and with these three buildings lost, it would certainly lose some integrity. With the increased development of DUMBO and Brooklyn Bridge Park this area is seeing much more attention and it would be great to see these buildings restored. The neglect these buildings have suffered is a shame. It would be sadder still to lose them altogether.

 Photo via National Park Service

Above you can see what the north side of Old Fulton Street looked like in 1974 when the Fulton Ferry National Register district was designated. The buildings at 11-15 Old Fulton are to the right of the gap in the buildings.

For more info:
Brooklyn Paper, "Historic Building Could Be Destroyed on Old Fulton Street"
DumboNYC.Com "Update on 11-15 Old Fulton Street Demolition"
Fulton Ferry Landing Association "11-15 Old Fulton Update"

All color photos by The Preservator.