COMMUTING How remote work has reshaped the city’s travel patterns PAGE 3
CRAINSNEWYORK.COM
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JUNE 12, 2023
TRANSPORTATION
Getting power brokers behind Penn Station overhaul ASTM has worked to gain support from several key figures, earning compliments and complaints of manufactured hype BY NICK GARBER AND EDDIE SMALL
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uzzling out how to renovate Penn Station has proven too tall an order for some of New York’s savviest power players in recent years. But the Italian developer ASTM has achieved surprising momentum for its own plan through an aggressive lobbying push, eye-catching designs and the sur-
prise hire of a respected architect—causing both delight and bewilderment among longtime stakeholders in the maligned transit hub. The company developed the plan over about three years, making it public in recent months. The plan calls for demolishing the 5,600-seat theater attached to the Eighth Avenue side of Madison Square Garden and building a glassy base around the arena, add-
ing two new train halls, and letting more light enter the below-ground station. The plan has gained praise for offering a way around issues that have derailed past attempts to improve the station—and skepticism for its lack of specifics. Many are waiting impatiently for the company’s public rollout, slated for late June, which will include a fuller version of its plan complete with an all-
important detail it has yet to disclose: how much it will cost. How did a firm known mostly for building toll roads in Western Europe and Brazil gain so much momentum? A combination of big ideas, political heavyweights as leaders to help sell them, and a willingness to spend See OVERHAUL on page 22
AVEQ MOI MEMBERS Soleil (from left), Hana and Layla make bracelets during a weekly event at Vers in Hell’s Kitchen.
INCLUSIVITY
As queer rights come under fire nationwide, new and old local bars prioritize outreach, togetherness BY OLIVIA BENSIMON VOL. 39, NO. 23
© 2023 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.
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n any given night, the city’s gay, lesbian and queer bars host an abundance of fun events: game shows, piano sessions, watch parties, drag nights, the list goes on. But with a rise in violence and a record-breaking number of laws passed around the country attacking the personhood of members of the LGBTQ commu-
See LGBTQ on page 19
GOTHAM GIG
THE LIST
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The head of Friends of the High Line wants the park to be more accesible
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nity, the venues, long essential purveyors of safety and solidarity, are reminded how essential it is that they keep striving to provide more than just a fun night out. Activism has always been a tenet of the city’s LGBTQ establishments. More than five decades ago,
BUCK ENNIS
City’s LGBTQ venues showcase community roots amid attacks
Operating costs continue to climb at the largest hospitals in the New York area
6/9/23 1:58 PM