New York, New Jersey Lawmakers Complain About New Port Authority Bus Terminal Plan
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Officials from both New Jersey and New York have sent letters to the Port Authority demanding that a planned new bus terminal protect their interests.
As WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported, lawmakers agree that conditions at the current bus terminal are miserable.
"It's hot, leaking pipes, bathrooms out of service," said New Jersey state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge).
Sarlo said the facility needs to stay roughly where it is now when it comes to geography.
"It's not ideal to come out of the Lincoln Tunnel and then put those buses, which could contribute to congestion.
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) wants the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to start from scratch on its bus terminal plan.
"And if they're not, I can assure you, they will waste 10 years before the courts knock it out and start all over again," Nadler said. "You must examine all the alternatives."
Nadler admitted that his comment is a threat to tie up the project in litigation.
A design competition for the anticipated $10 billion terminal is to be finished in September. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said last month that several options in the competition would require using eminent domain to obtain valued property in the neighborhood.
"They are demolishing hundreds of rent-regulated homes, small businesses that have been in Hell's Kitchen for literally a century, community facilities and a historic church," she said last month.
But the Port Authority contended last month that it wants to do everything possible to avoid that possibility.
It would replace a crumbling, six-decade-old terminal that serves more than 200,000 people per day -- many of them from New Jersey.
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