Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo accepted the Project of the Year Award for the Moynihan Train Hall from the Regional Plan Association.

 

VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

 

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

 

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 

Hello. It's my pleasure to be with the Regional Plan Association this evening. On behalf of the people of the State of New York, I thank all of you for your good work and your leadership.

 

At this pivotal, transformational moment in time, your wisdom and your intelligence is more important than ever before. We need to make smart and informed decisions, and your talent will help us do just that.

 

Congratulations to Chairman Scott Rechler, he's a good friend and a great New Yorker, and President and CEO Tom Wright. We appreciate their advocacy and their foresight, and on behalf of all those involved, thank you so much for the recognition of the Moynihan Train Hall.

 

The Moynihan Train Hall could not have come at a better time. It looks both backward into history and also points to the future.

 

It reminds us of the mistakes we made. Tearing down the original Penn Station was a mistake. Underestimating the value of great public works was a mistake. Disrespecting the past was a mistake. Failing to plan ahead was a mistake.

 

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who I had the great pleasure to work with as a young man, understood the fact that we make mistakes and that we have to have the courage to acknowledge them, which is a rare quality in people in general, and even more rare in government. The Senator appreciated history and the expressions of civic pride and public confidence. He understood that great public works celebrated every citizen, even a poor young Irish immigrant from Hell's Kitchen.

 

I'm a student of the legendary leader, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I work in his office, and sleep in a house that at one time was his home. Interestingly, FDR, by personality, was not enamored with building per se, but obviously, as Governor and President, it is a major component of his lasting legacy.

 

FDR built projects, but he was also building pride and optimism with each glorious project.

 

What FDR showed us, especially in his New Deal, was the connection between public works and public confidence. He understood the creation and celebration of public spaces would lift the spirit of every person who was impacted.

 

FDR raised buildings from the ground, but he also raised the spirits of the nation at the same time. And he raised the spirits of the nation above the despair of the Great Depression. He was making a statement. He was saying with each project, here we are, we are bold, we are capable, and we rise again.

 

FDR understood that Daniel Patrick Moynihan, as a young boy, would benefit from the work, and he would be inspired, and impressed, and that impression would last a lifetime.

 

This is a memento of one of FDR's projects. You can't read it from there, but it's a sterling silver trowel. Not very practical, but it was a sign of the pride and the significance and majesty of the work of New Yorkers.

 

This is a sterling silver engravement that says "To Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on the laying of the cornerstone of the second bathhouse at Jones Beach." He was proud. They were proud. And they wanted the state to be proud.

 

Now as a nation, we lost that vision. Or maybe we lost the ambition, or maybe we lost the confidence, or maybe we lost the capacity. Or maybe we lost all four. We sat back for too long and we've lived off the great works of our forefathers and we've watched countries around the globe challenge the skies and extend the boundaries.

 

The new train hall is different. We did not set out to build a modern train hall. Modern design too often utters a public sentiment that is no more than a whisper. Mere functionality appears to be the goal. We have lost the sense of great public works.

 

As the Regional Plan Association appreciates the record of history, please allow me to add two caveats to the record. First, while Senator Moynihan launched the train hall idea in the late 1990s, some would say it took over 20 years to complete. Technically true, but only technically. The original plan was for New York to build a new train hall, but the occupants were to be Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. The Long Island Railroad, which used most by New Yorkers, was to remain in the existing Penn Station. Now, New York is a good colleague to Amtrak and to New Jersey Transit, but let's just say the prospect of New York spending tens of millions of dollars to build a new train hall, only to see New Yorkers on the Long Island Rail Road remain in the existing Penn Station, did not sufficiently stir the New York spirit.

 

I have referred to the existing Penn Station as a series of catacombs. Amtrak, which owns Penn Station, does not appreciate my reference. I've told Tony Coscia, the head of Amtrak and a good friend of mine, that I don't mean any inherent disrespect in referring to the existing Penn as reminiscent of the catacombs. It was, after all, the Roman Empire, that were preeminent in building the Catacombs. However, the Catacombs as a transportation network is a different story.

 

In 2016, we revised the agreement, and the Long Island Rail Road was to now to join Amtrak as an occupant of the new Moynihan Train Hall. That is an entirely different situation. And then we went to work and we aggressively built Moynihan in about four years.

 

The second caveat to be added to the history of the Moynihan Train Hall. It was scheduled to be completed this past December 2020, and it met that deadline. We had set that timeline two years earlier, but then there was an intervening factor: a little global pandemic, caused by COVID. Of course, this was more than a legitimate excuse for the project to be delayed. In fact, candidly, a government project doesn't really need an excuse to be delayed. It is now unfortunately a popular assumption that by definition, a government project will be late. A timely government project has almost become an oxymoron. We purposefully refused to allow COVID to delay the project. We believe deeply that people must once again have confidence in their collective capacity, confidence in society's ability, the confidence to achieve despite the odds, confidence in themselves, which means, by definition, confidence in their government. The confidence that it took at one time to build tallest buildings, and the longest bridges, and the deepest tunnels.

 

We work hard to make that statement consistently, to restore public trust and public confidence.

 

Our new LaGuardia Airport, the first new airport in this country in 25 years, makes that statement.

 

Our new JFK airport makes that statement.

 

Our MTA reconstruction makes that statement. The L-train tunnel makes that statement. The new Kosciuszko Bridge makes that statement. The Mario Cuomo Bridge, the largest infrastructure project in America, on time, on budget, and beautiful, makes that statement.

 

And Moynihan Train Hall makes that statement. It says yes we can. It is a monument to our potential, and we must now build on that momentum.

 

We can and we must rebuild the existing Penn Station.

 

We can and we must extend Penn to the block south, the 780 block, to increase track capacity by 40 percent.

 

We can and we must build new train tunnels, the Gateway Project across the Hudson.

We can and we must complete the 2nd Avenue Subway to 125th Street in Harlem, and open up that entire region.

 

We can and we must revitalize the West Side, extending the High Line, which is a great popular attraction, expanding the Javits Convention Center so it is once again nationally and internationally competitive. We must convert Pier 76, an NYPD parking lot for 20 years, a beautiful pier, extending into the Hudson, used as a tow pound. We're going to make it a public space.

 

Post-COVID, the world will reset. The COVID disruption will have consequences. Zoom and remote locations will not go away. It will be a permanent transformation of how we work and how we live. Urban America will be transformed, and the future belongs to the place that has the capacity and confidence to seize that new future and adjust for it. Our New York says we can, and we must, and we will. While the world sees a crisis, New York sees an opportunity.

 

I thank all the people who made this possible, starting with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan God rest his soul, Steve Roth at Vornado, Amtrak, Empire State Development Corporation, Michael Evans, God rest his soul also. Janno Lieber of MTA, Rick Cotton of the Port Authority, who raised the project from the dustbin of history to a current reality.

 

Thank you all, and together we will build a New York. A New York that is better than ever before, because that is the essence of New York. That is our energy. That is our legacy and that is our destiny. Thank you.