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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
July 29, 2013
(The Nation) Congressman Darrell Issa really is determined to end the United States Postal Service as Americans know it—indeed, as Americans have known it for more than 200 years.
Issa, the powerful chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has a long history of attacking the postal service. But, now, he has taken advantage of a manufactured crisis to get his committee to vote twenty-two to seventeen in favor of a “Postal Reform Act of 2013” that American Postal Workers Union president Cliff Guffey warns “will lead to the demise of the Postal Service.”
With Wednesday’s committee vote, the full House is now set to consider a plan that would, among other things, phase out door-to-door mail delivery by 2022. Instead of the traditional and highly popular delivery model that now exists, mail would be left in so-called “neighborhood cluster boxes” that would serve multiple residences.
The Issa plan also sets the stage for the elimination of most weekend mail service.
The changes Issa proposes would, according to the National Association of Letter Carriers, lead to “the elimination of more than 100,000 postal jobs and would dramatically cut service.” And in addition to its assault on the character and quality of postal service, the legislation includes classic austerity schemes, such as a prohibition against postal unions and management from negotiating protections against the closure of post offices, stations and branches, the consolidating of plants, the privatization of operations and layoffs. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blog/175439/darrell-issas-got-plan-put-postal-service-death-spiral#ixzz2aRNpsqli
John Nichols: Darrell Issa's Got a Plan to Put the Postal Service in a Death Spiral
(The Nation) Congressman Darrell Issa really is determined to end the United States Postal Service as Americans know it—indeed, as Americans have known it for more than 200 years.
Issa, the powerful chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has a long history of attacking the postal service. But, now, he has taken advantage of a manufactured crisis to get his committee to vote twenty-two to seventeen in favor of a “Postal Reform Act of 2013” that American Postal Workers Union president Cliff Guffey warns “will lead to the demise of the Postal Service.”
With Wednesday’s committee vote, the full House is now set to consider a plan that would, among other things, phase out door-to-door mail delivery by 2022. Instead of the traditional and highly popular delivery model that now exists, mail would be left in so-called “neighborhood cluster boxes” that would serve multiple residences.
The Issa plan also sets the stage for the elimination of most weekend mail service.
The changes Issa proposes would, according to the National Association of Letter Carriers, lead to “the elimination of more than 100,000 postal jobs and would dramatically cut service.” And in addition to its assault on the character and quality of postal service, the legislation includes classic austerity schemes, such as a prohibition against postal unions and management from negotiating protections against the closure of post offices, stations and branches, the consolidating of plants, the privatization of operations and layoffs. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blog/175439/darrell-issas-got-plan-put-postal-service-death-spiral#ixzz2aRNpsqli
July 29, 2013
from truthdig:
The Business of Mass Incarceration
Posted on Jul 28, 2013
By Chris Hedges
Debbie Bourne, 45, was at her apartment in the Liberty Village housing projects in Plainfield, N.J., on the afternoon of April 30 when police banged on the door and pushed their way inside. The officers ordered her, her daughter, 14, and her son, 22, who suffers from autism, to sit down and not move and then began ransacking the home. Bourne’s husband, from whom she was estranged and who was in the process of moving out, was the target of the police, who suspected him of dealing cocaine. As it turned out, the raid would cast a deep shadow over the lives of three innocents—Bourne and her children.
* * *
The murder of a teenage boy by an armed vigilante, George Zimmerman, is only one crime set within a legal and penal system that has criminalized poverty. Poor people, especially those of color, are worth nothing to corporations and private contractors if they are on the street. In jails and prisons, however, they each can generate corporate revenues of $30,000 to $40,000 a year. This use of the bodies of the poor to make money for corporations fuels the system of neoslavery that defines our prison system.
Prisoners often work inside jails and prisons for nothing or at most earn a dollar an hour. The court system has been gutted to deny the poor adequate legal representation. Draconian drug laws send nonviolent offenders to jail for staggering periods of time. Our prisons routinely use solitary confinement, forms of humiliation and physical abuse to keep prisoners broken and compliant, methods that international human rights organizations have long defined as torture. Individuals and corporations that profit from prisons in the United States perpetuate a form of neoslavery. The ongoing hunger strike by inmates in the California prison system is a slave revolt, one that we must encourage and support. The fate of the poor under our corporate state will, if we remain indifferent and passive, become our own fate. This is why on Wednesday I will join prison rights activists, including Cornel West and Michael Moore, in a one-day fast in solidarity with the hunger strike in the California prison system.
In poor communities where there are few jobs, little or no vocational training, a dearth of educational opportunities and a lack of support structures there are, by design, high rates of recidivism—the engine of the prison-industrial complex. There are tens of millions of poor people for whom this country is nothing more than a vast, extended penal colony. Gun possession is largely criminalized for poor people of color while vigilante thugs, nearly always white, swagger through communities with loaded weapons. There will never be serious gun control in the United States. Most white people know what their race has done to black people for centuries. They know that those trapped today in urban ghettos, what Malcolm X called our internal colonies, endure neglect, poverty, violence and deprivation. Most whites are terrified that African-Americans will one day attempt to defend themselves or seek vengeance. Scratch the surface of survivalist groups and you uncover frightened white supremacists. .........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_business_of_mass_incarceration_20130728/
Chris Hedges: The Business of Mass Incarceration
from truthdig:
The Business of Mass Incarceration
Posted on Jul 28, 2013
By Chris Hedges
Debbie Bourne, 45, was at her apartment in the Liberty Village housing projects in Plainfield, N.J., on the afternoon of April 30 when police banged on the door and pushed their way inside. The officers ordered her, her daughter, 14, and her son, 22, who suffers from autism, to sit down and not move and then began ransacking the home. Bourne’s husband, from whom she was estranged and who was in the process of moving out, was the target of the police, who suspected him of dealing cocaine. As it turned out, the raid would cast a deep shadow over the lives of three innocents—Bourne and her children.
* * *
The murder of a teenage boy by an armed vigilante, George Zimmerman, is only one crime set within a legal and penal system that has criminalized poverty. Poor people, especially those of color, are worth nothing to corporations and private contractors if they are on the street. In jails and prisons, however, they each can generate corporate revenues of $30,000 to $40,000 a year. This use of the bodies of the poor to make money for corporations fuels the system of neoslavery that defines our prison system.
Prisoners often work inside jails and prisons for nothing or at most earn a dollar an hour. The court system has been gutted to deny the poor adequate legal representation. Draconian drug laws send nonviolent offenders to jail for staggering periods of time. Our prisons routinely use solitary confinement, forms of humiliation and physical abuse to keep prisoners broken and compliant, methods that international human rights organizations have long defined as torture. Individuals and corporations that profit from prisons in the United States perpetuate a form of neoslavery. The ongoing hunger strike by inmates in the California prison system is a slave revolt, one that we must encourage and support. The fate of the poor under our corporate state will, if we remain indifferent and passive, become our own fate. This is why on Wednesday I will join prison rights activists, including Cornel West and Michael Moore, in a one-day fast in solidarity with the hunger strike in the California prison system.
In poor communities where there are few jobs, little or no vocational training, a dearth of educational opportunities and a lack of support structures there are, by design, high rates of recidivism—the engine of the prison-industrial complex. There are tens of millions of poor people for whom this country is nothing more than a vast, extended penal colony. Gun possession is largely criminalized for poor people of color while vigilante thugs, nearly always white, swagger through communities with loaded weapons. There will never be serious gun control in the United States. Most white people know what their race has done to black people for centuries. They know that those trapped today in urban ghettos, what Malcolm X called our internal colonies, endure neglect, poverty, violence and deprivation. Most whites are terrified that African-Americans will one day attempt to defend themselves or seek vengeance. Scratch the surface of survivalist groups and you uncover frightened white supremacists. .........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_business_of_mass_incarceration_20130728/
July 27, 2013
Collapsing Investment and the Great Recession
Friday, 26 July 2013 09:10
By Gerald Friedman, Dollars & Sense | News Analysis
Investment in real inputs - structures and machinery used to boost future output and productivity - is one of the ways that an economy grows over time. In a capitalist economy, such investments are also crucial for macroeconomic stability and full employment because they provide an “injection” of demand to balance the “leakage” caused by personal and institutional savings. The Great Recession that began in 2007 was marked by a collapse of investment unprecedented since the Great Depression, as well as a dramatic drop in overall production and a sharp jump in unemployment. Since 2009, overall output has been growing again, but we have seen a much slower recovery of investment than after other recessions since 1947. The worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the Great Recession came after a long period of declining investment, and a break in the linkage between corporate profits and new investment.
Rising Profits, Falling Investment: The share of national income going to investment (net of depreciation of existing plant and machinery) has been declining since the beginning of the “neoliberal” era, around 1980. Since the start of the Great Recession, net investment as a share of GDP has plummeted to its lowest level since the 1930s. This sharp drop in investment comes despite sharply rising profits.
Monetary Policy Isn’t Working: The Federal Reserve has helped to shorten past recessions by driving down interest rates to lower the cost of borrowing and so spur investment. During the current crisis, the Fed has conducted an aggressive monetary policy, raising the money supply to lower interest rates. But it has had little effect on investment. While lower interest rates have had only a weak effect on investment in the past, monetary policy has had no discernible effect in the last few years, as investment rates are dramatically lower than would have been expected given the level of interest rates. Substantial excess capacity, weak expectations of future sales, and corporate strategies to shift production outside the United States all may be contributing to the lack of investment demand.
Low Investment Impedes Recovery: In one respect, the current recession resembles past experience. Low rates of investment are associated with high rates of unemployment, just as in previous economic downturns. The difference is that, three years after the official end of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate remains persistently high, and investment remains dramatically lower than in past recoveries. .........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17801-collapsing-investment-and-the-great-recession
Collapsing Investment and the Great Recession
Collapsing Investment and the Great Recession
Friday, 26 July 2013 09:10
By Gerald Friedman, Dollars & Sense | News Analysis
Investment in real inputs - structures and machinery used to boost future output and productivity - is one of the ways that an economy grows over time. In a capitalist economy, such investments are also crucial for macroeconomic stability and full employment because they provide an “injection” of demand to balance the “leakage” caused by personal and institutional savings. The Great Recession that began in 2007 was marked by a collapse of investment unprecedented since the Great Depression, as well as a dramatic drop in overall production and a sharp jump in unemployment. Since 2009, overall output has been growing again, but we have seen a much slower recovery of investment than after other recessions since 1947. The worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the Great Recession came after a long period of declining investment, and a break in the linkage between corporate profits and new investment.
Rising Profits, Falling Investment: The share of national income going to investment (net of depreciation of existing plant and machinery) has been declining since the beginning of the “neoliberal” era, around 1980. Since the start of the Great Recession, net investment as a share of GDP has plummeted to its lowest level since the 1930s. This sharp drop in investment comes despite sharply rising profits.
Monetary Policy Isn’t Working: The Federal Reserve has helped to shorten past recessions by driving down interest rates to lower the cost of borrowing and so spur investment. During the current crisis, the Fed has conducted an aggressive monetary policy, raising the money supply to lower interest rates. But it has had little effect on investment. While lower interest rates have had only a weak effect on investment in the past, monetary policy has had no discernible effect in the last few years, as investment rates are dramatically lower than would have been expected given the level of interest rates. Substantial excess capacity, weak expectations of future sales, and corporate strategies to shift production outside the United States all may be contributing to the lack of investment demand.
Low Investment Impedes Recovery: In one respect, the current recession resembles past experience. Low rates of investment are associated with high rates of unemployment, just as in previous economic downturns. The difference is that, three years after the official end of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate remains persistently high, and investment remains dramatically lower than in past recoveries. .........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17801-collapsing-investment-and-the-great-recession
July 26, 2013
from Consortium News:
UK Spy Warns of Iraq War Disclosures
July 25, 2013
By Annie Machon
In a surprising statement last weekend, the former head of Great Britain’s foreign intelligence-gathering agency, MI6, suggested that he might break the code of omerta around the fraudulent intelligence case – including the so-called “dodgy dossier” – that was used as the pretext for the Iraq War in 2003.
Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6 and current Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, contacted the UK’s Mail on Sundaynewspaper to state that he had written his account of the intelligence controversy in the run-up to the U.S./UK invasion of Iraq and indicated that he might release it in the near future.
With the much-delayed official Chilcot Enquiry into the case for war about to be published, Dearlove is obviously aware that he might be blamed for “sexing up” the intelligence and former Prime Minister Tony Blair might once again evade all responsibility.
In the months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the British government produced a couple of reports “making a case for war,” as Major General Michael Laurie said in his evidence to the enquiry in 2011: “We knew at the time that the purpose of the [September] dossier was precisely to make a case for war, rather than setting out the available intelligence, and that to make the best out of sparse and inconclusive intelligence the wording was developed with care.” .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/07/25/uk-spy-warns-of-iraq-war-disclosures/
UK Spy Warns of Iraq War Disclosures
from Consortium News:
UK Spy Warns of Iraq War Disclosures
July 25, 2013
Exclusive: For more than a decade since the Iraq invasion, President Bush, Prime Minister Blair and their senior aides have stuck to the story of innocent intelligence mistakes and evaded accountability. But the code of silence may crack if top British spy Richard Dearlove tells his story, says ex-UK intelligence officer Annie Machon.
By Annie Machon
In a surprising statement last weekend, the former head of Great Britain’s foreign intelligence-gathering agency, MI6, suggested that he might break the code of omerta around the fraudulent intelligence case – including the so-called “dodgy dossier” – that was used as the pretext for the Iraq War in 2003.
Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6 and current Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, contacted the UK’s Mail on Sundaynewspaper to state that he had written his account of the intelligence controversy in the run-up to the U.S./UK invasion of Iraq and indicated that he might release it in the near future.
With the much-delayed official Chilcot Enquiry into the case for war about to be published, Dearlove is obviously aware that he might be blamed for “sexing up” the intelligence and former Prime Minister Tony Blair might once again evade all responsibility.
In the months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the British government produced a couple of reports “making a case for war,” as Major General Michael Laurie said in his evidence to the enquiry in 2011: “We knew at the time that the purpose of the [September] dossier was precisely to make a case for war, rather than setting out the available intelligence, and that to make the best out of sparse and inconclusive intelligence the wording was developed with care.” .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/07/25/uk-spy-warns-of-iraq-war-disclosures/
July 26, 2013
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama could be months away from announcing his pick to replace Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve, yet critics are already making an unusual public effort to stop one contender in the race - former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.
The outcry has come not from Republicans, but the left wing of the Democratic Party. Summers advised Obama, was treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton, led Harvard University and was chief economist for the World Bank. He helped tame the Asian financial crisis that threatened to sweep the globe under Clinton.
But liberals blame him for spearheading financial deregulation that they charge helped create the financial crisis, and say his work at hedge fund D.E. Shaw makes him the epitome of a revolving door between Wall Street and government.
A representative for Summers, who writes an opinion column for Reuters, declined to comment for this article, as did the White House and the Fed. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/larry-summers-opposition_n_3657738.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
Larry Summers Opposition Grows As Name Mentioned As Possible Federal Reserve Chairman
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama could be months away from announcing his pick to replace Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve, yet critics are already making an unusual public effort to stop one contender in the race - former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.
The outcry has come not from Republicans, but the left wing of the Democratic Party. Summers advised Obama, was treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton, led Harvard University and was chief economist for the World Bank. He helped tame the Asian financial crisis that threatened to sweep the globe under Clinton.
But liberals blame him for spearheading financial deregulation that they charge helped create the financial crisis, and say his work at hedge fund D.E. Shaw makes him the epitome of a revolving door between Wall Street and government.
A representative for Summers, who writes an opinion column for Reuters, declined to comment for this article, as did the White House and the Fed. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/larry-summers-opposition_n_3657738.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
July 26, 2013
Published on Jul 24, 2013
On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, Chris Hedges says an effective movement that defies power will have to be disciplined and articulate what a vision of socialism might look like
To see all 7 parts of this interview as they are released please go to http://therealnews.com
Chris Hedges: As a Socialist, I Have No Voice in the Mainstream
Published on Jul 24, 2013
On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, Chris Hedges says an effective movement that defies power will have to be disciplined and articulate what a vision of socialism might look like
To see all 7 parts of this interview as they are released please go to http://therealnews.com
July 26, 2013
Published on Jul 24, 2013
On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, Chris Hedges says an effective movement that defies power will have to be disciplined and articulate what a vision of socialism might look like
To see all 7 parts of this interview as they are released please go to http://therealnews.com
Chris Hedges: As a Socialist, I Have No Voice in the Mainstream
Published on Jul 24, 2013
On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay, Chris Hedges says an effective movement that defies power will have to be disciplined and articulate what a vision of socialism might look like
To see all 7 parts of this interview as they are released please go to http://therealnews.com
July 26, 2013
Published on Jul 18, 2013
In the continuation of Paul Jay's Reality Asserts Itself interview with Chris Hedges, they discuss the fantasy that we can have everything we want and the reality of the grave dangers facing us.
To see all 7 parts of this interview as they are released please go to http://therealnews.com
Chris Hedges: We Must Grasp Reality to Build Effective Resistance
Published on Jul 18, 2013
In the continuation of Paul Jay's Reality Asserts Itself interview with Chris Hedges, they discuss the fantasy that we can have everything we want and the reality of the grave dangers facing us.
“I’m sorry. The climate science reports are bleak. I’m not making it up. This kind of mania for hope is really a kind of sickness because it prevents us from seeing how dire and catastrophic the situation is if we don’t radically reconfigure our relationship to each other and the ecosystem. And so of course people don’t want to hear it. You know, they want to become entranced or mesmerized with the trivia that dominates the airwaves and the sagas of soap operas. And, you know, we are fed this mantra that is really fiction. And the mantra goes that we can have everything we want, that reality is never an impediment to what we desire. And that’s given to us by Oprah, and it’s given to us by Hollywood … and it’s a lie. It’s not true. And I think we can’t even use the word hope until we confront reality and begin to resist against the real.”
To see all 7 parts of this interview as they are released please go to http://therealnews.com
July 26, 2013
from truthdig:
A Case That Challenges Government Immunity
Posted on Jul 26, 2013
By David Sirota
Court cases are often cures for insomnia, but every so often a lawsuit is an eye-opening journey through the looking glass. One of those is suddenly upon us - and we should be thankful because it finally provides an unfiltered look at our government.
You may not know about this case, but you should. Called Al-Aulaqi v. Panetta, it illustrates the extremism driving the policies being made in the public’s name.
The first thing you should know about this case is that it is simply about a man who wants to know why his grandson is dead. That’s right - in this age of endless war, a grandfather named Nasser Al-Aulaqi is having to go to court to try to compel the U.S. government to explain why it killed his grandson in a drone strike despite never charging the 16-year-old American citizen with a crime.
Another thing you should know is the specific defense the government is mounting in this case. As the New York Times reported, the Obama administration’s Deputy Attorney General Brian Hauck first declared that courts have no right to oversee executive-branch decisions to extrajudicially assassinate Americans. He also insisted that the White House already provides adequate due process for those it kills, prompting federal judge Rosemary Collyer to point out that “the executive is not an effective check on the executive.” The fact that the judge needed to issue such a reminder speaks volumes about an administration utterly unconcerned with constitutional governance. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_case_that_challenges_government_immunity_20130726/
David Sirota: A Case That Challenges Government Immunity
from truthdig:
A Case That Challenges Government Immunity
Posted on Jul 26, 2013
By David Sirota
Court cases are often cures for insomnia, but every so often a lawsuit is an eye-opening journey through the looking glass. One of those is suddenly upon us - and we should be thankful because it finally provides an unfiltered look at our government.
You may not know about this case, but you should. Called Al-Aulaqi v. Panetta, it illustrates the extremism driving the policies being made in the public’s name.
The first thing you should know about this case is that it is simply about a man who wants to know why his grandson is dead. That’s right - in this age of endless war, a grandfather named Nasser Al-Aulaqi is having to go to court to try to compel the U.S. government to explain why it killed his grandson in a drone strike despite never charging the 16-year-old American citizen with a crime.
Another thing you should know is the specific defense the government is mounting in this case. As the New York Times reported, the Obama administration’s Deputy Attorney General Brian Hauck first declared that courts have no right to oversee executive-branch decisions to extrajudicially assassinate Americans. He also insisted that the White House already provides adequate due process for those it kills, prompting federal judge Rosemary Collyer to point out that “the executive is not an effective check on the executive.” The fact that the judge needed to issue such a reminder speaks volumes about an administration utterly unconcerned with constitutional governance. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_case_that_challenges_government_immunity_20130726/
July 25, 2013
New York's Penn station – and other ugly train terminals around the world
The city council has ordered Madison Square Garden to move within 10 years, making way for a redeveloped Penn station. What about other ugly stations from around the world?
Jason Farago in New York
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 July 2013
[font size="1"]The original Penn Station, torn down to make way for Madison Square Garden. Photograph: New York Public Library[/font]
The New York City council voted overwhelmingly this week to renew the lease of Madison Square Garden only for 10 more years – essentially serving an eviction notice to the hulking stadium in midtown Manhattan. The decision was cheered by architectural and civic organizations, who have been pressing for decades to redevelop Pennsylvania station, the neglected railway terminus underneath the stadium. Penn station is by far the busiest railway station in North America, and Madison Square Garden has been one of the principal roadblocks to redeveloping it.
The eviction notice for Madison Square Garden offers the best opportunity in decades to revive Penn station. Earlier this year the Municipal Art Society presented a quartet of new design proposals from architects such as Diller Scofidio + Renfro, who masterminded the reconstruction of Lincoln Center, and ShoP Architects, designers of the Barclays center stadium in Brooklyn. All the proposed designs eliminate the underground maze of today's Penn station, and bring passengers back up into the city.
While the US has long suffered from some of the worst infrastructure in the western world, other cities have built some hideous stations too.
Old Penn station
The original Penn station, which opened in 1910, was a beaux-arts masterpiece. Designed by McKim, Mead & White, the most prominent architectural firm of the era – responsible also for the Morgan library and the Brooklyn museum – the station served as a breathtaking arrival point for visitors to New York. The station's waiting room, modeled on St Peter's Basilica in Rome, was the largest indoor space in New York at the time. .........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/jul/25/new-york-penn-station-ugly-train-world
New York's Penn station – and other ugly train terminals around the world
New York's Penn station – and other ugly train terminals around the world
The city council has ordered Madison Square Garden to move within 10 years, making way for a redeveloped Penn station. What about other ugly stations from around the world?
Jason Farago in New York
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 July 2013
[font size="1"]The original Penn Station, torn down to make way for Madison Square Garden. Photograph: New York Public Library[/font]
The New York City council voted overwhelmingly this week to renew the lease of Madison Square Garden only for 10 more years – essentially serving an eviction notice to the hulking stadium in midtown Manhattan. The decision was cheered by architectural and civic organizations, who have been pressing for decades to redevelop Pennsylvania station, the neglected railway terminus underneath the stadium. Penn station is by far the busiest railway station in North America, and Madison Square Garden has been one of the principal roadblocks to redeveloping it.
The eviction notice for Madison Square Garden offers the best opportunity in decades to revive Penn station. Earlier this year the Municipal Art Society presented a quartet of new design proposals from architects such as Diller Scofidio + Renfro, who masterminded the reconstruction of Lincoln Center, and ShoP Architects, designers of the Barclays center stadium in Brooklyn. All the proposed designs eliminate the underground maze of today's Penn station, and bring passengers back up into the city.
While the US has long suffered from some of the worst infrastructure in the western world, other cities have built some hideous stations too.
Old Penn station
The original Penn station, which opened in 1910, was a beaux-arts masterpiece. Designed by McKim, Mead & White, the most prominent architectural firm of the era – responsible also for the Morgan library and the Brooklyn museum – the station served as a breathtaking arrival point for visitors to New York. The station's waiting room, modeled on St Peter's Basilica in Rome, was the largest indoor space in New York at the time. .........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/jul/25/new-york-penn-station-ugly-train-world
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