[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[May 19, 1999]
[Pages 805-807]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Launching of the Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment 
Corporation in New York City
May 19, 1999

    Thank you very much. Chairman Gargano, Governor, Secretary 
Slater, thank you all for all you have done 
to make this day come to pass. I thank the leaders of Amtrak, the MTA, 
the Port Authority, the Post Office; Mr. Peck, the Commissioner of Public Buildings; the distinguished 
architect who has drawn a beautiful plan. 
Speaker Vallone, Mr. Green, Senator D'Amato, thank 
you for pushing this. And Mrs. Moynihan, 
you haven't yet been acknowledged, but you had a lot to do with the arm 
twisting on this, and I thank you, too. Thank you very much.
    Senator Moynihan has been called 
the Nation's best thinker among politicians since Lincoln, and its best 
politician among thinkers since Jefferson. Today we might say he also 
may be the best arm twister since Farley. [Laughter] You know, it was 
said that Jim Farley actually knew the names of 50,000 people by heart. 
Pat Moynihan knows 50,000 ways to get any politician to do what he 
wants. [Laughter]
    I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the fact that he gave me an 
opportunity to be a small part of this day and this project. For decades 
he has worked to give voice to the dreams of New Yorkers, to create a 
new Penn Station truly worthy of the name and of this wonderful city.
    If I can borrow a few words from the famous inscription on this 
building: Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night could 
have stopped Pat Moynihan from 
bringing this day to pass.
    Throughout his public career, 
which has spanned so many different jobs in so many different places in 
the United States and abroad, Senator Moynihan has always cared about 
preserving our history and our spirit through our great buildings. 
Nearly 40 years ago, President Kennedy challenged him to revitalize 
Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue, to bring back civic pride to the heart 
of our Nation's Capital. He never gave up on that goal, a job he 
completed with the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Building a year ago 
this month.
    Thirty-five years ago, when I went to Washington, DC, for the first 
time as a wide-eyed college student, Pennsylvania Avenue was a mess and 
a disaster. Today, it is a tribute to our history, to our values, and to 
our future, thanks to the vision of Senator Daniel Patrick 
Moynihan.
    Many people also forget that in addition to helping to rescue Union 
Station in Washington and Grand Central Station here--which he was 
whispering in my ear about while we were waiting for our turn--back in 
1962 he authored the wise principles that guide the Federal Government's 
architecture decisions today. In the words of your distinguished 
architect, David Childs, Senator Moynihan is a true inspiration to everyone working in 
architecture and urban design.

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    This latest project also, as he and others have said, is an example 
of how this Senator and his allies 
have also fundamentally changed the way we invest in transportation. He 
has secured vast resources not simply for concrete and for mass transit 
but for communities, for historic preservation, and for advanced 
technologies to meet the 21st century needs of America.
    I thank him and Senator 
D'Amato and Secretary Slater for fighting to see that we did not turn the 
transportation bill in Washington into just another road-building bill, 
without any concerns for the needs of urban America and others who need 
mass transit, intermodal transportation, and a broader vision of how we 
will reconcile our desire to have livable, sustainable communities and 
to get around in a hurry. He did that, along with the others, and I 
thank them all. New York can be very, very proud of every one of them.
    Let me finally say that this Penn Station--I was astonished by how 
brief Senator Moynihan was, but I 
noticed that the closer he comes to getting his way, the shorter his 
speeches get. [Laughter] Back in '93, when he first talked to me about 
it, I got the whole load of wax, man. [Laughter] I knew everybody--I 
knew the people who had planted the explosives on Penn Station in the 
sixties. [Laughter] I knew the whole history of the thing. And as we 
made progress, you know, his words became fewer as his satisfaction 
increased. But I think it's worth noting that this journey to this 
moment has not only been a public service but a point of personal pride 
for this quintessential New Yorker and American.
    Senator Moynihan grew up in this 
neighborhood, shined shoes around the corner. As a young ensign, he used 
to fall asleep in the rooms off Penn Station's grand ticketing hall as 
he waited for his train back to Norfolk. Grand public buildings like the 
old Penn Station and the New York Public Library became like home, 
especially for a boy whose family kept moving to a new apartment just 
about every year.
    I tell you this story not only to capture what this journey must 
mean for him but to remind us of the fundamental significance of our 
great public buildings, because whether you are a wealthy industrialist 
or just a person with a few dollars to your name, you can feel ennobled, 
as people did--ordinary citizens and great ones alike--in the old glass 
and steel cathedral that was Penn Station. People without tickets could 
come to the old Penn Station in the afternoon just to dream about what 
it would be like to get on the train, and watching the crowds go by.
    When I was a young man, I used to go to train stations and watch 
people and wonder what they were doing, where they were going, and I 
always felt better when I walked out than when I walked in. I'll bet 
nearly everybody here has had a similar experience.
    Now, Mr. Childs' design is not intended to 
replicate the old Penn Station, but it will have, as you see, the same 
stunning effect for everyone. Here in this beautiful McKim, Mead, and 
White building the Postal Service has graciously now agreed to share, 
this design will take the best elements of the past and create a 
remarkable station for the future.
    Of course, there will be some hurdles--the environmental and 
historic preservation requirements, which I'm quite certain will be 
met--but the other hurdle is money. One of Clinton's laws of politics 
is, if someone stands up and shakes his finger and says to you, ``This 
is not a money problem'' he is almost always talking about someone 
else's problem. [Laughter] I want to do what I can to help close the 
funding gap. I will ask the Congress to increase the Federal commitment 
to this project by $60 million over the next 3 years.
    As a tribute to Senator Moynihan, and because it's the right thing to do, I hope that 
Members in both parties, in both Houses, will join with me to secure 
this funding. We're not quite there yet. Others will have to do more as 
well. But if we all do our part, we can honor one of the first great 
buildings of the 20th century and create the first great public building 
of the 21st century. In so doing, New York once again can provide a 
model for the entire Nation.
    The First Lady and I have worked 
very hard to help communities to honor the past and preserve it as part 
of our gift to the new millennium. Just today she awarded the first Save 
America's Treasures grants to help meet urgent preservation needs across 
our Nation, from conserving the second largest collection of Thomas 
Jefferson's personal correspondence to restoring Martin Luther King, 
Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church.
    I know our Nation is still young, and sometimes still we lose sight 
of the enormous value of the history that is embodied in our buildings,

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our documents, our artifacts, our monuments. We must do better in 
preserving the past and in building new buildings and monuments which 
capture our vision of the future, the enduring commitment we have to our 
freedom, and the public space that makes community more possible and 
reminds us of our common humanity across all the lines that divide us.
    That is what this building will do. I hope at this moment of great 
prosperity and optimism for the United States, we will use the example 
of this project to redouble our determination to build great buildings 
and dream big dreams for the future.
    Again, I want to thank all of you who never gave up on this 
ambitious project. I want to urge you never to give up on it until it is 
completely finished. And on behalf of Senator Moynihan, Senator D'Amato, 
myself, and all others who will be out of office when it is finally 
done, I hope you'll invite us to the building dedication.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:55 a.m. at the James A. Farley Building. 
In his remarks, he referred to Charles A. Gargano, chairman of the 
board, Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation; Gov. George E. 
Pataki of New York; architect David Childs; Peter F. Vallone, New York 
City council speaker; Mark Green, New York City public advocate; former 
Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato; and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's wife, 
Elizabeth.