Photo: AFP
The Port Authority announced Thursday that it intends to soon reveal the long-awaited plans to update the outdated Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. This building would be a significant replacement to the existing terminal, which opened in 1950 and has significantly grown worn-down and shabby in the years since. The new terminal will cost several billion dollars and should be ready by 2031. Will most New Yorkers even care, however, by the time it gets built? WOR street reporter Natalie Migliore interviewed people at the current terminal for 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program; judging by the reactions she received, “let’s wait and see” may have been the most cautiously optimistic opinion she heard.
One commuter told Migliore, “They’ve been putting lipstick on a pig for a long time. They could’ve used a new terminal, but is it really worth the money they’re gonna spend? Is it gonna alleviate the problems you’ve been having? There’s only one way to get into it, the Lincoln Tunnel, so I don’t know what good a new terminal is gonna do, the traffic’s still gonna be the same.”
Migliore did find one bus rider who had an idea what the new terminal should look like. “It’s not up to date. It should be modern, you know, that when you step [into] it, you should able to be like, okay, I’m in New York City, you know. It looks a part, like, oh wow, it’s different, you know. Perhaps more windows for the natural lighting to go in instead of just light bulbs and bricks. Something more modern and welcoming.”
Meanwhile, Migliore herself witnessed first-hand the terminal’s reputation as a magnet for those down on their luck. “While I was interviewing people, a homeless woman actually came up to me, asking if she could do my job. She wanted to hold my mic and walk around with it. I also watched some guy who was seemingly blitzed right out of his mind fall into a bus lane along 42nd Street while I was interviewing people, but he got right back up, a little dizzily.”
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