    [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.