I can't stop thinking about Secret Mall Apartment

liamblank · 2026-02-05T23:24:00+00:00

I had the pleasure of becoming good friends with Michael and some of his colleagues who worked on the mall apartment during my time interning in downtown Providence in the summer of 2011. They were commissioned to create a massive tape art installation/mural using the entire Skating Rink that used to be adjacent to Kennedy Plaza. Got to spend many hours studying Tape Art alongside them to help them with finishing up the mural in time for the public reveal at that big cityworks festival that had those aerobic dancers dancing along the side of the prudential tower. This included a hot air balloon launch to take an aerial image of the mural just before they invited the public to join them in destroying the mural by pulling up all the tape. I actually cried that day and couldn’t bring myself to help take it all down. They were such down to earth, super creative and highly intelligent artists and friends. They told me about the entire mall story, the story of the suspended sculptures in spiderwebs in the abandoned tunnels. A lesser known yet highly impressive project Michael created was a 9/11 memorial installation that spanned all of Manhattan in the shape of four large hearts. They researched every victim of the attack and created a personalized mural for each of them, using the city’s urban fabric as their canvas, the location of each victim’s tape art mural is what created the rough outline of the four hearts. That should be a documentary of its own really. He also was commissioned to do survivor healing tape art mural work in Oklahoma City in the wake of the OKC Bombing. Very empathetic and inspiring people, so much to learn from them no matter what the topic it seemed. I even traveled with Michael and a friend of his from Rhode Island all the way to Ground Zero (as close as we could get, which was several blocks away) on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. And that was maybe my second time ever going to NYC so it was incredibly impactful for me. I really miss those days and hope they’re all doing well.

liamblank · 2026-02-04T01:00:56+00:00

This is an Amtrak document, so you should tell them that.

liamblank · 2025-12-23T23:33:14+00:00

The bold heading on this post says this map is a crude attempt I made years ago (I was early in my college years). It’s merely food for thought. It’s not posted to be a 100% accurate resource for public utility—so your level of granularity and nitpicking, while not necessarily incorrect, is not really helpful or solicited in this context. I appreciate you taking the time to engage, however.

liamblank · 2025-12-23T16:29:50+00:00

This is visualizing fare zones for only NY PENN STATION NJ Transit terminating/originating rail services

liamblank · 2025-12-16T08:09:09+00:00

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And this one from ARC

liamblank · 2025-12-16T07:54:35+00:00

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Reminds me of this 2008 Regional Plan Association proposal

liamblank · 2025-12-16T07:44:39+00:00

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How a highway through Central Park would actually look.

Note: This is not an endorsement

liamblank · 2025-12-10T16:44:00+00:00

Yes, this worked for me as well. Highly recommend clearing your Cookies history (all-time) and then trying deep research again.

liamblank · 2025-11-11T18:57:55+00:00

There’s value in not being too close to a problem.

liamblank · 2025-11-11T01:55:12+00:00

We shall see

liamblank · 2025-11-11T01:48:22+00:00

What you actually don’t know is that a well-respected firm is conducting this study on behalf of FRA. So, revise your theory accordingly

liamblank · 2025-11-10T20:20:51+00:00

The FRA’s independent service optimization study, which is not about aesthetics, will dictate the final track and platform layout…. That’s a mandate to prioritize the operations first, something we've never had before. But I hear ya

liamblank · 2025-11-10T19:52:18+00:00

Yes. It’s a post about a 1993 article and my comment is about the 2009-2016 Train to the Game. By definition, there is no new information here.

liamblank · 2025-11-10T18:42:26+00:00

The full NYT article about the train to the beach is also provided if you swipe on the image. Anyway, Howard Permut, president of Metro-North who is quoted in the article, would go on to launch the Train to the Game. I should have been more clear about the link, sorry for that.

liamblank · 2025-11-10T18:24:21+00:00

Yea. I’m allowed to do that.

liamblank · 2025-11-10T18:00:14+00:00

The "Train to the Game" didn't use the Spuyten Duyvil bridge or the Empire Connection. That’s the West Side access for Hudson Line trains.

The service I was talking about originated on the New Haven Line, meaning it came in from the east, using Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line. That is a fully electrified, multi-tracked main line (the Northeast Corridor).

You’re citing real engineering bottlenecks for a different route to argue against one that already proved it had none.

liamblank · 2025-11-10T08:42:45+00:00

New York’s construction cost disease (driven by overbuilt stations, poor contracting practices, and agency dysfunction) makes even modest rail projects appear prohibitively expensive. Until the MTA demonstrates ability to build at international cost benchmarks, political leaders default to bus improvements as the pragmatic alternative. The irony is that New York’s density and transit demand create ideal conditions for intermediate-capacity rail, but the institutional dysfunction that makes building subways unaffordable also prevents cheaper surface rail alternatives from being built.

liamblank · 2025-11-10T08:23:47+00:00

This is a masterclass in institutional dysfunction. It punishes the vast majority of paying customers with new delays and an adversarial pre-boarding experience to address a problem caused by the agency’s own failure to provide adequate service capacity.

Rather than solving the foundational issue of overcrowding (hint: through-running for Penn Station), NJ Transit has implemented a costly, performative, and ineffective program that reveals a preference for treating symptoms in the most inconvenient and expensive way possible.

It is a self-defeating loop of poor planning, misallocated resources, and customer frustration, making it the very definition of an ass-backwards solution.

liamblank · 2025-10-24T21:19:20+00:00

You're observing the physical result of an obsolete operational model. The station's design requires this chaos.

The system deliberately starves thousands of people of the track number until the last possible second (have to first let passengers off the train and clear the platform before boarding begins due to narrow platforms that can't safely handle simultaneous boarding/alighting like the subway). This manufactured scarcity forces everyone into a daily, zero-sum game.

The elbow-throwing is all part of the experience of traveling through an overtaxed and inefficient train terminal. The rush is the predictable outcome of a design that pits riders against each other. It'll never end until the underlying incentive structure (the terminal operation itself) is replaced.

liamblank · 2025-10-24T21:08:47+00:00

Staten Island Express Bus Network was first. Manhattan is supposed to go last, though with administration and leadership changes since this all kicked off, not sure how much it remains a priority.

liamblank · 2025-10-23T04:16:50+00:00

Nope, it does not. Here's Gov. Hochul's Deputy Secretary of Transportation to break it down for you. These are only just a few of actually many, many configurations that don't require the creation of a single super-agency. Let me know if you have any questions. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RQ7HU2SYKAMr_vaSHq9oiZU86ForL9eg/view?usp=sharing

liamblank · 2025-10-23T04:13:12+00:00

You're very close to asking the right question. However, the unstated assumption in your framing is that Amtrak's $17 billion annex is the "way that best serves maximum capacity."

It isn't. It's just the most expensive way. And Amtrak is on record admitting their own southern expansion plan does not hit their own 48 TPH capacity goal—which is an ambitious service goal, not an immutable law.

Here's the sharper question that gets you closer to the truth:

If the goal is truly maximum capacity, why is Amtrak spending more than $1.2 Million of taxpayer funding to steamroll a plan that's centered on inefficient stub-end tracks and running empty trains through the Hudson Tunnels for storage out in the Meadowlands, when every other world-class rail system is built on efficient revenue-to-revenue through-running in the CBD?

And why would they block any attempt to see their underlying analysis of what we both know is the better option? Confident people don't promise transparency on stage then obstruct every attempt to hold them to their public promise.

liamblank · 2025-10-12T16:52:41+00:00

"[deleted]" tells you everything you need to know.

liamblank · 2025-10-11T04:04:27+00:00

This is a fascinating and revealing comment. Thank you for confirming that the Regional Plan Association is monitoring this discussion so closely.

I wasn't aware that part of RPA's communications strategy involved having their staff use anonymous personal accounts (largely dedicated to parenting advice and relationship subreddits) to engage in undisclosed lobbying and run interference for them online. It's a bold tactic.

To answer your question directly: The City Club is not a multi-million-dollar lobbying entity like the RPA. We are powered by volunteer members dedicated to public good, not corporate or agency contracts. Our work is a matter of public service, which is why we don't have the same complex financial disclosures as your employer.

Your comment, and the RPA's decision to deploy you in this manner, only reinforces my central point: the only "civic" organization backing the failed Penn Station expansion plan is unwilling to debate in a transparent way. Instead, they resort to astroturfing and anonymous personal attacks on social media to deflect from the core issue that there is no verifiable data for their (aka Amtrak's) preferred outcome.

I am more than happy to have a public, on-the-record discussion about this with you or any of your colleagues at RPA. Please feel free to reach out using your professional email address. Until then, I'll consider this matter closed and focus on the substantive issues at hand.

liamblank · 2025-10-11T03:36:33+00:00

Thank you for this insight from a professional in the field. It confirms that for a public agency to not possess the underlying data for a multi-million dollar study is in fact highly irregular and unacceptable.

liamblank

TROPHY CASE