PATH Service Changes Could Decimate Condo Sales, Rental Market
Condo developments in Jersey City may be the first victims of the Port Authority's announcement that weekend PATH service to the World Trade Center will be suspended most weekends until 2011. Many new high rise developments have been attempting to lure Manhattanites to glitzy glass towers on the waterfront with the promise of a shorter trip to Lower Manhattan than many similar neighborhoods in Brooklyn or Queens.
New projects like Crystal Point, 77 Hudson Street, and Trump Plaza have marketed their properties to New Yorkers. The towers, located near Exchange Place, should all have a six minute ride into Lower Manhattan, but suspension of service on weekends will mean travelers will have at least a twenty-minute ride into the city along with a transfer and an extra two dollar fare collected by the MTA. Suddenly the extra square footage and stunning views in the new towers seem a lot less appealing.
More importantly, the service changes are scheduled to begin in the summer months shortly after the summer buying season has begun. Many city dwellers house hunting on the weekends will come face to face with the service changes as they begin viewing properties, as though convincing a Manhattanite to come to Jersey City wasn't hard enough already.
For the more transient renter population, lower rents may not be enough to keep Jersey City residents here with the service changes being threatened. A poster on JCList sums up sentiments of many: "my lease is up this month and not having weekend trains to WTC is making me think about wanting to move to brooklyn instead, last week I was sure I was staying in Jersey City."
Jersey City has positioned itself in recent years as direct competitor with trendy Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods, vying for younger residents and young professionals. They are ideal residents, using fewer city services than families with children in the schools and having more disposable income to spend at local businesses. But with a nascent nightlife in the downtown neighborhoods, Jersey City's younger crowds often play in Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens. Disconnecting these residents from lower Manhattan on weekends will likely drive many out of Jersey City to the New York boroughs.
The redevelopment of Jersey City's waterfront owes plenty to the PATH, but with the economic downturn already slowing construction, the repercussions of suspending weekend PATH service could worsen an already poor situation. The effects are unlikely to be temporary either, with the long term consequence being a dramatic slowdown in growth.
All hope is not lost. Property owners and residents alike can call the Office of the Governor of New Jersey, 609.292.6000, and explain to him how suspending weekend service will effect them. Coincidentally, governor Jon Corzine is up for re-election next year.
New projects like Crystal Point, 77 Hudson Street, and Trump Plaza have marketed their properties to New Yorkers. The towers, located near Exchange Place, should all have a six minute ride into Lower Manhattan, but suspension of service on weekends will mean travelers will have at least a twenty-minute ride into the city along with a transfer and an extra two dollar fare collected by the MTA. Suddenly the extra square footage and stunning views in the new towers seem a lot less appealing.
More importantly, the service changes are scheduled to begin in the summer months shortly after the summer buying season has begun. Many city dwellers house hunting on the weekends will come face to face with the service changes as they begin viewing properties, as though convincing a Manhattanite to come to Jersey City wasn't hard enough already.
For the more transient renter population, lower rents may not be enough to keep Jersey City residents here with the service changes being threatened. A poster on JCList sums up sentiments of many: "my lease is up this month and not having weekend trains to WTC is making me think about wanting to move to brooklyn instead, last week I was sure I was staying in Jersey City."
Jersey City has positioned itself in recent years as direct competitor with trendy Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods, vying for younger residents and young professionals. They are ideal residents, using fewer city services than families with children in the schools and having more disposable income to spend at local businesses. But with a nascent nightlife in the downtown neighborhoods, Jersey City's younger crowds often play in Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens. Disconnecting these residents from lower Manhattan on weekends will likely drive many out of Jersey City to the New York boroughs.
The redevelopment of Jersey City's waterfront owes plenty to the PATH, but with the economic downturn already slowing construction, the repercussions of suspending weekend PATH service could worsen an already poor situation. The effects are unlikely to be temporary either, with the long term consequence being a dramatic slowdown in growth.
All hope is not lost. Property owners and residents alike can call the Office of the Governor of New Jersey, 609.292.6000, and explain to him how suspending weekend service will effect them. Coincidentally, governor Jon Corzine is up for re-election next year.
Labels: Transportation
12 Comments:
Very few people take the WTC train on the weekends. This article is very alarmist for no reason. People can always take the 33rd adn hop on a subway.
Ok, thanks, Susan Bass Levin. You obviously are not a PATH rider.
i'm with ian. this is pretty shitty...
I never take the PATH to WTC on the weekends (neither do any of the 9 other friends who live in Jersey City). We all play in Union Square, Midtown, Soho, not WTC. So WTC closing shouldn't really affect JC as much as you think. If anything, it'll mean more frequent train service for the 33rd street line.
Finally, a good number of people in JC have cars as well - as do I - and so if antyhing, I would likely be driving into the city rather than taking the PATH on weekends.
I'm with the earlier anonmyous "Susan Bass Levin" on this one - your headline is very alarmist. I rarely need to take the WTC path on the weekends since the major attractions of the downtown area are office buildings.
Plus, this will most likely hurt Newark residents a lot more than Jersey City, since Newark riders will now have to switch at least once before getting to NYC.
In addition, this will hopefully mean higher frequency on the 33rd street line to cope with the extra riders.
I'm all for maintaining weekend service but if closing it means better track layout (closer connections to NYC subway, escalator walkways, etc), then so be it. A 2 year close is not a long term problem for Jersey City.
Looking at it from the long term perspective and considering the amount of new jobs that could be created in downtown once the new WTC towers open, any significant dip caused by the temporary outage could be a great opportunity.
This is the worst news I have heard in a while. Anyone who travels to the city on the weekend and lives in Jersey city knows to take a taxi to the WTC to get home. I would love to see what would happen if you suspended HBKN services on the weekend!
If I wanted to live in a suburb with a train curfew I would move to one.
The past performance of the Port Authority would seem to indicate that they will not be adding service to 33rd Street line. Why? Because even when trains are regularly full, they have failed to improve service-- and not just at rush hours when presumably they are at capacity, but at off peak hours when adding additional trains would be a real possibility. They simply don't add additional trains.
But even if the PA does add trains, for many Jersey City residents, the WTC line is simply the fastest way into the city-- 6 minutes vs. 25 minutes. Moreover, for travelers headed downtown, the additional transfer to an MTA line effectively doubles the cost of the trip.
Finally, the PA has stipulated that they are suspending service in order to maintain their building schedule; the implication clearly is that the work could be completed, albeit on a longer time frame, without a service interruption.
GOOD LUCK having the WTC building schedule actually stick to 2 years! HAHAhahahHAHAhaa
The PATH is one of the most brutal commuting experiences one can have, and it seems to get worse all the time. I really wish the PATH could be double tracked so that we weren't packed in like sardines. The ride being heavily subsidized by the money making airports and tunnels/bridges doesn't incentivize the PA to do anything to make our lives better. I'd rather pay the true cost of the ride and have service that isn't something out of the early 1900s.
Ian is correct, I always, pretty much exclusively go to world trade unless I am going to west village, union square, chelsea, or MSG. On the way back I always catch a cab to WTC and take the WTC train home(runs on a half hour schedule so you can usually time it to minimize the wait). Going anywhere else it is so much faster to go downtown usually takes like 10 min and catch a subway or a cab. This is a problem and the new PA administration as well as Patterson and Bloomberg keep trying to stick it to Jersey. Nothing like kicking Jersey City when its down. The PA is atrocious because they received a tremendous amount of federal money for the PATH, yes the PATH and it continues to be a red headed step child. There is no excuse and our waste of a Governor should step it up and negotiate with the PA. Your right about this they would never inconvenience Hoboken, only Jersey City, Newark, and Harrison because they are most minorities anyway. If this needs to be done they should add direct 33rd trains from Newark which don't stop in HOB and run on a frequent basis at the minimum.
Oh and another thing can we get Sharp James to do the WTC redevelopment. The PA has proven itself inept and least he got the Prudential Center built in Newark, those boobs 7 years later still have a huge hole in the ground. Transit is one of the few things we need the Gov't to build but the PA is too preoccupied on their precious buildings, don't worry though the PATH will be under construction/not working/have a half built station into 2015,so yes 6-7 years to build a train station at the cost of 2 billion dollars! Oh yeah and when are we getting new train cars, 2008 my a$$
i am a habitual WTC user on weekends. Closer to chinatown for dimsum fixes and soho. All my friends prefer going directly to WTC instead of taking the circuitous route through hoboken which sucks (when are they resuming regular schedules??)
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