Is Penn Station 'Scary'? One Top Candidate For Governor Thinks So

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Thousands of New Yorkers pass through Penn Station each day with little fanfare. But one top candidate for governor — U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi — proclaimed this week that the rail hub was in fact a scary place to be.

"I came here the other day and it was terrifying," Suozzi said at a Wednesday news conference at Penn, in comments reported by Fox 5. "I mean, it was a really scary environment."

A Long Island Democrat who has served in Congress since 2017, Suozzi is now running for governor in next year's primary. Known as a moderate, Suozzi is taking aim at incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, from whom he will need to siphon votes to have a shot at winning.

Suozzi took the train to arrive at Wednesday's event, where he was joined by Layla Law-Gisiko — a local opponent of the state's redevelopment plan for the Penn Station area, who is herself running for State Assembly next year.

But Suozzi's comments seemed to focus less on land-use specifics and more on his perception that disorder reigns at the train station. In a statement, Suozzi decried the "dangerous and gloomy conditions" at Penn — and his office released blurry photos of unhoused New Yorkers sleeping on the station's floors.

Reaction to Suozzi's comments on Twitter was skeptical, to say the least.

"I'm all over this city daily for work. I walked through Penn Station from 8th all the way to the Western most exit through the new Moynihan area a few days ago. Do you know what [it] was like?" one user wrote. "IT WAS FINE, CALM, NORMAL, NOT CROWDED, NO CRIME."

"'Scary' is just shorthand for 'I can see homeless people,'" writer Jessica Valenti added.

"Scary" is just shorthand for "I can see homeless people" https://t.co/oJHzZOIURI
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) December 29, 2021

Some questioned why Suozzi was standing without a face covering in the crowded station: "The no mask is the terrifying thing here," joked Scott Dworkin.

Keith Olbermann, the ex-MSNBC host, thought the comments did not bode well for Suozzi's candidacy.

"How not to start a campaign for Governor: 'I'M SCARED OF THE TRAIN STATION'," he wrote.

Indeed, Suozzi's odds may be long: the latest poll by Siena College, released Dec. 7, showed him with just 6 percent support, well behind Hochul at 36 percent. (The poll was taken before Attorney General Letitia James dropped out of the race.)

Hochul's office declined to respond when the New York Post asked about Suozzi's claims that she had allowed Penn to deteriorate. The MTA, however, told the publication that it welcomed the scrutiny.

"The MTA is glad that Congressman Suozzi supports fixing Penn Station and has now joined the MTA’s repeated calls for the City of New York to give more attention to policing the area around Penn and to assign more mental health and homeless services professionals to the station,” MTA Chief of External Relations John McCarthy told the Post.