As the sun finally broke through a gray afternoon sky on Monday, Governor Kathy Hochul stood in Damrosch Park and reached for a line not usually associated with a Democratic politician at a groundbreaking ceremony. “I don’t usually quote Ronald Reagan,” she told the crowd gathered outside Lincoln Center. “But tear down that wall.”
Governor Kathy Hochul at Lincoln Center West groundbreaking on Monday afternoon. Photo: Phil O’Brien
The remark drew laughter and applause, but it also captured the thread running through the afternoon ceremony marking the start of Lincoln Center’s $335 million West Initiative — a project that aims not only to physically open the campus toward Amsterdam Avenue, but also to confront the legacy of the neighborhood that was displaced to build it.
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Publisher & Editor Phil O’Brien is an entrepreneur and journalist. As an international photojournalist, he photographed Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Princess Diana and many others. He built a successful international sports photography agency, EMPICS, that was Getty Images’ major competitor in Europe when it sold. He founded a children’s charity in the UK that has helped young people through sport for over 15 years. Phil has lived in New York since 2012. He founded W42ST in 2014.