Give it another decade and Penn Station may no longer compete with Port Authority for the title of Most Depressing Place in America. The state of New York submitted its plans for the area, centered around turning that nice post office across the street into "Moynihan Station," and the whole deal, including a new Madison Square Garden and a complete refurbishing of the old Penn, is scheduled to be completed by 2018. Of course, that depends on the state of New York, the city, Amtrak, the MTA, Madison Square Garden, New Jersey Transit, and various development companies all getting along, so actually give it another like three or four decades. Maybe once the Freedom Tower opens? By then we'll have rocket trains! That will be forced to run on the same shitty 150-year-old northeast corridor tracks and therefore still go like 30 mph the whole way. [NYDN]

Remember when Jessica Pressler named Philadelphia New York's Sixth Borough and we all laughed and then Philly started to run ads soliciting New Yorkers? Well, the intervening two years have, somehow, not made that trend story any more true. However. While we've noted here that the gays turn up their noses at the thought of Philly, that does not mean that Philly does not crave our homosexuals. In just a few short weeks, Philly's brokers are coming to New York's gay center to recruit, recruit, recruit! What are their little posters around town promising the gays? "An exciting cosmopolitan lifestyle with great entertainment and dining options, but at a less hectic pace then [sic] NYC." Um. AS. IF.

Now that he owns the Wall Street Journal, will Rupert Murdoch go after the Times? Former Post publisher Ken Chandler says yes. "I would expect that he would be very aggressive on ad rates, and I would also predict that he would be very aggressive on cover price, whether it's home delivery or newsstand." It'll be neato to see who goes free first, the online Journal or TimesSelect. [LAT]