An article in yesterday's on-line edition of The New York Observer by Eliot Brown said that Mayor Bloomberg said that New York City "would never agree" to Senator Charles Schumer's suggestion that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey take over the "troubled Moynihan Station project."

Senator Schumer had told a Crain's New York breakfast meeting yesterday that the state's development agency, which now has authority over the project, "is not capable of being a major development agency here."

An article by Peter Kiefer in today's edition of The New York Sun said that Mr. Schumer criticized the Bloomberg Administration's decision to include a mid-block boulevard in the future development of the Hudson Yards as the "goofiest thing I've ever seen."

Mayor Bloomberg later in the day said "We certainly would never agree to the Port Authority being in charge of it because they can't get done what they have to do downtown and the Port Authority's first job has to be downtown and I don't see how they could satisfy us at this point in time that they can take on that and do everything else."

Mr. Brown's article said that the Mayor said that he appreciated "all of the senator's views on Moynihan Station and his part of the job is to bring us the money."

According to the article, Mr. Schumer called on the city to concentrate on building up the area around Penn Station before it concentrates on the far West Side.

An article by Tom Topousis in today's edition of The New York Post said that the Mayor said that "the city's priorities are clear," adding that "We set the city's priorities. They don't come out of Washington, and the city's priorities are the West Side, getting it going and getting the rail line going there."

Mr. Topousis said that Mr. Schumer told the Crain's meeting that "relying on developers to build haphazardly on the West Side in an uncoordinated fashion is unrealistic and counterproductive."

Mayor Bloomberg met over the weekend in London with Jerry Speyer, the head of Tishman Speyer, the company that had been designated by the MTA as the developer of its West Side rail yards. Last Thursday, the MTA announced that negotiations with Tishman Speyer had reached an impasse. Mayor Bloomberg said he was "optimistic" that the deal would not collapse and a representative of Tishman Speyer met yesterday and again today with the MTA but no new development on the status of its deal has been announced.

There was no indication yet as to what action the MTA will take if the Tishman Speyer deal is not revived. Various sources have indicated that Tishman Speyer had concerns about the fact that half of the site needs to be rezoning and about the status of funding for the extension of the 7 Line from Times Square to the site.