NEWARK – Mayor Ras Baraka welcomed the media into the waiting area of Penn Station earlier today with a crack about how the place is so old it actually makes one feel old to wait within its drafty hollows.

The comment went to the heart of Baraka’s concern about infrastructure, made in the presence of Governor Chris Christie and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).

The mayor also made his own case for why Newark needs more federal transportation dollars to bore more tunnels, specifically the Gateway project, which is in doubt right now as a consequence of under-funding in President Donald J. Trump’s budget.

“Newark is growing,” Baraka told reporters. “It is growing exponentially by the day. It is important that we have a tunnel – when I say tunnel I mean the Holland Tunnel, the Lincoln Tunnel, I mean NJ Transit. It also means Amtrak buses, I mean everything that allows a gateway to New York. If it breaks down it means a lot to the people of Newark. It’s important to me.”