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News and stories about the waterways of
New York and New Jersey, from the
Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance
SEPTEMBER 9, 2013
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HAIL THE HEROES OF THE HARBOR
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As Superstorm Sandy bore down on the metropolitan region last October 28, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer told the mile-square, densely
populated, flood-prone New Jersey city to expect a storm surge of historic proportions. She said public transportation and major streets would close and power would go out, and she asked residents to check on each other. "We may be looking at having to stay
inside for the next couple of days," she warned. By the next day, with Sandy raging and half the city underwater, she had called in the National Guard to help rescue tens of thousands of people trapped by wild floods coursing with live wires and sewage. It
was "the worst-case scenario," she said then.
Since that time, Mayor Zimmer has worked to make her city a national model for preparedness, meeting with FEMA and state officials,
urban planners, scientists and many others to create an "integrated solution," as she said in February when she unveiled a $100 million resiliency proposal. For her extraordinary leadership before, during and after a time of crisis, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer
is being honored on October 1, 2013, by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance as a
Hero of the Harbor.
Joining her as this year's Heroes of the Harbor are the
General Contractors Association and
NY1 News, both exemplary organizations whose members responded to Superstorm Sandy with steadiness and great courage -- NY1 delivering a constant flow of essential information to the drenched region, and the General Contractors
for their stellar, unstinting work to rebuild and restore the shoreline.
Please join your friends and the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance in saluting this year's Heroes of the Harbor. The party takes place at the Chelsea Piers'
Lighthouse on October 1, with the annual Parade of Boats (and cocktail hour) beginning at 6pm and a lively awards ceremony and dinner beginning at 7pm.
For details and reservations, click
here. If you'd like to purchase tickets by phone, call Meaghan Collins at 212-935-9831, x103.
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WHICH CANDIDATES WILL TACKLE WATERFRONT ISSUES?
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If elected Mayor of New York City, William Thompson will "invest in natural, cost-effective barriers and immediate protections.
I will increase beach replenishment to prevent further beach erosion, and will expand and extend dune systems in the Rockaways, Jamaica Bay and along our waterfronts."
Christine Quinn will "strongly support the expansion of the City's ferry network, as it is a key part of my plan to ensure that no New Yorker has to spend more than one hour commuting by 2023... Phase one of my five borough ferry plan, the East River Ferry,
has been an enormous success. Phase two will extend the east river route to Atlantic Avenue and Red Hook to the south and to Astoria, Roosevelt Island, 91st Street and Ferry Point Park in the Bronx to the north. If I am elected, I will see that this is accomplished."
These promises and many others may be found in the MWA's just-released
Voters Guide for the Waterfront. For the first time, MWA posed questions about waterfront policy to all candidates for public office in New York City -- Mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, Borough President and City Council.
More than 50 candidates responded, including Speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, William Thompson, Borough President Stringer, and Eliot Spitzer. Read their responses
here.
"The Bloomberg Administration has made considerable progress at the waterfront over the last decade, but there's still a long way to go," said Roland Lewis,
MWA President and CEO. "It is incumbent on the next generation of city leaders to invest time, resources, attention and funds in our waterfront, to ensure that improvements continue to protect and enhance our city. We at the MWA know that voters will find
this information useful as they reach for the ballot box next week. We urge everyone to keep the pressure on our leaders to build on the accomplishments of recent years."
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NEW WATERFRONT CENTER COMING TO HARLEM RIVER
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 Spanned by numerous
cacophonous bridges connecting Manhattan to the Bronx, the Harlem River itself is relatively placid, perfect for the reemerging competitive rowing scene. Plans for greater public access to the waterfront are moving forward on both sides of the eight-mile tidal
strait, notably with the
Harlem River Working Group on the Bronx side and the
Harlem River Park Task Force on the Manhattan side.
Contributing to the river's renaissance, the
New York Restoration Project (NYRP) has announced a competition to restore a stretch of waterfront at Sherman Creek, adjacent to
Swindler Cove on the Manhattan side. This is where, in the late 90s, NYRP transformed a trash-strewn shore into a lush five-acre oasis complete with an educational center and a floating boathouse (photo above).
The new 1.62-acre site to be redeveloped (0.84 acres upland and 0.78 acres under water), owned by the NYC Parks Department, is immediately north of Swindler Cove. At the turn of the 20th century, this was the location of no fewer than six boathouses.
Photo dated 1890-1900. Nassau, Harlem, Metropolitan, Wyanoke, Crescent and 1st Bohemian Boat Houses along Sherman
Creek, Harlem River.
Below, the site today.
NYRP has invited eight architecture firms to submit plans for what has been dubbed the EDGE/ucation Pavilion -- a state-of-the-art,
flood-resistant, porous and permeable outdoor educational classroom and boat storage facility. A winner will be announced in late November, and will partner with
Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, which has been working on a master plan for the site. The project cost is $900,000, inclusive of design fees.
Photo credits, top to bottom: Alison Simko, George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress, DeShaun Wright
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Summer may be coming to a close, but popular ferry services keep sailing on. As a testament to ferries' increasing importance to New York City's mass transit
network, a number of temporary "pilot" ferry routes have recently been extended beyond their originally intended Labor Day expiration dates. For instance, Rockaway residents breathed a collective sigh of relief last month when, for the third time, the City
extended
Seastreak's Rockaway Ferry, this time through January 31st, 2014. Initially implemented in November 2012 after Superstorm Sandy knocked out A train service, the enormously popular service has quickly become a critical
fixture in the neighborhood's otherwise meager transit network due to its ability to whisk commuters and beachgoers between Rockaway and Lower Manhattan in about 40 minutes.
But that's not all. The City has also announced that the Rockaway Ferry will continue making its new stop at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park. Implemented largely in response to community outcry over the 14-month closure of the R-train tunnel into
Manhattan, the Brooklyn Army Terminal ferry, which provides nonstop service to Wall Street in just fifteen minutes for a mere $2, has proven a popular travel alternative among residents of southwest Brooklyn.
Finally, after welcoming its 100,000th passenger aboard, the free weekend ferry service between Lower Manhattan and Red Hook will now stay afloat through the end of September. The
Red Hook Ferry -- which runs between Wall Street, Van Brunt Street and IKEA. and allows free transfers to the East River Ferry -- has provided a much-needed dose of economic recovery for struggling small businesses in
Brooklyn.
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BY & LARGE
We want a waterfront with convenient ferry transit, resilient waterfront design, multi-use docks, an active maritime
industry and an NYC Department of the Waterfront. Do you?
Click
here to sign MWA's Waterfront Platform petition.
Soundview and Throgs Neck are densely populated neighborhoods with few public transit options. Commutes from the
southeastern Bronx tend to be long and expensive. Ferry service could save many Bronx commuters a lot of time. The MWA is petitioning the Mayor, City Council Speaker and Economic Development Corporation to test a six-month pilot ferry service between Throgs
Neck, Clason Point, and Manhattan that is priced competitively with express bus service. Sign the petition
here.
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Read MWA Chairman Christopher Ward's September 5, 2013 op-ed
in the Daily News
here, in which he calls for the next Mayor to build on the significant waterfront work of the current administration. "The cost of inaction is incalculable in this era of climate change," he writes.
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Rebuild by Design Workshops
The 10 international teams of designers and resiliency professionals in the Federal
Rebuild by Design competition are looking to learn from direct experience and local insights. Public meetings begin September 12 and continue on September 18 and 26 and October 5. Click
here or see Events below for details.
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Hunters Point South Waterfront Park Opens
On Aug. 28, Mayor Bloomberg cut the ribbon on a new East River waterfront park at the Hunters Point South development,
Long Island City, Queens. The park features a waterfront promenade and playground. A ferry dock is part of the scene. In the spirit of sustainability, bio-swales help filter stormwater and gabions and riprap at the shoreline help attenuate storm surge.
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DEP Expands Sewer Monitoring System
Last year, the
NYC Department of Environmental Protection installed 21 monitors inside manholes in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. The devices measure elevated wastewater in the sewer system and transmit the information wirelessly
to DEP headquarters. Since the first sewer monitoring devices were installed, DEP crews have responded to more than 100 alerts and successfully prevented potential problems. The program is expanding, with 25 more monitors installed around the city recently,
and 18 more to be installed in the near future.
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Waterfront Barge Hosts
the Pirate Ball
Dress in your most festive maritime garb, the
Waterfront Museum suggests, and come aboard Red Hook's Showboat Barge for the Pirate Ball on September 19. A fundraiser honoring The O'Connell Organization and George and Alison Tocci, the Pirate Ball kicks off Barge 100,
a year-long celebration of the historic barge. For information about tickets to the Pirate Ball, click
here.
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Cardboard Kayak Race: Sheer Delight
September 9 & 10
Two-day conference.
September 10
Newark Bay tour, with speakers Ed Kelly (Director of the Maritime Association of the Port of NY/NJ) and John Doswell
(Executive Director of the Working Harbor Committee). 5:30pm.$39, $32, $25. Pier 16, South Street Seaport
First of several Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force public meetings around the region. 6pm-8:30pm. 74 Trinity Place.
September 18
Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force public meeting. 7pm-9:30pm. Berkeley Hotel, Kingsley Ballroom, 1401 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ
Citizen
Science Water Quality Monitoring Workshop
8:30am-2:30pm, Pier 40, Hudson River Park
Row
New York 10th Year Celebration Gala
6pm-9pm, Central Park Boathouse
Bronx
River Alliance Upstream Soiree
6:30pm-9pm, Bronx Zoo
Pirate
Ball
Benefit for the Waterfront Museum. 6:30pm-10pm, aboard the barge, 290 Conover Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
Rocking
Manhattan
Row around Manhattan to support Rocking the Boat
International
Coastal Clean-Up at Soundview Park
10am-3pm
Click
here for more water-related events on the MWA web site!
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WATERFRONT NEWSLINKS
Offer
Your Best Suggestions For Making Over NYC's Piers
"While dozens of New York City's once industrial piers have been reborn as waterfront parks and public spaces, many more await their own extreme makeovers. This fall, the current Pier 17 will be demolished to make way for a new SHoP-designed structure, and
Pier 57 will begin its transformation into a shipping container retail complex. For others, the future is not so certain. Hudson River Park continues to debate what should happen to the sinking Pier 40, while plans for the East River's Pier 42 are still working
through the design process. Like all new developments, the proposals and renovations have not been without controversy or critics, but what should be done differently?..."
Curbed NY, September 6, 2013
Climate
Change Doubles Likelihood of Sandy-Level Floods in NYC
"As the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy approaches, a new study points to the rapidly escalating risk of Sandy-magnitude flooding events in the New York City area..."
Bloomberg News, September 5, 2013
Trying
to Shame Dune Holdouts at Jersey Shore
"Anchor Produce Market sells homemade mozzarella, its own fresh salsa and what many regulars swear is the best sweet corn on Long Beach Island. But, a sign on the counter declares, it will not sell anything
to the owners of 63 Long Beach Boulevard, 7 Coast Avenue, 12 Sea View Drive South or 34 other nearby oceanfront properties..."
The New York Times, September 4, 2013
Pier's
Developer Looks for a Creative Tenant Mix
"At an old pier in Manhattan, the hotelier André Balazs is transforming a rubble-strewn rooftop into a health spa and beach, while in the enormous hollow cement caissons beneath the Hudson River that
hold up the pier, a rock-climbing wall is being created..."
The New York Times, September 3, 2013
Up
Newtown Creek, With Paddles
"Under the Pulaski Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Queens, a community of pioneering paddlers and rowers has established a summer-camp-like home for the North Brooklyn Boat Club..."
The New York Times, September 1, 2013
With
Ships, Silt and a Giant Straw, a Beach in the Rockaways Is Reborn
"It had taken every bit of nine months to pry the Beach 30th Street playground in the Rockaways from the death grip of Hurricane Sandy, but by Wednesday afternoon, it was back under the full control
of the proper authorities: a mob of children, at full roar..."
The New York Times, August 22, 2013
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