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Seaport Museum Reopens 
The South Street Seaport Museum reopened December 14 with two new exhibitions: Street Shots/NYC (above, Coney Island by Matt Weber) and A Fisherman's Dream: Folk Art by Mario Sanchez (below). The Museum also launched "Artisan Row" on Water Street with four businesses, including Bowne Printers, a custom letterpress shop using vintage type. 
----------------------------- Good News from PortSide NY The tanker Mary A. Whalen, repurposed by PortSide NewYork to become a hub of maritime culture, has been named to the National Register of Historic Places. In her recent email announcing the designation, director Carolina Salguero reported more good news: PortSide NewYork's negotiations for a new home at GBX-Gowanus Bay Terminal, an eco-industrial facility in Red Hook profiled by WaterWire last June, are looking positive. ---------------------------------- New, Free Water Trail App  Going Coastal, the nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting people to coastal resources, produced a NYC Water Trail app for the iPhone and Android. The app is free. Get it here.
---------------------------------- 1 World Trade Center Antenna Floated to Lower Manhattan  On December 11, the antenna for One World Trade Center -- the part of the structure that will stretch the tower to 1,776 feet -- arrived in nine pieces by barge and tug to the banks of Tribeca. Christina Sun, aka bowsprite, happened to look out her window as the Meagan Ann pushed the loaded Atlantic Salvor past Battery Park City. "I saw Meagan Ann fighting the ebb with the barge. I biked up to where she was hanging out, waiting for the moorings to be picked up," she said. The barge and antenna had come 1,500 miles from Quebec via the St. Lawrence River, around Nova Scotia and past New England. "It was very cool," said Ms. Sun. "A diver would pop out and wave and yell, and go back underwater. Ah! I love this harbor!"  Photos by Christina Sun ------------------------------------------ Meeting Focus: Bronx River Access On December 5, more than 100 South Bronx residents met to discuss their recommendations for the Sheridan Expressway corridor. The meeting was part of the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance's campaign to transform the Sheridan corridor into a safe area with greater resident access to the Bronx River. The SBRW is gearing up for June 2013 when the City of New York will release its findings from a two-year, $1.5 million study of the Sheridan Expressway and Hunts Point area. The City has declined to remove the Sheridan Expressway completely. ------------------------------------ |
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WW follow-up
| Corrections, clarifications, updates and letters to the editor
 Unbuild the Harbor? NO!
In your last issue, I was struck by some of the comments in Rob Buchanan's letter titled "The Shallowing."
I was also at the recent MWA post-Sandy "General Assembly", and as is usually the case, was glad to mingle with lots of folks who are committed to fostering a harbor and estuary system that is safe, sustainable, secure, accessible, and respondent to the multifaceted needs of our area, region and nation.
We should all be in favor of the continued study, and understanding of the waters that are so vital to our Port. In doing so it is hoped that we can attain the proper balance of needs, opportunities and mitigations that will allow us to reach an optimal usage of that precious resource.
In any study, the foremost consideration must be the reality of our society. We are one of the world's most densely populated urban areas with a huge need for the safe, clean, secure, and efficient movement of both goods and people. Waterborne transportation IS indisputably that optimal transport mode, and we are most fortunate to have a diverse, intricate harbor and estuary system that is highly responsive to that need.
While further studies regarding the impact of water depths on storm surge will help us to better understand the dynamic forces effecting the waters that surround us, it is unrealistic to consider that a proposal of ..."unbuilding, or letting the place revert to what it naturally wants to be: a shallower harbor and a greener estuary protected by an ever-shifting set of barrier islands" is a practical solution.
The present state of our society cannot accept an "unbuilding" of our Port any more than it could accept a proposal to "unbuild" our landside structures and reestablish our 1600's shorelines, eliminate all concrete structures, and invite anyone who is not a Lenape Indian to leave Manhattan.
Dredged channels enable our waterways to act as a viable Port system, allowing large, modern, and clean, vessels to deliver the goods that are so essential to the American way of life. On a daily basis those commercial vessels deliver most of the clothing we wear, our electronic devices, automobiles, furniture, beverages, and the bulk sand, cement, aggregate, chemicals, and the petroleum products that power our home heating systems, power plants, autos, etc. (Our Port is the largest petroleum port in the USA, and delivers over 80% of New England's home heating oil). Further, our Port also has regional and national significance as we play our role as a gateway to interior areas. Our Port also allows the efficient flow of exports. On a more local basis, our tug and barge industry takes heavy, bulk cargoes off our roads, tunnels, and bridges, and, as per a NYC Economic Development Corporation report, eliminates 3.1 million truck trips (and their exhaust) through our neighborhoods every year.
Our commercial maritime industry is a major economic engine that creates over 280,000 full time jobs, $11.6 billion of personal income, $37.1 billion of business income, and $5.2 billion of tax revenues.
Dredging channels is enormously expensive and requires the commitment of federal, state, local, and private resources so that we can create and maintain the network of channels and berths that are necessary to allow this industry to physically operate in our Port. Any degradation of this system would greatly impair the ability of vessels to operate in a safe and secure manner.
"Unbuild" our harbor? NO! Rather, continue to mitigate the impact that human society has on our environment by working together to better understand the waters that surround us, and finding more and better ways to ensure that our Port is clean, safe, secure, sustainable, and economically viable.
We look forward to continued discussions as we collectively explore realistic solutions to this challenge. Hey Rob! Next time be sure to visit the "Working Waterfront" breakout group. I was the moderator, and we had some great discussions!
Ed Kelly, Executive Director, Maritime Association of the Port of NY/NJ
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Restore the Fisheries
The River Project would like to direct some of the post-Sandy discussion to ecological aspects of NY Harbor. In addition to discussing the protection of hardscape parts of the city, we also need to consider what actions are most critical for habitat adaptation; how living systems are threatened by seawalls, beach nourishment, tide gates, artificial islands and other such structures; and make plans that would lead to restoring the region's fisheries and fishing economy. What is healthy for the earth, the harbor and native species generally turns out to be healthy for people, too. There is much we can learn about adjusting to changes by observing the way it's done in nature.
We call for a paradigm shift in the conversation: not "saving the city as it is" but gradually revising and adapting to a changing world, building an urban environment evolved beyond its present condition, better able to adjust to changes, some of which we haven't experienced yet, and better able to integrate natural systems in our cities.
Cathy Drew, Founder, The River Project
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A Voice from Hudson River Park
I have been surprised at the near silence on damage to Hudson River Park in the media. The entire park within the city is still without power, I believe, although although the update on the Hudson River Park Trust website makes it sound like this only affects Pier 40, I can tell you that Pier 25 is still dark and as of two weeks ago HRPT had no timeline to offer. The website says Pier 25 is opening this coming week, but since the tenants at Pier 25 are mostly seasonal operations, "opening" is relative. Nantucket, which is actively hosting events, and Lilac are operating as needed on generators. (Pegasus went back to New Jersey for the winter.)
Mini-golf and the marina are closed for the season although staff has
been there to clean up flood-damaged facilities. (Refrigerators in the snack bar and carpeting in the sailing school classroom were ruined, for instance.)
The park just brought in portable toilets at the end of this week. The ships are not able to pump out since electric pumps in the pier are not operating.
Mary Habstritt, Museum Director and President, Lilac Preservation Project
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classified ads
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Have a boat to sell? A maritime job opening? Post a free classified ad here.
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Beneath the Sea Marine Careers Scholarships
The Deep Ventures scholarship ($2,500) is being offered to a team of students developing an underwater robot. Go to www.beneaththesea.org for scholarships application requirements and application forms. Deadline: January 15, 2012.
Environmental Job Skills Program Director
Organize and supervise the after-school and summer Environmental Job Skills Apprenticeship Program for high school juniors and seniors at Rocking the Boat, a unique nonprofit organization in the Bronx. Full-time position begins February 1, 2013. For details on the job description, salary, and the college degree and experience required, email adam@rockingtheboat.org
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Events on the Waterfront
Click on the links for more
information about these events. |
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| CONTENTS: December 15, 2012 |
Click on the links below to read the stories in this edition of WaterWire.
We Are Not Going to Abandon the Waterfront
Highlights from Mayor Bloomberg's December 6 speech
Are We Setting Ourselves Up for the Next Round of Misdirected Protection?
Participants at a Municipal Art Society forum on coastal resilience ask some tough questions and utter some bold opinions
Newslinks
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"WE ARE NOT GOING TO ABANDON THE WATERFRONT"
| | Details from Mayor Bloomberg's Dec. 6 Speech on Coastal Resilience
Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped up to the podium after former Vice President Al Gore's glowing introduction at a recent breakfast co-hosted by the New York League of Conservation Voters and the Regional Plan Association, and wasted no time in reminding the crowd how the City had been preparing for rising sea levels since 2007, when Dan Doctoroff and Rit Aggarwala launched PlaNYC. In the last five years, he said, among other initiatives the City has:
- created a $2.4 billion green infrastructure plan that uses natural methods of capturing rainwater before it floods neighborhoods and overwhelms sewage systems
- adopted new zoning regulations that eliminate penalties for elevating boilers, generators and other electrical equipment above the ground
- restored 127 acres of wetlands and expanded the Staten Island Blue Belt by 325 acres
- required a climate change risk assessment for major developments in vulnerable areas, which can mean new buildings and parks must be elevated out of the flood plain
"Let me be clear," he said. "We are not going to abandon the waterfront. We are not going to leave the Rockaways or Coney Island or Staten Island's South Shore. But we can't just rebuild what was there and hope for the best. We have to build smarter and stronger and more sustainably." So, on December 6, Mayor Bloomberg announced new initiatives to make the city more resilient:
- Expand evacuation zones
- New ferry service from the Rockaways and the South Shore of Staten Island to Manhattan
- Development, with local leaders, of comprehensive Community Recovery and Rebuilding plans for the communities Sandy hit hardest
- Formulation of a specific and comprehensive action plan to prepare New York City for climate risks
- Re-revising building codes and construction requirements to further strengthen standards for flood protection
- Build berms and dunes, jetties and levees. Not sea walls.
The Mayor went on to say that the City cannot wait for a FEMA study, so "we will launch an expedited engineering analysis of coastal protection strategies to ensure we pursue the ones that are right for our city." |
NEW YORK CITY: SINK OR SWIM (SOS!)
| | Experts at MAS Forum Ask Hard Questions, Utter Bold Opinions
Just when you thought the region's coastal resilience discussion might have hit its platitudinous ceiling, along come Justin Davidson, Eugenie Birch, Paul Farmer, Dale Morris and Kate Orff, participants in the Municipal Art Society's Sink or Swim program (co-sponsored by the Columbia Center for Urban Real Estate) on December 13 who dared to ask tough questions and present bold opinions on post-Sandy priorities. Gathered together as the Technical Aspects panel, Ms. Birch, Mr. Farmer, Mr. Morris and Ms. Orff first offered their ideas on resilient infrastructure and then were questioned by New York magazine critic Justin Davidson. "Must we take unequal approaches to recovery?" he asked. "Do we need to shrink or write off certain neighborhoods as places that can't be protected? Is that a reasonable way to think about this, as cruel as it sounds? Or are we setting ourselves up for the next round of misdirected protection?" Below are highlights of comments from the four experts. Ms. Orff, the founder of the design studio SCAPE, assistant professor at Columbia, and a newly named USA Artist Fellow, wants to merge natural and man-made solutions and create a hybrid of hard and soft infrastructure along the coasts of New York and New Jersey. "It's not hard infrastructure versus soft infrastructure," she said. "Any reasonable person would see the disadvantages of both. This is a false dichotomy... People are just talking about the edges of the city -- but there's another way to think about the water. We need to work in the water itself, not just at the edge." Ms. Birch, the chair of Urban Research and Education at the University of Pennsylvania, has held high positions at several national planning organizations and publications. She suggested that the NYC Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability should oversee the planning, design and construction of innovative, resilient infrastructure. "We have plans ready, tools at hand such as environmental impact statements, FEMA maps, zoning regulations," she said. "What we don't have is an integrated information system or a coordinating agency. We're thick with social and intellectual capital in this area. We just have to focus and move forward and do what we have to do." Paul Farmer, the CEO of the American Planning Association, said "We need to challenge ourselves to rethink our paradigms. In this country, where water falls we try to get rid of it as quickly as possible. In the Netherlands they try to keep water in place. It's not a defense system, it's a management system... The Dutch do not plan unless they have an investment strategy and they do not invest without a plan. As a country, we've gotten away from that." Dale Morris, senior economist at the Royal Netherlands Embassy and director of the Dutch government's Water Management network in Louisiana, Florida and California, quoted a Louisiana guru -- "elevation is the salvation from inundation" -- and suggested forum participants look at a web site called Living With Water. "Building codes are crucial," he said, "but they have to be specific to the landscape. You need to think of the Dutch concept of retain, store and drain. It creates new opportunities for urban design and reduces flood risk... Barriers are controversial. Barriers have a role in the Netherlands, but they're expensive to build and expensive to maintain. The Dutch use a multi-layered approach -- it's not just one adaptation in the environment." Mr. Davidson asked the group, "If you take some of the successes of the newer building codes, can we apply those lessons broadly? Is it a matter of just scaling up?" Ms. Birch replied, "We have to retrofit our structural and administrative process. We need comprehensive maps of our infrastructure. We need the leadership to do this. We need to take a hard look at our incentives. We've got to decide who's going to pay for what, what we're going to value, and why we make investments in certain areas." |
MORE POST-SANDY UPDATES
| | Debris Removal, Sand Redistribution and a Lot of Fundraising
 * The National Park Service is scaling back its Sandy response team, which hit a high of 594 employees from all over the country in the days after the storm. Today, debris cleanup and heavy equipment repair continue at Ellis Island, where the elevator is inoperable because of four feet of water in the shaft. Debris removal continues at Forth Wadsworth and Sandy Hook, and in the Rockaways, building repair, mold mitigation and sand redistribution are ongoing. In Gateway National Recreation Area, NPS staff are mapping wrecked boats and coordinating boat removals. Above, in this recent photo by Kevin Daly, contractors check for unexploded ordnances at Sandy Hook Beach E. * The NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection lifted its advisory against recreational use of New York Harbor and its waterways. * While house foundations in the Ironbound neighborhood in Newark were compromised and serious flooding occurred, the newly opening Essex County Riverfront Park and the in-construction Newark Riverfront Park sustained no serious damage, reported Damon Rich, Newark's urban planner. * NY/NJ Baykeeper is asking for donations to help repair its aquaculture facility off Sandy Hook, which sustained $!0,000 to $15,000 worth of damage. Click here to donate and help them rebuild in time for the 2013 oyster restoration season. * East River C.R.E.W. reports that Superstorm Sandy punched a hole in one of their two 25' boats, and destroyed equipment, tools and archival material. * By all accounts, the community of Red Hook, Brooklyn, displayed a remarkable cohesiveness. While the neighborhood's two historic vessels -- the tanker Mary A. Whalen ( PortSide NewYork) and the Lehigh Valley Barge #79 ( Waterfront Museum) -- came through the storm intact, their landside neighbors did not fare as well. Both David Sharps of the Waterfront Museum and Carolina Salguero of PortSide NY grabbed items from their vessels -- generators, community contact lists, etc. -- and went ashore to help their neighbors. PortSide's pop-up aid station in a donated storefront at 351 Van Brunt Street became one of the central "hubs" of Sandy response. PortSide's Sandy blog continues, but the aid center closed recently; "walk-in needs (thankfully) have dropped off," said Ms. Salguero. She's back aboard the Mary A. Whalen and a bit wistful, missing the camaraderie and activity of the past few weeks. "The destruction by the water created something that I hope will last beyond this crisis. The issues of public housing became front and center for everybody. It was pretty amazing to be part of. Now we're locked back up at the port, which is kind of sad." |
RFP RELEASED FOR GOVERNORS ISLAND DEVELOPMENT
| | City Also Proposes New Zoning for the Historic Island
 The City has issued a Request for Proposals for the adaptive reuse of 40 historic buildings on Governors Island, for cultural, educational and commercial purposes. Responses are due March 14, 2013. Mayor Bloomberg called the island "the centerpiece of our administration's transformation of the City's waterfront." The Trust for Governors Island has spent than $260 million on the island's infrastructure and on design and construction of new parks. The island's potable water, electrical and telecommunications systems have been upgraded, as have the docks and seawall. Phase 1 of Park and Public Space Plan, designed by the firm West 8, will open next year with new green spaces, ballfields and thousands of new trees.  In order for the phased development and tenancy of the island to go forward, new zoning has been proposed that would allow most commercial uses in the historic buildings. The proposed commercial zoning overlay will "require a certification by the City Planning Commission and advice from the Community Board," explained Governors Island Alliance executive director Rob Pirani in an email. A public hearing on the plan is scheduled for January 8 at 6pm at 22 Reade Street.To see the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement, the Draft Scope of Work and other documents, click here. Written comments will be accepted until 5pm on January 18. To download the RFP, click here. Note that there's a recommended site visit on December 19. |
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AHOY!
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WaterWire Q&A with
James Smith of New York Nautical
 New York Nautical (158 Duane Street in Tribeca) is perhaps the city's most comprehensive nautical supply store, serving professional mariners, recreational boaters and armchair sailors. Store manager James Smith, known to all as Smitty, has been there for more than 30 years. "Something about me and this place," he said. "We fit."
Are you a sailor?
No, I'm a landlubber. The only boat I get on is a cruise ship. I go on cruises with my wife at least once a year. Sometimes the staff on cruise ships recognize me. Recently I had a guy come in and he was looking for a chart that covered most of the Atlantic. I recognized him as the cruise director from a ship I'd been on.
What percent of your customers are serious mariners and what percent are armchair voyagers? 85% are serious or wannabe-serious mariners. Guys who want their licenses come in for study guides. I find that a lot of the younger sailors want to learn how to use a sextant, even though most people use a GPS when they sail. You'd be surprised at how many captains don't know how to use a sextant.
What item in the store do you get the most calls for? The chart of New York Harbor. Lots of people need to use it -- and it looks great on a wall.
What else do you recommend for nautical gifts in this holiday season? We've got really nice books and telescopes. An interesting gift would be a deck prism. They're paperweights now but when they were used on ships they were inverted on the deck, so that when light hit the top of the prism, it sent light down into the ship. |
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| WATERFRONT NEWSLINKS |
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"Making Boats Go Fast": Uptown Teens Learn to Row"The current on the Harlem River is strong. Despite the best efforts of a crew of eight 14- and 15-year-olds, it's rapidly sweeping the long, skinny boat toward shore. Twelve-foot oars flail. One rower, her hand smashed between a paddle and the lurching shell, starts to bleed. "It's burning," she shrieks, eyes wide..."The Uptowner, December 14, 2012 Uptown Wetlands Slowly Recover From Hurricane Sandy"Six weeks after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the area, cleanup has been slow in Manhattan's only remaining wetlands..."DNA Info, December 14, 2012 No Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card on Sea Level"The future of Antarctica on a warming planet has long been one of the great uncertainties in climate science..."The New York Times, December 13, 2012 Treated sewage cascading into Hudson River is new sight for Hoboken residents"Although few people have seen it, there is nothing new about millions of gallons of treated sewage gushing into the Weehawken Cove daily, officials say..."The Jersey Journal, December 11, 2012 Newtown Creek: The Unseen Stream That Keeps New York City Flowing"Riverkeeper's patrol boat glides along Newtown Creek in New York City. Like a cruise ship captain leading a voyage through environmental hell, Phillip Musegaas points out oil slicks, the sewage treatment plant, and the huge pipes where raw sewage flows into the creek every time it rains..."National Geographic, December 10, 2012 Worries surface about air, water after Sandy"As residents living in areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy slowly start to put their lives back together and rebuild, some are worried about an additional concern: the quality of their air and water..."Times Ledger, December 7, 201 NYer Of The Week: Bronx River Alliance Cleans Up A Destroyed WaterwayNY1 has been profiling New Yorkers across the five boroughs who have gone above and beyond to help their neighbors in the wake of Sandy, and this week our tour of the five boroughs takes us to the Bronx, where a conservation team has been working non-stop to restore a precious waterway..."NY1, December 7, 2012 |
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