 News and stories about the waterways of
New York and New Jersey, from the Metropolitan Waterfront AllianceMARCH 30, 2013 |
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HAIL THE HEROES OF
THE HARBOR FOR THEIR
FORESIGHT AND ACTION!
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Let's be honest: last October, too many people ignored warnings of unprecedented storm surge and flooding as Hurricane Sandy bore down on the metropolitan region. Some wise souls, however, did prepare for the storm -- and thanks to their planning and action, property and lives were saved from devastating floods. To honor this foresight and action, and for their important work to create a resilient waterfront, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance will salute these Heroes of the Harbor at the Waterfront Conference on April 9, 2013. "Actions by a few farsighted individuals along the waterfront in advance of Superstorm Sandy undoubtedly prevented far greater damage," said Roland Lewis, president and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. "We wish to publicly commend these clear-eyed advocates of a resilient shoreline." While some had been preparing for a storm surge like Sandy's for years, others took swift action as the storm approached. Under great pressure, Captain Jonathan Boulware, waterfront director for the South Street Seaport Museum and one of those being honored by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, reacted quickly. Analyzing tide and wind forecasts as the storm approached, he calculated how much extra mooring line should be added to each historic vessel. With the help of loyal museum volunteers, he directed preparations for each pier, each boat and each shipboard exhibit -- and then remained on-site as the storm made landing. All of the museum's vessels remained safe and secure. Over at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Deputy Commissioner for Sustainability Angela Licata also was about as prepared as she could be. Ms. Licata, another Hero of the Harbor being honored by the MWA, has kept climate change planning front and center at the agency for the last decade. She prepared the agency's Climate Change Adaptation Plan in 2007, was a lead developer of the City's Green Infrastructure Plan, has recently taken a new look at the City's drainage planning to account for larger storm events, and has proposed modifications to the City's wastewater treatment plants to protect them from large storm events. The other Heroes of the Harbor, honored for their resiliency foresight and actions are
* New York City Panel on Climate Change* New York City Environmental Justice Alliance* Klaus Jacob, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University * Marine Transportation System Recovery Unit* dlandstudio architecture + landscape architecturePhoto of South Street Seaport 3 days after Sandy: Robert Simko__________________________________________________________
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CHANGING THE COURSE
OF WATERFRONT CONSTRUCTION
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At the Change the Course Symposium on April 10, 2013 from 8am to 11am at the U.S. Custom House at One Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan, the NYC Economic Development Corporation will announce the three winners of the NYC Waterfront Construction Competition. The event is free to attend and breakfast will be served. To RSVP, please click here. The three winners of the competition, which seeks to change the course of waterfront construction and help New York City build and maintain waterfront infrastructure in a more cost effective and sustainable manner, will earn cash prizes of up to $50,000 and the opportunity to present their ideas to an exclusive field of NYC agency representatives and maritime construction professionals, as well as potentially have their ideas incorporated into future NYCEDC waterfront projects.
Nearly half of NYC's 565 miles of shoreline is owned by the City of New York and includes a wide range of structures, many of which are deteriorating and will require rehabilitation or replacement in the coming years and decades. This work has increasingly become prohibitively expensive, driven by the cost of construction materials, labor, outdated construction methods and technologies, regulations and other factors. Through this waterfront construction competition, the EDC and the Hudson River Park Trust have sought competitive proposals for innovative and cost-saving solutions for completing marine construction projects in New York City.
 Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the competition winners and hear their ideas on changing the course of New York City's waterfront, as well as network with City agency representatives and maritime construction professionals and enjoy refreshments.
Space is limited. RSVP by Friday, April 5, 2013.
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HARBOR COALITION URGES FEDERAL INVESTMENT IN
20 WATERFRONT PROJECTS
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Over the past months, the NY-NJ Harbor Coalition, an advocacy campaign with 46 diverse members ranging from national environmental organizations to civic groups and local paddling clubs, has worked hard in support of the full $60 billion federal Sandy supplemental package.
After the bill was passed, Coalition representatives continued to meet with high-level federal officials, including staff at the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of the Interior and the Army Corps of Engineers, to try to guide the disbursement of some of the $60 billion toward projects that have multiple community, environmental, economic and storm protection benefits.
"The goal has been to make sure the waterfront projects we've heard about for years in the metropolitan region overlap with the priorities of the folks making the decisions," said Lilo Stainton, director of the Harbor Coalition. "After homes, businesses and transit infrastructure is rebuilt, there is a real opportunity for this administration to invest in the urban waterfront priorities they identified before Sandy."
The Harbor Coalition is urging federal officials to direct some of the $60 billion to 20 specific shovel ready projects or key studies that have extensive community and local government support. These projects, identified through the campaign's grass-roots outreach, are examples of investments that would provide multiple community, economic and storm resiliency benefits.
The projects are located in New York and New Jersey, and the requests include
- Minish Park/Passaic Riverfront (Newark, NJ) - $5 million for bulkhead completion, wetland creation and park construction
- Liberty State Park (Jersey City, NJ) - $22.6 million for wetland creation and park construction
- Jamaica Bay Marsh Island (Brooklyn/Queens, NY) - $20 million for marsh island construction using safe dredged material
- Spring Creek Park (Brooklyn/Queens, NY) - $8 million for rechanneling and habitat restoration
- Industrial Waterfront Study (New York City and Northern NJ) - necessary funding to identify opportunities for flood reduction and increased resiliency
For a full list of these 20 projects, click here.
Photo: skarsgard.yuku.com
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RESILIENCY PLANNING, SMALL SCALE
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If you live near the coast, no doubt you've heard about some large-scale sea level rise planning efforts in New Jersey, New York, and across the nation. These initiatives can be somewhat abstract, however, if you're trying to get a sense of what sea level rise means on a smaller scale -- for the waterfront areas in your life and in your community.
To anchor some of these large scale issues into a community context, the New York-New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program (HEP) worked with the ecological consulting firm Great Ecology under an EPA Climate Ready Estuaries grant to launch case studies of three local waterfront parks, focusing on their vulnerability and options for boosting resiliency. For those of us who don't own a boat, waterfront parks may be the primary way we interact with and appreciate our waterways and wildlife, and were a natural fit for the focus of this project.
On the Raritan River waterfront in New Jersey, HEP and Great Ecology selected three public parks with a variety of shoreline types. The sites were the less developed Donaldson Park in Highland Park, containing baseball diamonds and flanked by soft mudflats; the undeveloped Woodbridge Waterfront Park, in Woodbridge, which will (upon restoration) contain freshwater and saltwater wetlands; and the sandy, residential Old Bridge Park in Laurence Harbor (the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site), affected by heavy metal contamination from a since-retired smelting facility.
At left, average high tide at Donaldson Park.
At right, flooding at the same location.
Great Ecology and HEP went to each site and noted unique infrastructure and natural resources. To assess vulnerability, Great Ecology created a geographic information system (GIS) model based on field observations, land use coverage and sea level rise projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The results provided practical insight into ways that communities and individuals can minimize potential damage caused by sea level rise -- good information that county officials are already making use of. Recommendations include reinforcing, raising or relocating vulnerable infrastructure, bank stabilization via modified maintenance practices and bank stabilization via re-vegetation, among others. For the case study of Woodbridge Waterfront Park, which is not yet constructed, landscape architects have already used the analysis to evaluate design modifications. The method was simple and rapid, and can be used by any park manager or landowners to improve resiliency.
In the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary, the most urban estuary in the nation, sea level rise poses a significant challenge for our coastal areas, and raises the baseline of our vulnerability to other significant stressors such as coastal storms. These case studies support resiliency planning at the local scale by providing examples of actions that can put us in a better position to continue to reap the benefits of tourism, public access, and improved quality of life, despite future conditions.
For details, contact NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Program Restoration Coordinator Kate Boicourt at habitat@harborestuary.org or Great Ecology Senior Planner Rachel Gruzen rgruzen@greatecology.com.
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BY & LARGE
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Short items on
waterfront events and issues
MWA has a Bigger Boat!
Attention all you waterfront fans and advocates who were closed out of the MWA 2013 Waterfront Conference and Mayoral Forum because we reached boat capacity: Hornblower Cruises and Events has come to the rescue and offered MWA the Hornblower Infinity! MWA thanks Entertainment Cruises for its generous early offer. We hope to see everyone aboard the Hornblower Infinity on April 9. Remember, boarding begins at Pier 40 (north side) at 7:30am for the 8am Mayoral Forum.The registration lines are reopened here, and we welcome you aboard! __________________________
Liberty Island to Open by Independence Day
The National Park Service will reopen the Statue of Liberty by July 4, 2013, after months of repair to the island's damaged docks, energy infrastructure and security system caused by Superstorm Sandy.
Visitors to Liberty Island will board Statue Cruises at Liberty State Park, NJ, or at Battery Park, NY, and stop at Ellis Island for security screening. Screening facilities will be temporary at first. A permanent system is being designed that will withstand the effects of sea level rise.
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NYC Beaches to Reopen by Memorial Day Weekend
Some 21 million people enjoyed New York City's public beaches in 2012. Then came Sandy -- and many beaches were severely damaged, particularly in the Rockaways, at Coney Island and on Staten Island.
Still, the NYC Parks Department expects to open all public beaches by May 25. Parks has launched an online community forum to allow people to ask questions about beach restoration and make suggestions for long-term rebuilding.
Click here to ask questions, and scroll down for a Parks video about rebuilding the concessions along Rockaway Beach.
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Rosanne Sings for Lettie
Join the South Street Seaport Museum for a gala concert starring Grammy-winning musician Rosanne Cash to raise funds for the restoration of the fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard on April 8, 8pm, at the NY Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Avenue. Click here for tickets.
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Announcing the John D. Solomon Fellowship for Public Service
In honor of John D. Solomon, an accomplished journalist on homeland security and other public policy issues and a trustee of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, the NYC Office of Emergency Management is sponsoring the John D. Solomon Fellowship for Public Service. This program provides the opportunity for up to seven graduate students in NYC-area universities to have a nine-month paid fellowship (approximately 20 hours per week) in one of seven NYC government agencies charged with helping the City be prepared for all types of emergencies. Each Fellow receives a $4,000 stipend, is assigned an agency mentor, and participates in special programs with other fellows. For more information about the fellowship, click here.
Attend the Tug Art Show III (with your checkbook), on April 2, 5:30pm to 8pm at the Ear Inn (326 Spring Street), and you'll be accomplishing two important things: supporting the restoration of Tug Pegasus, a 1907 maritime icon whose very existence tells an important story about the history of the Port of New York/New Jersey, and honoring Erin Urban, founder and executive director of the Noble Maritime Collection at Sailors Snug Harbor cultural center. Beyond collecting the work of maritime painter John Noble and directing the restoration of the landmarked cultural center, Ms. Urban is also spearheading the stewardship of Robbins Reef Lighthouse.
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WW Follow-UpCorrections, clarifications, updates, and letters to the editorFont Too Small? To the editor: WaterWire is great as usual but I hate the smaller type, which is unkind to older eyes. I used to read every word, but now if my glasses, which I rarely wear, are not on hand, I just skim it and sometimes don't get back to it. Why the change? - Betsy Haggerty, Working Waterfront Committee
Editor's note: We like the neat, compact look of 8 point Trebuchet -- but, yes, it is a tad small. Anyone else out there vote to enlarge the font size? ________________________
Comment on the Gowanus Canal Clean-Up Plan
The Environmental Protection Agency's half-billion dollar clean-up plan for the Gowanus Canal includes removal of contaminated sediment, capping dredged areas and new controls to prevent raw sewage overflows. Download the plan here. The EPA has extended the deadline for public comment to April 27, 2013. Click here to email comments to the EPA. Contact Natalie Loney, the EPA's Community Involvement Coordinator, with any questions. ________________________
EVENTS Wednesday, April 3Thursday, April 4
Friends of the National Lighthouse Museum Meeting
6pm-8pm, Seamen's Society for Children & Families, 50 Bay St., Staten Island
Friday, April 5
Symposium. 6:30pm. The New School, 55 West 13th Street
Saturday, April 6Symposium. 9:30am-5:30pm. The New School, 66 Fifth Ave.Shipbuilding WorkshopMake miniature boats and learn about the Battle of Brooklyn. 1pm-4pm. Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, Red Hook
Monday, April 8
See story above. South Street Seaport Museum fundraiser. 8pm, New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue at 103rd St.
Tuesday, April 9 8am -5pm aboard the Hornblower Infinity, boarding at Pier 40.
Wednesday, April 10 Change the Course Symposium
8am-11am. See story at left.
Sailing Ships at Work - Past, Present, Future
6pm, Community Church of New York 40 E. 35th Street
Click here for more events on MWA's online calendar. To post an event, contact Louis Kleinman __________ CLASSIFIED ADSPlace your water-related classified ad free in
WaterWire! Contact asimko@waterfrontalliance.org
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WATERFRONT NEWSLINKS
Hudson River Foundation to dole out $1.5 million in grants
"The Hudson River Foundation will begin disbursing $1.5 million in grants to environmental preservation groups in Community District 9 this May after the settlement of a long-standing legal controversy over a West Harlem wastewater treatment plant..."
Columbia Spectator, March 29, 2013
Capitol Hill will provide $22 million for city ferry service post-Sandy recovery
"The funds will be included in the $50.5 billion relief package and will include reimbursement to city Department of Transportation and the city Economic Development Corporation for keeping ferry services running smoothly. Money for ongoing repairs and bus service is also included..."
Daily News, March 27, 2013
70 firms devise strategy to quash EPA's plans for Passaic River cleanup
"It was January when the letters started showing up at the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Manhattan..."
The Star-Ledger, March 24, 2013
Some Sandy-Battered Amusement Parks, Piers Reopen On Jersey Shore
"Along the Sandy-battered Jersey Shore, some sense of normalcy has resumed this weekend as some parks and piers have reopened..."
CBS Local, March 23, 2013
City Approves 700-Unit Rental Complex on Gowanus Canal
"Gritty and offbeat as its reputation is, the Gowanus Canal may, in a few years, start becoming more bourgeois..."
The New York Times, March 19, 2013
Newtown Creek In NYC, One Of Most Polluted Areas In US, Awaiting Cleanup
"Just across the East River from midtown Manhattan's shimmering skyscrapers sits one of the nation's most polluted neighborhoods, fouled by generations of industrial waste, overflow from the city's sewage system and an underground oil leak bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill..."
Huffington Post, March 2, 2013
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