News and stories about the waterways of
New York and New Jersey, from the
Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance

APRIL 23, 2014
 
CONTENTS
A Push to Integrate Ferries Into Public Transit - MWA presents a policy paper at the April 24 Waterfront Conference
Chris Ward on Depoliticizing the Port Authority - For the first time, the former PA leader shares views on the agency
Spring Revival at South Street Seaport Museum - Your chance to board and tour historic ships
EPA Announces Plan to Clean the Passaic River - Will be the largest ever EPA cleanup
A PUSH TO INTEGRATE FERRIESFERRY INTO PUBLIC TRANSIT
On April 24, at the 2014 Waterfront Conference, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance will unveil "Ship to Shore: Integrating New York Harbor Ferries With Upland Communities," a policy paper that proposes 15 actionable steps toward better connecting ferries with public transit.

The call to integrate ferries into the regional transportation network comes as waterborne transit is enjoying a renaissance in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. But because ferries rarely function in coordination with other mass transit, waterborne transit is not able to live up to its full potential. Opposite busy highways or miles from subway or bus stops, docks can be hard to reach. Transfers to other modes of transportation are discouraged, increasing the total cost of travel.

Ferries must be integrated into the larger regional transportation network. Among the Ship to Shore policy paper suggestions are:
  • Consolidate ferry transit operation and subsidy within the jurisdiction of one governing authority such as the MTA or the Port Authority of NY/NJ
  • Synchronize ferry schedules with buses and commuter rails
  • Accept MTA Metro Cards on inter-borough ferry routes
  • Extend bus routes to the waterfront
  • Add ferry stops and routes to MTA maps
  • Allow intermodal transfers on NYC Transit with one payment
"Ferries have become a critical component of New York City's transportation network," said Brian McCabe, Chief Operating Officer of New York Water Taxi. "But the success of the ferry industry is contingent upon adequate landside connections, including improved accessibility and affordability through integration with NYC Transit."

"The future of ferry service in New York Harbor will be greatly enhanced if our public agency partners embrace the forward-looking agenda put forth by the MWA in its 'Ship to Shore' report," said Paul Goodman, CEO of BillyBey Ferry Company, which operates as NY Waterway. "Greater coordination with public mass transit alternatives to connect people with ferry locations would further establish ferries as an integral part of the regional transportation network."

"Seastreak vessels ferry passengers quickly and efficiently from Monmouth County to Manhattan, the Rockaway's, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Hoboken, but getting from the dock to their destination can be challenging for many of our riders," said James A. Barker, President, Seastreak, LLC. "Waterborne transit is a crucial part of the region's transportation network, and a number of this report's recommendations could help to provide the coordination necessary to improve those connections."

"Ship to Shore" will be released at the MWA Waterfront Conference on April 24, 2014, when hundreds of waterfront advocates, government officials, scientists, engineers, environmentalists, journalists and community activists will board the magnificent Hornblower Infinity for a day-long series of panel discussions on pressing waterfront issues. To download the "Ship to Shore" policy paper, click here.
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SPRING REVIVAL AT SOUTHMUSEUM STREET SEAPORT MUSEUM  
Visitors may once again board the historic ships of the South Street Seaport Museum on Saturday, April 26, when the Museum celebrates a "Spring Revival." The celebration at Pier 16 on the East River runs from noon to 6pm, with a program commencing at 2pm.

Visitors will be able to tour the barque Peking, the lightship Ambrose and the schooner Pioneer. Wood carving, sail raising and nautical crafts for kids are on the docket, as well as live music, highlighted by the maritime folksingers of the New York Packet, and printing demonstrations by Bowne & Co. Stationers, a 19th-century print shop re-created on the cobblestones of Front Street.

In a recent message to supporters, the Museum's Interim President, Captain Jonathan Boulware, recalled the famous "Street of Ships" -- South Street -- in the early 19th century. "In those days," he wrote, "the piers were crowded with ships from all over the world discharging their cargoes of coffee, tea, cotton, molasses and countless other trade goods upon the piers of South Street. The trade represented by these ships and the counting-houses, hotels and warehouses of the South Street Seaport is the very trade that built a growing New York City and through it the United States of America. Now more than ever the story of the formation of New York -- the story of a city built on its waterways -- is critical to our city. This is not a dry history, but a living tale of growth, of sacrifice and of opportunity. The story and its reverberations play out in the education programs aboard our schooners Pioneer and Lettie G. Howard. They are carried in the hearts of the volunteers who work to preserve our tug W.O. Decker and the mighty square-riggers Peking and Wavertree. They burn brightly in the lamps of the lightship Ambrose."

The South Street Seaport Museum was designated by Congress as America's National Maritime Museum in 1998. The museum is located in a 12 square-block historic district in Lower Manhattan, the site of the original port of New York City on the East River.

Top photo and banner photo by Robert Simko
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EPA ANNOUNCES DETAILS OF PASSAIC RIVER CLEANUPpassaic
The Superfund cleanup of the Passaic River's lower eight miles that the Environmental Protection Agency will start in a couple years will be the largest cleanup in EPA history.

EPA is proposing bank-to-bank dredging followed by capping of the river bottom. More than four million cubic yards of contaminated sediment will be removed from the lower eight miles of the river. The river bed is contaminated with dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), heavy metals, pesticides and other contaminants from more than 100 years of industrial activity.

When the Passaic River was given Superfund status in 1984, EPA divided investigation of cleanup options into two studies -- one of the entire 17-mile stretch of the Passaic from its mouth to the Dundee Dam and the other of the river's lower eight miles. The study of the lower eight miles was conducted by the EPA; the long-term study of contaminated sediment in the 17-mile stretch is ongoing. It is being conducted by about 70 parties potentially responsible for the pollution, with EPA oversight.

The EPA will hold three public meetings to discuss the proposal.
  • May 7, 2014 at 7pm
    Portuguese Sports Club, 55 Prospect Street 
    Newark, New Jersey
  • May 2014 in Kearny, New Jersey 
    Specific date and location to be determined 
  • June 2014 in Belleville, New Jersey 
    Specific date and location to be determined  
After receiving comments from the public, the EPA will finalize a cleanup plan by early next year. Engineering and design work for the plan will be carried out in the following years. 

People may submit written comments by mail or email to 
Alice Yeh, Remedial Project Manager
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
290 Broadway, New York, New York 10007-1866
(212) 637-4427
[email protected]
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BY & LARGE
 
2014 Waterfront Conference
The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance's 2014 Waterfront Conference -- "Rebuilding Our Waterfront: From the Water In, From the Grassroots Up" -- will be held on April 24, 9am to 5pm, aboard the Hornblower Infinity. Click here for details about panel and plenary topics. The Conference will focus on grassroots, community-based waterfront plans, and will honor the people behind five such plans as Heroes of the Harbor. We welcome your participation. Get tickets here.
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Back to Basics for theWard
Port Authority: Waterfront Conference Keynote 
On April 24, hear what former Port Authority Executive Director Christopher Ward has to say about returning the Port Authority to its mission of overseeing the region's seaports, airports, bridges, tunnels and highways. Mr. Ward is Chairman of the MWA Board of Trustees and Executive Vice President of Dragados USA. He will present the keynote address at the MWA Waterfront Conference on April 24, sharing his views on what can be done to reform and depoliticize the beleaguered bi-state agency. He will further discuss how we can make our harbor and port more resilient in this era of climate change and sea level rise, how we can keep the economic engine that is our port vital and robust, and how we can work toward greater environmental restoration of our waterfronts. For conference details, click here.
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De Blasio Releases PlaNYC Progress Report  
On April 22, 2014, expanding on the sustainability and resiliency work of the Bloomberg Administration, the de Blasio Administration released a progress report on PlaNYC programs. Among the initiatives detailed in the report were
* 1.2 million cubic yards of sand replenished on the Rockaway peninsula, Coney Island, and Staten Island, with another 2.9 million cubic yards on track to be placed this year;
* Securing reforms to the national flood insurance program to keep insurance available and affordable for New Yorkers;
* Upgrading city building code and operations to protect buildings in the floodplain against floods, wind and power outages through 17 local laws that have passed the City Council.

For the full report, click here.
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DEP Expands Bluebelt 

Later this spring, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection will begin the largest ever expansion of the Bluebelt wetland system on Staten Island.

The $48 million project, in the Woodrow area of the South Shore, will add catch basins and storm sewers to reduce street flooding, build new wetlands and allow nearly 600 homes to connect to the City sewer system.

Photo courtesy NYC DEP.
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Reinventing Urban Waterfronts

For centuries, ports and harbors have played a seminal role in the development of commerce and cities. Over the course of the last half century, however, changes in shipping and trade have fundamentally reshaped the physical relationship between port areas and the cities that grew up around them. Advances in land transportation, new technologies for cargo handling, and the physical space required by containerization made many inner-city port facilities obsolete. 

 

The reactivation of redundant "working waterfront" lands occurred first in Europe and the US, in cities such as New York and London. Containerization left central city dockyards and piers silent, and the second half of the 20th century saw ambitious -- and not always successful -- efforts to repurpose them. Today, similar changes are taking place in rapidly industrializing cities in the Eastern Europe, Asia and South America.  

 

The different stages and nature of such transformation will be the subject of the one-day symposium From Port to People: Reinventing Urban Waterfronts, sponsored by Columbia University on April 25, which will look closely at the experience of waterfront redevelopment in four cities: Istanbul, Mumbai, New York and Rio de Janeiro. Focusing among other areas on governance, finance, transportation planning, and design, panelists will explore what these waterfront cities can learn from each other in an effort to identify solutions and ideas that can help ease the exciting transition along the waterfront "from port to people." Click here for details. 

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A Billion Bivalves

The New York Harbor Ball & Billion Oyster Project Founders' Celebration will be held on April 30, 2014, at the New York Yacht Club.  Proceeds will support the Billion Oyster Project and the programs of the New York Harbor School.  Tickets are available here

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EVENTS
 
April 24
MWA Waterfront Conference Rebuilding Our Waterfront: From the Water In, From the Grassroots Up
9am-5pm, Hornblower Infinity,
Pier 40,Hudson River Park
 
Civitas Discussion on the East River Waterfront
6:30pm, 7 East 95th Street

April 25  
From Port to People: Reinventing Urban Waterfronts
See item above. 9am-5pm, Columbia University, The Italian Academy, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue

      

Click here for more water-related events on the MWA website!  
WATERFRONT NEWSLINKS

 "Floating pool" planned for East River in mid-2016
"Forget shlepping to Jones Beach or down the Jersey Shore. A Brooklyn design team said Tuesday that the East River could be the next great place for a summer swim..."
New York Post, April 23, 2014

 Equipped to Dive, Students Make Aquarium Their Classroom
"Andrew Sutchen, 18, was keeping his head down, trying to ignore the fish. It was hard to concentrate on the task at hand: underwater housekeeping for the New York Aquarium in Coney Island..."
The New York Times, April 22, 2014

Controversy Swirls Around Newtown Creek Boathouse
"...No one seems exactly sure what's going on with the boat club, the new facility, or all the money that has been allocated to both..."
Curbed, April 22, 2014

De Blasio updates Bloomberg-era sustainability plan
"...The 107-page report details progress made in 389 initiatives to better prepare the city for climate change and a booming population that is expected to reach 9 million resident by 2030..."
Crain's New York, April 22, 2014

The Binnacle of Success: Lower Manhattan's Last Anchor Tenant Charts Course to Remain in Tribeca
"The only ship's chandler remaining in Lower Manhattan (and perhaps anywhere in Manhattan) has decided to stay in Tribeca. New York Nautical, which first opened its doors on Water Street more than a century ago, has been feeling the pressure of rising rents at its current location on Duane Street for several years, and recently moved into a new space at 200 Church Street..."
The Broadsheet, April 21, 2014

 Brooklyn to Queens, but Not by Subway: Imagining a Streetcar Line Along the Waterfront
"Desire lines, says architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, are marked by economic development and evolving travel patterns. He plots today's desire line along the waterfronts of Brooklyn and Queens..."
The New York Times, April 20, 2014

Whale found dead in New York Harbor brought to shore
"A fin whale that was found dead in New York Harbor was transported to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers facility at Caven Point Marine Terminal in Jersey City where marine veterinarians performed a necropsy to find out the cause of death, on April 16, 2014..."
New Jersey Journal, April 16, 2014
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Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance | 212-935-9831 | [email protected] | http://www.waterfrontalliance.org
241 Water Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10038

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