By Helen Klein
May 8, 2008
[Source: CourierLife Publications]
Ferry service is coming back to the Brooklyn Army Terminal.The service will be restored May 12th, as a stop on the new Rockaways to Manhattan route that the city is subsidizing as part of its five-borough ferry initiative announced earlier this year.Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine […]
[Source: Gotham Gazette]
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn endorsed the creation of a citywide ferry service and an expansion of a small business insurance program in her State of the City address last week. Now advocates and stakeholders are weighing in, and - for the most part - appear to be praising the proposals.
Last week, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced her support for a five-borough, year-round ferry system that Mayor Bloomberg and the city Department of Transportation are developing. Such a proposal may seem like a pipe dream to many New Yorkers, who have seen ferry service remain fairly stagnant, either from a shortage of funding or an apparent lack of demand.
[Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
BAY RIDGE — State Senator Marty Golden held an appreciation dinner on Jan. 31 at the Bay Ridge Manor to honor all those who volunteered for his events and initiatives this year, including the Halloween Art Walk, the Easter Egg Hunt and summer concert series.
Of course, the other man behind all these popular celebrations is Chip Cafiero, Golden’s longtime friend and event coordinator.
[…]
Many high school groups were also honored — Adelphi Academy, Fontbonne Hall, Fort Hamilton, Xaverian and Brooklyn Tech among them — as well as such community volunteer groups such as […] the Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance.
[Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
Supporters Hope to Restore Service, Say ‘Ferries Are the Wave of the Future’
By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
SUNSET PARK — Wave goodbye for awhile to the ferry service between the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park and Wall Street. And say hello to more cars congesting the roads and more riders on cramped subways and express buses.
That’s what faced water taxi commuters on Friday, the first ferry-less day of N.Y. Water Taxi-TFWM Ferry’s service from the 58th Street Public Pier. The service, the owners said regretfully, can no longer be funded.
As the sun set on Thursday over New York Harbor, the last commuter ferry service in Southwest Brooklyn came to a halt, ferry operators said — until further notice, or maybe at least until later this spring. Commuters of what they called “the ferry family” lamented the loss, as ferry travel advocates and owners expressed both outrage for now and hope for the future at a morning rally and on the last Manhattan-Brooklyn run.
[Source: Right In Bay Ridge]
Kevin Walsh’s venerable Forgotten-NY website has once again returned home to Bay Ridge for a very visual presentation of our neighborhood - and especially Shore Road.
[Source: The Brooklyn Paper]
We’ve looked (not so) fondly back on 2007, so now it’s time to look ahead to the people, places and things that will be making news in 2008. Here’s our report, ranked, David Letterman Top Ten style, in order of excitement:
80. The Park Slope Armory, Park Slope: Work to turn this sprawling complex into a recreation center is almost completed — but the city still hasn’t found anyone to run the place.
79. The 69th Street ferry, Bay Ridge: It will only take 22 minutes to get to Manhattan if this grassroots project started by Heather McGowan ever sets sail.
[Source: Times Ledger]
Although politicians may not always be able to walk on water, two city councilmen are trying to increase funding so you can commute on it.
Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside) and Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) called on the city to increase funding for and awareness of the New York City Water Taxi service that runs between Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens at a news conference Saturday in Williamsburg.
[…]
The Sunset Ridge Waterfront Alliance, a Brooklyn-based advocate group, praised Gioia and Yassky for taking the initiative. The group said government subsidies would not only lower the $5 one-way fare for the water taxis, it would save the city millions in eased congestion.
“The taxis are greener for the city, because they get people off the roads and on the water. This initiative has bipartisan support,” said Heather McGown, the founder of the alliance.
[Source: Bay Ridge Rover]
Sunset Park’s ferry service from Brooklyn Army Terminal is in danger of being sunk due to dwindling ridership, according to this week’s Brooklyn Eagle.
As it would turn out however, the answer to Sunset Park’s troubled ferry program may very well be in Bay Ridge’s future transportation solution.
Heather McCowen, the Bay Ridge resident turned activist and founder of Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance, who became a key figure in reviving the campaign to restore ferry service to Bay Ridge’s 69th street Pier virtually overnight, may, in the process, also be responsible for saving Sunset Park’s own endangered ferry - something that’s been a key piece of Community Board 7’s longterm waterfront revitalization plan from the get-go.
[Source: RightInBayRidge]
The Sunset Ridge Waterfront Alliance has launched a website dedicated to their grassroots effort to bring back ferry service to the 69th Street Veterans Memorial Pier.
As the Brooklyn Paper reports, the group, led by local activist Heather McCown, has been very busy as of late.
[Source: The Brooklyn Paper]
The prospects for a ferry from the 69th Street pier to the Financial District are in a holding pattern, but it was full-speed-ahead on Tuesday as proponents of the service invited passengers on board for a successful dry-run.
Organized by local activists Heather McCown, Adam Wasserman, and Peter Killen, the 20-minute ride from Bay Ridge to Lower Manhattan went off without a hitch.
