Heather McCown, the founder of the recent movement to restore ferry service to Bay Ridge and the founder and executive director of the Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance, has now taken steps to prove the community’s support for a restoration of reliable ferry service to South Brooklyn.

The SRWA has launched an online survey to collect data that will calculate demand for ferry service at the Veteran’s Memorial Pier at 69th Street in Bay Ridge.

Please support this initiative and take about 10 minutes to complete the survey!

In 2006, a petition of over 2,000 signatures was delivered to Mayor Michael Bloomberg in support of reinstatement of the ferry service. Since this time, there has been an increase in local interest in reinstating service, but there is currently no data to examine the needs of the community.

Ms. McCown in a SRWA press release:

“Data is more powerful than just signatures. Our hope is that this survey will quantify the need for ferry service, and allow the voices of our community to be heard.” This ferry survey will also look at the need for the proper landing equipment at the pier for other water-borne activities besides ferry service, such as; kayaking, canoeing, and the need for an emergency landing as stated by the New York City Office of Emergency Management mandates.

A statement from Councilman Vincent Gentile:

“Last fall, a major non-profit regional planning organization highlighted high-speed ferry service in Bay Ridge as one of the best ways to make up for our neighborhood’s poor transit options,” Councilman Gentile said. [...] “Hopefully the results of this survey will give the city the push it needs to get this project started.”

Help the SRWA, take 10 minutes to fill out this important survey!

Ahead on the schedule for SRWA:

• VIP Night (drinks and hors d’oeurves followed by a screening of City of Water), on March 31st
• the second annual Greening The Ridge Sunday, June 14th
• the SRWA Green Youth Award, a contest for youth-run green projects to be awarded at Greening the Ridge 2009.

You are welcome to participate in all of these upcoming events. For more information, go to srwalliance.org.

NYCEDC Says ‘No Ferries’ To Underserved Bay Ridge

Ben Muessig at The Brooklyn Paper brings us news that the NYCEDC has once again chosen to deny the underserved areas of NYC’s transportation system, like Bay Ridge.

The irony is that everyone is in favor of expanded ferry service. The entire Bay Ridge community — led by Ridgite Heather McCown and the Sunset Ridge Waterfront Alliance — has been asking for it. The Mayor wants it. Speaker Quinn wants it. Area pols want it — Councilmembers Gentile and Yassky released half a million dollars for it almost five years ago.

Worst of all, the NYCEDC wants it!

Maritime/Transportation Policy is responsible for creating and implementing policies concerning the private ferry services in New York City and coordinates with NYCDOT, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and private ferry companies to develop new and expanded ferry service.

The same EDC that spent $60 million for the Battery Maritime Building and $158 million for the Whitehall Ferry Terminal — both of which are in Manhattan, incidentally — and over $1 million in subsidies for service to the Brooklyn Army Terminal, still refuses to float the ferries to Bay Ridge.

The EDC said that it was more “economical” to buy a ferry launch for $500,000 and use it to replace the one at BAT that needed work. Yet service at BAT was in full effect after the N.Y. Water Taxi received their million dollar subsidy as recently as May 2008. How much work did the launch need, and why was replacing it more important than expanding the ferry to a totally un-served location?

While those are questions that should be answered by the EDC, the rejection of the ferry launch for Bay Ridge amounts to another in a long line of rejections for the 69th Street Pier — a place that historically had ferry service going back to the 1800s.

But more importantly, Bay Ridge needs alternative transportation options. A large amount of the people who live there are workers whose daily commute into Manhattan would take an hour or more by bus or subway. Many of them drive to, and from, Manhattan every day.

The map on the left clearly shows two major hotspots where the proportion of drivers is at the maximum level (the white spots encircled by a red oval). One hotspot is located in Fort Hamilton and the other (towards the north) is Bay Ridge. These are the two neighborhoods that would be most directly served by a ferry line that stopped at Brooklyn Army Terminal, 69th Street Pier, and again further along the South Brooklyn waterfront. The ferry would get these vehicular commuters to lower Manhattan in 20 minutes, while taking their cars off the road.

If an integral part of EDC’s mission is to increase transportation efficiency in NYC, they need to address this situation as soon as possible. The EDC and their planning department have the critically important task of making our city more livable and sustainable by solving our transportation nightmare. By extending the ferry line further south, you are taking an easy step towards improving the overall system. Add in a bunch of BRT (bus rapid transit) and you’d really be talking.

Please contact these key people at the EDC and remind them that addressing the transportation needs of Bay Ridge and South Brooklyn will be good for the economic development of the city.

Ferries Contacts @ NYCEDC:

Michael Taylor
Senior Project Manager
212-618-5740
mtaylor@nycedc.com

Venetia Lannon
SVP, Maritime
vlannon@nycedc.com
(212) 312-4229

Alyssa Cobb
SVP, Development
akonon@nycedc.com
(212) 312-3890

Tom McKnight
SVP, Development
tmcknight@nycedc.com
(212) 312-3747

The basic math:

Less cars = Less traffic = Better economy + better health + better environment

Did I mention that I love maps?

Here are two new killer interactive maps:

Habitatmap

By now most of us know about the horrendous 17 million gallon oil spill at Newtown Creek and some about the past industrial history of the creek.

Now, Habitatmap launches an interactive map to map and monitor industry at the heavily polluted waterway and promote the greening of surrounding neighborhoods.

As the largest industrially zoned area in the City, the Newtown Creek neighborhoods host the dirty facilities the rest of the City is dependent upon but would rather not see. However, they also harbor a tremendous history and incredible cultural diversity. I founded Habitatmap in an effort cleanup the former and promote the latter.

Ride The City

Ever wonder how to get from Point A to Point B on your bike in NYC? The brilliant Ride The City interactive map now allows you to do just that.

Just like MapQuest, Google, Microsoft, and other mapping programs, Ride the City finds the shortest distance between two points. But there are two major differences. First, RTC excludes roads that aren’t meant for biking, like the BQE and the Queens Midtown tunnel. Second, RTC tries to locate routes that maximize the use of bike lanes and greenways.

Read on for the full post……………

Some good green times at SRWA’s Greening The Ridge green fest on the pier last weekend.

Some really great Brooklyn green orgs were there: Transportation Alternatives, CUE, Bettencourt Green Building Supplies, Green Spa NY, Narrows Botanical Garden, Department of Sanitation (got some cool recycling stuff from them), and lots more.

The buzz was great and it was the kind of event that as you got closer to the pier, you could feel the positive energy. It was a great vibe, and it has the potential to become a bigger and bigger annual green event in Brooklyn.

The band was Pill Hill Radio, they totally rocked great tunes the whole time. The guitarist coined a phrase that I thought was so cool I added it to the rotating quotes at the top of the website: “Keep it green if you know what I mean.”

Plus fishing from the pier! The one that didn’t get away.

And a stroll through Narrows Botanical Garden.

Check out the full post for a bunch more photos. And yes, that guy did land that huge fish. Read on for the whole story….