
ORGS
NYC Government
NYS Government
US Government
Advocates
BIDs
Civics
Culture
Foundations
History
Labor
Public/Private
Think Tanks
BOROS
Bronx
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Queens
Staten Island
News Sites
Daily News
NY Times
Daily News
NY Post
Newsday
New York Sun
NYC Weeklies
Amsterdam News
City Limits Weekly
Crain's New York Business
Gay City News
New York Magazine
New York Observer
New Yorker, The
Time Out New York
Village Voice
Dailies, Weeklies, Monthlies, etc. »
Other-Language Press
NYC Blogs »
City Dumps Red Hook Pier Plan
Intrepid Air and Space Museum Reopens
City Scraps Private Marina
The city's plan to build a fancy marina for private yachts, with a hotel and entertainment complex, next to its Brooklyn cruise-ship terminal, is officially dead in the water. More than two years after the city's Economic Development Corp. announced plans to redevelop Pier 11 near the cruise terminal in Red Hook, the EDC has tossed out all proposals solicited from developers vying for the project.
Saving Jamaica Bay's Disappearing Marshes
Scientists and officials are working to protect a tarnished ecological gem before it fades forever
Working Waterfront Association
Downtown Boathouse
Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance
Pier Park & Playground Association
NYC Swim
Floating the Apple
New York City Community Sailing Association
Jamaica Bay / Bronx River and Other Water Newsletters from Treebranch
Preserving Jamaica Bay
Grading Beaches
Caring For Emerging Waterfront Parks
Staten Island Ferry Fare
by William Kornblum
Heartbeats in the Muck: A Dramatic Look at the History, sea Life and Environment of New York Harbor
by John Waldman
Manhattan Water-Bound
by Anne Buttenwieser
The Meadowlands
by Robert Sullivan
The Riverkeepers
by John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
A New Future For The Great Port
by Carter Craft
November 2003
Far from being the mere backdrop to nostalgic old movies, the port is not only alive, it recently crossed a number of new milestones.
In the summer, another 1,000 longshoreman were hired, the first time in more than three decades that the on-dock labor force grew. This is not for lack of work, given that globalization has been fueling tremendous growth in international trade for the last half-century. Instead, advances in technology such as the shift from break-bulk to containerization have made port commerce much less labor intensive: A handful of workers, one in a crane and a few working on-dock vehicles can do the work that hundreds did back in the 1950s. The port now employs more than 228,000 people region-wide, making it a close competitor to education and health care as a major employer in New York City.
This fall, the port announced a 14.3 percent increase in container volumes, those modular steel boxes that sit on a truck trailer and arrive stacked in piles of thousands aboard oceangoing cargo ships. While the increase in imports was more than 16 percent for the first half of the year, the increase in exports through the port nearly topped 10 percent. The value of goods moved through the port in the period was also impressive: at more than 42 billion dollars for six months, this amount surpasses the value of the tourism industry in New York City over an entire year. The port isn't resting on these laurels either. They are fast-tracking a number of dredging projects to ease the approach to the container terminals along the Kill Van Kull and Newark Bay.
Undoubtedly the greatest sea-change of 2003 was seen in the Port Authority's recent support of the cross-harbor freight tunnel. As reported in Crain's New York Business, Port Authority Executive Director Joe Seymour has decided that building the tunnel is critical to regional and national security. To a region that has added millions in population yet not created a new cross-harbor linkage in 40 years, it is increasingly obvious that more linkages across our region are critical if we are to continue to add to the competitive advantage in transportation that makes New York a great place to live, work, and yes, consume. The benefits of the tunnel would be many.
Ironically, there is no press release on the Port Authority Web site announcing this new willingness to embrace a massive public works project that they have staved off for more than 70 years. The agency's acceptance of the cross harbor freight tunnel, however mild, is in no small part due to the diligence and dedication of a small group within the city's Economic Development Corporation, who for years now have shepherded a cross-harbor freight study through the exploration of more than three dozen options to link New York and New Jersey across the water, including the tunnel. The draft environmental impact statement is expected in a matter of months.
Looking ahead, the city will need more than massive regional projects such as the freight tunnel; we need local infrastructure too. Another milestone passed quietly in November, when the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Operating Transit Authority cleared out all the buses from Pier 57 in Hudson River Park. With a "request for expressions of interest" now out on the streets, it is looking more and more like another waterfront transportation facility may be hacked up by golf clubs and squash rackets. With a big-box store headed for Erie Basin, the largest protected inlet within New York City, it looks more and more as if the city is turning a blind eye to freight movement just as New York State and the Port Authority are starting to catch on.
Carter Craft, an urban planner, is program director of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance.
Other Related Articles:
Preparing for the Great New York Earthquake (2008-09-29)
Counting Down to the Great Television Turnover (2008-02-26)
Auxiliary Police (2007-03-26)
Teen Court Days (2006-11-02)
Dredging In New York Harbor -- Economy vs. Environment? (2006-04-18)
New York's Port, Beyond Dubai (2006-03-13)
Terror, Not Terrorism (2006-03-03)
Protecting The Park In The Parkway (2006-02-14)
React to this article on our Waterfront Message Board.
Visit the complete Topic Archives
Sites of Interest from Collegester:
Online Casino |
Wireless broadband |
Place
Your Link Here!


