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Who Owns the "578 Miles" of Waterfront, and How Are They Being Used?


(April '01) The first official measurement of New York City's waterfront, so the story goes, took place during the Lindsay Administration. Mayor Lindsay was asked the extent of the city's shoreline, forcing staff members to take ruler and string to a city map. Absent scientific method and computerized mapping techniques, these 'experts' determined that 578 was the official number of miles.

That is a reasonably good metaphor for what could charitably be called the spontaneous approach that the city long has taken towards one of its most spectacular resources.

Back then, the city's waterfront was decaying and its waters were notoriously polluted. Today, the waters are cleaner, the shore more accessible, and water-related activities on the rise. A new focus on coastal issues has emerged. Knowing who uses and controls the "578" miles is more important than ever.

Surprisingly, as it turns out, city residents own the vast bulk of waterfront lots. Three-quarters of all shorefront parcels are zoned residential. This ranges from eighty-five percent in water-enveloped Queens to thirty-five percent in highway-girded Manhattan. Still, perhaps fifteen thousand residences are located on the city's shores.

Lot size and use varies. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of residences with private docks and boats in far-flung corners of Queens and the Bronx. There are large swaths of the city's coast covered by park. The waterfront, in other words, is not all industry or commerce. This is the discovery of a report on shoreline use and ownership by a group called Community Cartography prepared for the New York City Partnership.

There are 274 "park" parcels comprising one-third of all waterfront acreage in the city. While considerable in the aggregate, these park acres are distributed unevenly around the city's littoral. For example, more than ninety-seven percent of the 3652 acres of park waterfront in the Bronx is located in the Northern and Western Bronx. In the South Bronx, for eight waterfront miles, ringing perhaps a half-million residents, there is virtually no waterfront access. No other coastal strip in the city is so devoid of access.

There is discontinuity in Queens too. The National Park Service, through the Gateway National Recreation Area, administers a vast empire of bay and beach acreage around Jamaica Bay. Public access to much of this land is sharply limited. While some of these lands are wildlife refuge that must be protected, much of this waterfront is in effect locked up. Though motorized craft have the run of the waters, the park service limits and discourages launching of hand-powered craft. Meanwhile, under the park service aegis, waterfront communities such as Breezy Point have access to public lands that are virtually unavailable to the bulk of the public.

Old military bases and coastal strips in all five boroughs are in the hands of city, state and federal agencies. Unfortunately, these agencies move at a glacial pace when it comes to turning over and providing public access to places that they no long use, such as Fort Totten in Bayside, Manhattan's West Side waterfront, the Brooklyn piers, and Governors Island.

Waterfront lots zoned for manufacturing or commercial uses comprise about a third of citywide coastal acreage. These working waterfront parcels include airports, power generation facilities, petroleum storage depots, sewage treatment plants, and shipping companies from barge and tug operators to cruise ship lines. Commercial uses vary from a very few waterfront restaurants to a surprising number of private beach clubs and marinas to tourism, eel fishing and many, many, parking lots.

The report shows that twenty percent of all waterfront acreage is vacant or abandoned. That is more vacant acreage than the acreage of all the waterfront parks in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx combined.

Sounding Off

While it is obvious that vacant waterfront can not be moved to the places where most people live, the statistics tell a powerful story about who has access to this important part of urban quality of life. Most of New York City's vacant or abandoned waterfront land is public. Many undeveloped parcels and many slow-moving government waterfront projects are in the heavily populated parts of the boroughs. There is an imbalance and disconnect between the amount of city waterfront and the public's perceived access or practical access to it. Public policy should turn in the direction of immediately opening up the coasts.

As the weather warms, it should be noted that there are only fourteen miles of public beaches, barely more than two percent of the 578- mile shore.

Peter B. Fleischer, currently writing a book on the New York City waterfront, was formerly a transportation and environment policy advisor to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.

Ferries


Fifteen years ago, the Koch Administration, with a push from a private ferry operator, helped launch the modern era of private ferry services in New York harbor. Five years ago, the Giuliani Administration pushed hard to spur new private ferry services to Yankee Stadium. The city has substantially completed a multi-million dollar reconstruction of Pier 11. Pier 11 is the Wall Street hub for the harbor's private ferry operators. At present, there are four private operators and over 30,000 passenger trips a day.

Support, whether legal, administrative or infrastructural, for the activities of the private ferry companies has been a hallmark of the "private" ferry revival of recent years. In addition to New York City, the State of New York, the Port Authority and the State of New Jersey have partnered with these and other private ferry companies.

Into this public/private froth comes the Harbor Ferry Loop proposal. This idea, a vision from the non-profit Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, calls for a fleet of eight vessels, each with a capacity for 99 passengers, circling the upper harbor as a commuter service on weekdays and as a recreational/cultural loop on weekends. The loops would connect sixteen waterfront "commuter" stops and over twenty harborside cultural landmarks. Key transfer stops would include lower Manhattan, Exchange Place in New Jersey and St. George in Staten Island. These stops connect to mass transit hubs. The proposed one-way fare would be $1.50.

These loops highlight a truism held by waterfront advocates that at its heart the city is a maritime metropolis. The loops would allow New Yorkers, people from New Jersey and millions of visitors to discover hidden wonders of the region's shores beyond the crowded straight line that links the Battery to the Statue of Liberty. Many of the proposed stops should be major destination sites and would be if they were easier to get to. Such sites include Governor's Island, Fort Wadsworth, Liberty State Park and Fulton Landing. National Park Service sites outside these loops including Riis Park, Fort Tilden and Sandy Hook in New Jersey might one day also be connected by ferry.

These waterborne connections open the promise of linking local residents to a city much larger than they now know. In the same way that the subway, a century ago, linked a newly consolidated city to its distant parts, ferries at the millennium can unite the metropolis with its far-flung maritime extensions.

Of course, these visions require money. The proposal of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance assumes outside assistance of about $20 million to finance the vessels and build the landings. It also assumes an operating subsidy to augment the proposed fare. Unlike most other ferry proposals where private companies sought limited public assistance, the Alliance's plan has no private capital at this stage.

Sounding Off

At present, the city and the region subsidize many transportation services. From the heavily subsidized PATH trip to the barely subsidized subway trip to the lavishly subsidized commuter express bus trip and the free Staten Island ferry trip, New York, New Jersey and the Port Authority frequently contribute both operating and capital funds.

While subsidies sometimes do go toward bottomless pits, they can also be used to stimulate market creation or serve as catalysts for development. Successful efforts may depend on the exact mix of public assistance and private interest. In the Yankee Stadium service, the private operator provided the boats and took the economic risk. The city and state provided access and paid for many physical improvements.

If the Harbor Loop is built will they come? A market study is needed. Who would use such a service? How often? At what price? Will they use it in the winter? Will they overuse it in the summer? Are loops the way to go?

Private investment will likely follow a firm belief in a significant market of future users. The Visitor's Bureau, the Port Authority or the ferry industry should fund the study. If the right questions are asked, the harbor's potential for recreation, culture, transport and commerce will match a considerable untapped market demand.

Peter B. Fleischer, currently writing a book on the New York City waterfront, was formerly a transportation and environment policy advisor to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.

Turbine Turmoil


The New York Power Authority's plan to install 10 temporary, gas turbine generators around the city in preparation for next summer's predicted energy frenzy has been met with resistance by environmental justice activists in Brooklyn and business leaders in Queens. The activists point out that the generators, which pour smog-causing nitrogen oxide into the air, are, as usual, being placed in low income and minority communities: two on 23rd St. and 3rd Ave. and one on River Street. Silvercup Studios, producers of HBO moneymakers "Sex in the City" and "The Sopranos", has said it would abandon plans to build studios on its acreage along the East River in Long Island City because of its proximity to two of the proposed generators.

But the Power Authority's plan limits the generators' capacity to 79.9 megawatts, falling - not coincidentally - just shy of 80 megawatts, the threshhold at which facilities undergo a siting process that includes a comprehensive environmental review and funding for groups that want to challenge the placement. While Silvercup Studios may be able to throw its financial interest into the fray and have the generators located elsewhere, the agency is nonetheless sneaking its agenda through the system, leaving neighborhood and environmental concerns without a forum.

At least a few of the temporary generators will employ General Electric's turbine technology. As reported in Newsday, GE is funding a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign aimed at undercutting a federal program that places strict pollution controls on new power plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has already issued draft guidance and a background paper that suggests power plants that install specific turbine technology - like GE's - might not need to include emission controls that can cut nitrogen oxide and other pollutants by as much as 90 percent.

The Power Authority intends to use the temporary generators for two years, at which point private energy companies looking to break into the city's deregulated energy market will begin to supply power from new and rebuilt plants around the city. Several of those new plants - including a 500 megawatt unit at the Poletti facility in Astoria and a 750 megawatt facility in Riverhead - will employ GE's turbine technology. If GE is successful, those plants will be free to spew forth their pollutants into the city's already destitute air. Their cost-cutting will cost New Yorkers plenty.

Michael Burger is a freelance writer and native New Yorker. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, The Earth Times, Terrain, Artbyte, and other magazines."



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