Possible Changes to our District and Ports

The Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association has shared two pieces of news about our neighborhood's future. 


There are concerns about a proposal to split up the Columbia Waterfront District on the State Assembly map, giving us two different Assemblymembers and splitting our votes. Read here for the whole story: 
http://cowna.blogspot.com/2012/01/redistricting-blues.html

You may have heard that American Stevedoring is no longer the operator at the container port. Council member Brad Lander has organized a meeting to update the neighborhood on these developments and, hopefully, help us understand what the future may hold.


Date: 9 February 2012
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Postgraduate Center, 177 Columbia Street


Learn more on the COWNA blog:
http://cowna.blogspot.com/2012/01/brad-lander-to-present-overview-of-port.html

Port Authority Failure

Thanks to Brad Kerr of the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association for keeping us up to date on the port pollution issue. The Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports has posted this damning report on the Port Authority's failure to spend the 33 million appropriated to their clean truck program. Here's the full article.

http://www.cleanandsafeports.org/2011/08/the-price-tag-for-the-port-authority%E2%80%99s-clean-truck-boondoggle/

“Replacing 11 trucks out of a fleet of more than 7,000 does nothing to reduce diesel pollution, eliminate childhood asthma, prevent heart disease and clean the air in New York and New Jersey and it certainly didn’t create any jobs for our residents – instead it created more hardships for the drivers who are already overburdened by debt and low wages. This is an environmental injustice for both the drivers and community residents impacted by port pollution every day.” - Ana Baptista with the Ironbound Community Corporation in Newark

Amen to that.

After everything thats happened, now the container port might move???

This past Tuesday, Brooklyn's Chamber of Commerce and Sovereign Bank sponsored an Economic Outlook Breakfast featuring a number of speakers, including Chris Ward, Executive Director of the Port Authority, who in his speech talked about the idea of moving our local container port entirely to Sunset Park near 39th Street.

Among his reasons for this were the Brooklyn Bridge Park development, the need for the Brooklyn waterfront to be integrated with planning for Governor's Island, the changing face of Red Hook, the larger industrial buffer of Sunset Park (as opposed to the residential area near the local site here), and the Cruise Ship Terminal.

While all of this makes sense in many ways, what doesn't make sense is that this announcement comes less than a year after the Port Authority signed a 10 year lease with American Stevedoring, the company that operates the container port.

Back to the drawing board? Does this mean that the EDC should wait to ink its deal with Phoenix Beverages for Pier 11, if Pier 7 may be back up for grabs? The fate of our waterfront has so many ups and downs....

Stay tuned for this ongoing saga and check out more details from Chris Ward's speech and the other speakers of the breakfast at Brooklyn Paper and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
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Speaking of the Port Authority, they also made news this week with plans of making the Cruise Ship Terminal more environmentally friendly by trying to find a way for cruise ships to get electricity from the land grid while parked at the terminal, rather than idling with their less efficient and much dirtier diesel generators. Read more about that here.

Birthday party on the waterfront

Yesterday, for the 70th birthday of the Mary Whalen tanker, PortSide NY docked the ship along with two others at Pier 11. This event marked the first time that Pier 11 was open to the public and gave us a glimpse of what it would be like to be able to have access to the waterfront, paired with cultural and educational activities.

In addition to pier access, people were actually able to take tours of the Mary Whalen, enjoy birthday cake and coffee, and learn more about the work that PortSide does.

I must say, I'm quite excited to learn more about their planned community sailing program, as well as the interesting art and youth events that they do.

Check out their website to learn more about their great work or volunteer:
PortSide New York

Thanks to PortSide for such a great event. Keep up the good work! Also, thanks to the EDC for allowing the use of Pier 11.

PS - I wanted to take pictures inside the ship, but it was crowded and i had a 2 year old in my hand. Anybody have some good ones?

What's that big ship???

Walking along Columbia St. towards Atlantic Avenue today, my wife and I had to stop and look at the huge ship docked at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal - especially when we realized it was French.

Thanks to BrooklynHeightsBlog, we have a little more information on it as well as a great picture:

Apparently its called the Gaspard Monge and its a Missle Tracking Ship.

Looking forward (and West) at the potential future of our ports

Do you ever walk along Columbia St. or Van Brunt and wonder what's going on at the Marine Terminal? If not, the fact that this area is historically a port neighborhood or that American Stevedoring will remain active there for at least another 10 years should make you wonder. We should also think about the future of that industry in the area - including economic development, environmental impacts, the labor force that is employed there, etc. - given that they will be here for those 10 years and possibly beyond.

Today, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy provided some insight into these topics at an event they held with the Sean Arian, Director of Economic Development for Los Angles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in which he discussed LA's recent initiatives to clean up the Port of Los Angeles and improve the pay and treatment of the truck drivers who service the port. Following Mr. Arian's speech was a disccusion with local advocates for a variety of stakeholders effected by the Ports in the area, including U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, New York and New Jersey Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward, environmental justice advocate Kim Thompson-Gaddy and President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joint Council 16 Gary La Barbera.

Live blogging of the event, which is quite interesting, can be found here.

In addition, some video highlights can be found below:
Sean Arian on why ports cannot be sustained by a broken Third World labor model
Chris Ward on why the LA model of port reform is the right model for NY and NJ ports
Rep. Jerrold Nadler on how smarter land use could create middle-class manufacturing jobs

Kim Thompson-Gaddy on why New Jersey needs real port reform now, not later

Even though some of the discussion is about LA and New Jersey, the issues involved are also very much applicaple here is we are right next to our local port.