October 20, 2007: Vol. 30, No. 41
Past issues
The Paper in print
RSS feeds
Print edition (PDF)
Email Alerts- The current issue
- Neighborhood Map
- Bay Ridge
- Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
- Brooklyn Heights
- Downtown, DUMBO
- Carroll Gardens
- Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
- Fort Greene
- Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
- North Brooklyn
- Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
- Park Slope
- Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
- GO Brooklyn
- Brooklyn Cyclones
- Not Just Nets
- Police Blotter
- Perspective
- Parenting
- Politics
- Transit
- Podcasts
- The Brooklyn Bride
- Brooklyn Boom
- Classifieds
- Merchant news
- About The Paper
- RSS Feeds
-
City plan is ferry good in Williamsburg
The Brooklyn Paper
Similar stories
Print this story
digg
del.icio.usThe city is sifting through several proposals from ferry operators to shuttle commuters between Manhattan and at least three stops in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, an effort that the city hopes will reduce congestion on the roads and also on the overloaded G and L trains.
Last year, the city asked ferry companies for bids to provide year-round service to commuters who would rather avoid streets and subways.
“The Bloomberg Administration is committed to alternative methods of transportation, including additional ferry routes, to reduce traffic congestion in the city,” said EDC spokeswoman Janel Patterson. “We [solicited proposals] and got a good response.”
Water taxi companies are chomping at the bit to cash in on the population explosion in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, the city says. More than 27,500 new housing units will be developed by 2013 — all “within easy walking distance from existing or potential new ferry landing sites,” according to the document the city sent out to the ferry companies.
The year-round ferry service would make at least one round-trip every half hour during morning and evening rush hours, with less-frequent service during off-peak hours and on the weekends. Most of the cost would be borne by the private companies, but the city is offering some incentives, including building “ferry landings and related infrastructure,” according to the EDC request for proposals.
The city identified three locations in the area where new landings might be built: two in Greenpoint, one on Green Street and the other on Greenpoint Avenue; and another in North Williamsburg on the site of the planned Northside Piers development, which will include luxury housing along the waterfront between North Fourth and North Fifth streets.
There is an existing ferry station at the Schaefer Landing development a few blocks south of the Williamsburg Bridge. That ferry would be walking distance from the Domino Sugar Plant, where a developer is planning 2,200 units.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
Enter your comment below
By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:
You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.
