NYCkayaker Monday's C.B. 1 waterfront committee meeting (Rob Buchanan)

[TomBrooklyn]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for attending the CB1 Waterfront Hearing and presenting them with some perceptive comments
and questions that address our water access interests, and for your well-worded report what
transpired.   

Regarding the City's reluctance to allow water access to pedestrians or human powered boaters, I
think one of reasons may be percieved or actual liability.   It current times, it seems people are
not held responsible for themselves.     Anyone who gets injured or killed performing some
activity, even if it obviously involves some risk, seems to be able to successfully litigate and
win large sums of money from whatever deep pockets are associated with the activity, even if
passively associated, and whether they expressly condoned the activity or not.  

A couple of years ago I went with some kayakers to Rockaway to do some beach surfing.   Surfing is
not allowed on most of Rockaway, I think partly so it won't interfere with swimmers.  We found a
large portion of the beach that was closed, so there would be no swimmers there, but we were
denied access by Park Rangers.    Why? 

I was recently in Sea Gate at the end of Coney Island.   I noticed that all the streets that dead
end at the water had large fences restricting access to it.   I asked a resident why.  He told me
that people could get hurt by the water and Sea Gate could be held responsible so they just
blocked the access. 

Regards,
TomBk

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> From: Rob Buchanan  28 Nov 2006 

> here's my summary of last night's community board #1 waterfront committee hearing: 

> ...the question of water access...the edc's scheme as it currently stands...in regard to the
beach under the brooklyn bridge, [William Kelly, EDC's Project Director] admitted that because of
"safety and strong currents" it "isn't something that we're looking at."
 
> "Does that mean you're not going to allow any access there?" I asked.
 
> "I don't know how else to say it," Kelly said, adding that the determination
had been made by the edc's assets management division.