NYCkayaker boathouses on the Hudson river in NYC

[Erik Baard]

Hi All,

The trick of ballancing private storage and public programs has vexed
many a great kayaking brain. Drives some to repetitive rolling.

The LIC Community Boathouse doesn't have a structural way of handling
both, and we don't want to get into the business of strict kayak
storage. To preserve public seats, it makes sense for very frequent trip
leaders to stow boats here, and so we allow that. Then some others have
valuable skills that could benefit the organization through land-side
volunteering (publications, marketing, bookkeeping, fundraising, art,
etc) and sometimes a swap makes sense. 

Ah, but then it get gray and you get freeloaders if you so much as
blink. We have one or two now, and I recall that the Downtown Boathouse
had a few private boats gathering dust for years and years, irking the
leaders of that pioneering group.

The solution that might work best has developed through difficult
circumstance on Pier 40, and might take hold by design on Anable Basin
in LIC: side-by-side public programming and private storage, operated
separately. Ideally they would use the same dock. 

The public would benefit most of volunteer guides and basic safety
instructors would trickle down from the private circle. But even short
of that formal help, the public boaters would learn from asking
experienced paddlers questions and through observation in the embayment
(and listening in on veteran paddler chatter).

The private outfitter benefits from novices (aka the new market) seeing
the next rung of the ladder right before them. They come, learn, fall in
love with paddling, and then get more ambitious. A private outfitter on
site scoops up equipment sales and storage rentals.

Anyway, that's the hope we have in LIC and invite outfitters down to
check out our digs across from the UN!

But regardless, I think there's a compelling reason to have free
kayaking programs on the waterfront. As one sometimes-wise friend, Jerry
Blackstone, remarked last night, "Where did you learn baseball? In
school or in the neighborhood, because adults taught you for free!" 

In short, what we're doing as volunteers is not exotic at all. We are
simply transfering that traditional community decency to our region's
greatest recreational and ecological resource, the waterways.

Only a small percentage of people pursue any particular activity past an
introductory level, so by far the greatest demand will always be the
goofy little paddle play we offer in our embayments and coves. But let's
work together to also reserve space for the private outfitters who build
our skill levels (aka safety culture) and allow individuals to perfect
their mastery of paddling, which is a beauty for us all to behold.

Warm regards,

Erik

PS: I still think we should have a Harborwide Association of Rowers and
Paddlers (HARP). Even a harp seal mascot, like the one that visited Pier
26 a few years back. C'mon! Please? :)






> 
> mike, as i tried to point out, the dtbh was the sole respodent to the very
> public rfp put out by hudson river park for the boathouse they operate at
> pier 96 at 56th street.  i'm not sure how you see this as translating to a
> monopoly.
> 
> neither the dtbh nor floating the apple provides private boat storage.
 the
> park dictates what type of activities are acceptable at public boathouses
> built on public land with public funds, and they insist, for good reason,
> that these facilities are open to the public for a certain number of hours
> during certain times of year free or at a very low cost.  so in effect the
> dtbh does provide public kayak storage--for kayaks to be used by the
public,
> for free.
> 
> it seems that there is often confusion on this list about public storage
> versus private storage of kayaks.  private storage is when you, as a kayak
> owner, rent a spot for your personal kayak (which is not used by the
> public), sort of like renting a parking spot for your car.  public storage
> would be storage of kayaks used by the public on public land or in public
> facilities, much as there are public tennis courts and parks which can be
> used by the public.  i doubt anyone wonders why they cant park their
private
> cars in central park or build a private storage shed on NYCs public tennis
> courts or ball fields.  i cant fathom why anyone would expect (or want) a
> public park to encourage use of its space for private kayak (or any other)
> storage.
> 
> that said, hudson river park will consider a response to the rfp for
one of
> the new boathouses which includes private kayak storage as part of a
> proposal for the operating and programming of the public boathouse,
provided
> that the proposal  satisfies the public use elements as well.
> 
> if it is storage rather than monopolies which you are most concerned
about,
> there is currently a group of independent kayakers working to ensure
that we
> maintain adequate private kayak storage in hudson river park, particularly
> at the pier 63 maritime barge when it relocates to pier 66a next
season.  we
> stand to lose approximately 70 private kayak slots if the DEC permits
issued
> to the barge's owner are not ammended.
> ithis effort has been mentioned on this and several other lists.  at at
> least 2 recent park and community board meetings there was a great showing
> of paddlers who were willing to take their time to come out in support of
> such storage and show the strength of the numbers in the paddling
community.
> 
> this loose affiliation of independent kayakers (some who need the storage
> and some who just support the cause) welcomes anyone with ideas and energy
> to work for this common goal.
> a yahoo group called HRPAccess has been set up for anyone interested in
> helping.
> 
> there are other groups working toward getting public launches and
boathouses
> set up eventually on the east river in manhattan, in queens, brooklyn,
> staten island, hoboken, governor's island, on the harlem river, etc.  i'm
> sure that if you want to become involved in a constructive way you can
find
> more information online or i may be able to help point you in the
direction
> of a few  of these groups.
> 
> in the interim, as i mentioned, there is NYC parks dept-run kayak
storage at
> the 79th street boat basin, private storage at pier 40 at new york kayak
> company, and you might want to contact the inwood canoe club as well
to see
> what their policies are.
> 
> so there is storage on the hudson in nyc now, and if we want to keep
it and
> hopefully add more, we will have to work for it rather than bemoaning its
> lack and waiting for the kayak storage fairy to pay NYC a visit.
> 
> On 10/30/06, mike pidel <mpidel at optonline.net> wrote:
> >
> >  There can be a  problem with when one organization with a different
> > mission than other local paddlers monopolizes the available boathouses.
> >
> > D TBH does not offer public storage of kayaks.  Many paddlers want
public
> > storage of kayaks without having to volunteer their lives away.
> >
> > If there was more public storage of kayaks, there would be a larger
> > kayaking community. Many new and seasoned paddlers don't further their
> > involvement with kayaking due to no place to keep a kayak in Manhattan
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 

Erik Baard

LIC Community Boathouse
http://www.licboathouse.org

Nature Calendar
http://www.naturecalendar.org

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