NYCkayaker boathouses on the Hudson river in NYC

[mike pidel]

The church of the downtown boathouse always brings up these arguments.
There are other churches out there.

In fact with the current method of boat storage at the DTBH is very
exclusionary to the public, only certain people are allowed to store
their boats there.

If they truly believed in what is posted, there would be no private
boats in the DTBH. Very few paddlers have the amount of time to set
aside to do the volunteer work that is required. 

In NYC parks there are private restaurants, concessions, softball fields
with a hierarchy of fee's to third party operators.

79 th street marina is a subsided large vessel storage facility, the
chelsa piers was sold at below market rate, I believe it was supposed to
have public access to the water.

 They are Dog runs, skateboards parks,  private trapeze schools in the
park.   The tennis courts at central park have locker rooms with private
storage available. The model boat house in central park has storage for
the private model boats.

Every free on street parking space is subsided public space.  I wouldn't
doubt the 79th street marina has subsided indoor parking for the power
boat owners.

I am hoping the the pier 66 facility turns out with a storage facility
for the people that just want to paddle.

My concern was that if the DTBH is denied their original downtown
location, they may try to compete for the pier 66 location.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: nyckayaker-bounces at rockandwater.net
[mailto:nyckayaker-bounces at rockandwater.net] On Behalf Of Nancy Brous
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 12:02 PM
To: nyckayaker at rockandwater.net
Subject: NYCkayaker boathouses on the hudson river in NYC

 

mike, i assume that you refer to the downtown boathouse in the below
post?

i would like to provide a little background information which might
broaden your perspective on boathouses on the hudson in NYC.

hudson river park, the subject of this article, occupies just about 6
miles of the hudson river waterfront in nyc (roughly from the top of
rockefeller park to 59th street).  that is hardly the whole of NYC's
hudson waterfront.  there is a NYC Parks Department-run human-powered
boating launch and storage facility at 79th street, and a canoe club at
inwood. 

the hudson river park act provided for the construction of 4 new public
boathouses to be built on this public land with public funds at piers
26, 66, 84, and 96.
right now 2 of the boathouses are complete:  piers 96 and 84.  (84 is
yet to open for use). 

almost 2 years ago a request for proposals (rfp) was issued for the
operation of the first boathouse to come online, at pier 96.  this is an
open and fairly transparent process.  i personally posted the
information here and on many other lists around the country, as did many
other members of the park's advisory council, park officials, and
concerned members of the public.  anyone was welcome to submit a
proposal. 
only the downtown boathouse submitted a proposal for operation of that
facility.  they now operate that facility.

the next boathouse to open will be at 44th street. it will be operated
by Floating the Apple.  there was no rfp process for this facility.
this organization was chosen by the hudson river park trust in a closed
process. 

another rfp will be released in the next few weeks for an operator for
the next boathouse to be completed, at pier 66 (26th street).  again,
this will be open to anyone who chooses to make a proposal for its
operation. 
when that rfp comes out i will post the info here and elsewhere.
the operation of the new pier 26 boathouse was to be determined  through
an rfp process as well, but if this article is correct, that process may
now be indefinitely delayed. 

while jim wetteroth's being interviewed for this article may appear to
suggest that he expects his organization to eventually operate that
boathouse, if you read carefully, he is quoted at least in part because
he was at the CB1 waterfront committee meeting.  the interviewer's
description of the dtbh programs is actually a bit out of context, in my
opinion.  

as mr. wetteroth has operated a public boating facility in the area for
nearly 20 years, his comments provide useful insight into the current
financial issues facing the new boathouse for any operator, not just the
dtbh program.  while the new boathouse at pier 96 is quite nice (running
water and heat in the winter, as mentioned) a facility for seasonal
boating use could certainly function quite well without such "luxuries"
if it meant the difference between a fully appointed facility and no
facility at all. 

there are many individuals and organizations (including but certainly
not limited to the dtbh) throughout this city and general area who work
tirelessly to ensure the future of human-powered boating and free public
water-access for this entire community. 
and we are a community, not a series of competing factions out to
monopolize the boathouses and the waterfront.

i encourage everyone on this list to keep an eye out for the rfp when it
is released, to make proposals for its operation, to use their energies
constructively, and to generally act like the community of people with a
common goal that we are, or should be. 

nancy brous
metropolitan region director
HRWA


<<

Today's Topics: 

   1.  Tribeca's boathouse on Hudson Park's chopping block (mike pidel)


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Message: 1
Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:51:13 -0400
From: mike pidel <mpidel at optonline.net>
Subject: NYCkayaker Tribeca's boathouse on Hudson Park's chopping
        block
To: nyckayaker at rockandwater.net
Message-ID: <00e101c6faca$6e4596f0$0200a8c0 at e510>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"



Why does one  organization try and monopolize all the boathouses on the 
Hudson?



http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_181/tribecasboathuseonhudson.html

 

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