Riders will have to walk more than one mile from the ferry dock to the
amusement district. Google
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COURIER LIFE, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2020 3
BY ROSE ADAMS
The hotly-contested Coney
Island ferry is slated to land at
the Kaiser Park pier near Bayview
Avenue, city offi cials announced.
Reps for the NYC Economic
Development Corporation —
the quasi-government agency
overseeing the project — stated
that offi cials “strongly recommended”
the Kaiser Park location
at a community meeting
Feb. 12, citing the area’s
calm waters and existing pier,
which is expected to help mitigate
construction costs.
“Because of the depths of
the water, in order to make the
W. 33rd Street site work, we
would’ve had to build a very
long pier and a barge that’s
more exposed,” said James
Wong at the community board
meeting last week.
The meeting follows a Brooklyn
Paper report foreshadowing
the Kaiser Park announcement
in July, when a construction
worker from Skanska leaked
that EDC has settled on the
pier location rather than a W.
33 Street site two blocks away.
EDC offi cials denied the claim
at the time, saying that they
were still studying both locations
and had not given a contract
to Skanska.
The EDC spokesman on
Wednesday confi rmed that
Skanska was selected as the
city’s contractor for the ferry
project.
The ferry line, which will
stop at Bay Ridge before heading
to lower Manhattan, is
part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
plan to dramatically expand
the ferry service to transit
starved neighborhoods
throughout the city. Travelers
will pay $2.75 per ride and
are allowed one transfer —
but each ticket will require a
nearly $10 subsidy from the
city, EDC offi cials confi rmed
on Wednesday. Previous studies
have pegged subsidies at
nearly $25 per ride.
Many Coney Islanders have
advocated for the new ferry
line, but strongly oppose placing
the ferry terminal in Kaiser
Park, arguing that the
landing’s construction will
stir up dangerous levels of
mercury, lead, and pesticides
in the creek, potentially harming
locals who fi sh and swim
in the area.
“I can’t for the life of me understand
why you don’t have a
fund in place to protect us all
when we get sick,” Sea Gate
resident Annette Fisher told
EDC. “I want you to go stand in
the water and get back to me.”
EDC reps said they would
use environmental buckets
and silt fences to contain contamination
while dredging, but
environmentalist Ida Sanoff
claimed that similar tactics
have failed in the past.
“Assemblyman Colton and
his staff witnessed dredging
accidents that occurred during
construction of the SW Marine
Transfer Station,” she said.
“These included toxic sediments
being dumped out of the
so called ‘safe’ environmental
bucket and other dredge related
problems.”
Others attendees objected
to the fact that the landing will
drop tourists off more than
one mile away from the amusement
district, causing traffi c
and crowding the serene park
used for fi shing and religious
ceremonies.
Representatives have
claimed they have no choice
but to build along the creek,
since building a landing on the
peninsula’s ocean side would
require more ocean-ready ferries
and millions more dollars
in infrastructure. As is, the
construction will cost about $7
million, and the ferry is slated
to be up and running by the
end of 2021, EDC reps said.
To reduce traffi c and increase
accessibility, Councilman
Mark Treyger assured
residents that he would request
funding for a free public shuttle
between the amusement
district and the ferry stop.
Ship’s creek
Coney’s ferry terminal slated for Kaiser Park pier
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