Scoffi ng the Brooklyn Ferry
Locals fear Fulton Ferry Landing crowding with new ferry stop, oyster bar
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Locals are worried about potential
overcrowding at the Fulton
Ferry Landing in Brooklyn
Bridge Park, as the beloved pier
gears up to host a new ferry stop
and an oyster bar.
“It’s commercialization of a
once quiet, refl ective usage of
that space,” said Bill Stein of the
civic group Fulton Ferry Landing
Association. “This was public
space intended for somewhat
quiet use and that is now gone
by the wayside.”
The dock at the foot of Old
Fulton Street was the site of
the original Brooklyn Ferry,
which fi rst set sail across the
East River to Manhattan in
1642, and was refurbished into
a cherished open space with extraordinary
views of the Brooklyn
Bridge and the Big Apple in
1997.
But now, area preservationists
and neighborhood activists
have raised concerns that the
the arrival of a new seasonal
oyster bar and the relocation
of a city ferry stop to the pier —
which up until recently docked
at the nearby Pier 1 — will leave
little space for folks who aren’t
spending money on food or
waiting on line for a boat.
COURIER L 12 IFE, APRIL 16-22, 2021
“All you have is concessions
and gone is what made the pier
special,” said Doreen Gallo of
the Dumbo Neighborhood Alliance.
The city’s business-boosting
Economic Development Corporation,
which runs the ferry,
closed their Pier 1 stop on April
5, and they plan to reopen a
new and improved berth at the
Fulton Ferry Landing by mid-
June.
The $4.7 million overhaul
will include more wheelchairfriendly
access to the boats and
the new slips will make it easier
for boats to dock amid East
River currents, according to an
April 5 EDC presentation to local
community members.
The agency plans to organize
queues for three different
ferry routes at the west end of
the pier, which Stein said would
block access to the custom-designed
railings lined with Walt
Whitman’s famous “Crossing
Brooklyn Ferry,” and bronze
reliefs in the deck depicting historic
scenes, such as local Native
American settlements and
the original sailboat crossings.
“If you take a look at the potential
for how many people
will be snaked back in the lines
and the oyster bar, the usage of
the pier will be changed dramatically,”
he said. “The architectural
designers built it as a
place where people would just
walk to and take in the views.”
The roughly 14,000 squarefoot
pier — about the size of
three basketball courts — will
also be home to a new seasonal
oyster bar by brothers Miles
and Alexander Pincus, who
currently operate the docked
oyster and cocktail bar Pilot at
Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6.
The pier has been home to
concessions for years, including
currently the fl oating music
venue Bargemusic, which
plans to reopen on April 30, Ample
Hills Creamery, and Buzz
Bar, which up until 2018 served
booze and food at the pier in the
exact spot where the Pincus
brothers want to open shop.
The head of Brooklyn Bridge
Park Corporation, which took
over managing Fulton Ferry
Landing from EDC in 2018, said
locals’ fears of privatization
and overcrowding were unwarranted
given that the dock has
been home to concessions before.
“The only thing that’s really
new is the ferry,” said Eric
Landau. “We have a long-standing
history of understanding
exactly how crowded the pier
is with three of the four activities
already taking place there
and we can tell you it’s not that
crowded there.”
The city plans to relocate the ferry stop from Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier
1 to the Fulton Ferry Landing by mid-June. NYC EDC
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