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April 8, 2022 • Schneps Media
Disparity at the dock
NYC Ferry riders became even wealthier, whiter during pandemic
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Riders of the heavily-subsidized
NYC Ferry system
became even wealthier and
whiter during the pandemic, according
to city statistics.
Annual surveys by the Economic
Development Corporation
— which oversees thewaterborne
transit system — show that in
2021 the average income of passengers
jumped to six figures at
$100,000-$149,999, compared to
$75,000–$99,999 for both 2020
and 2019.
In a system long criticized for
serving largely the well-off and
white living along the Big Apple’s
waterfront, a mere 32% of passengers
identified as non-white
or multiracial last year, declining
slightly from 34% in 2020, and
36% in 2019.
The city questionnaire also
found that more out-of-towners
are coming back to the ferries, as
tourism began recovering from a
COVID slump in 2021.
Last year 88% of ferry riders
were residents of the Five Boroughs,
compared to an all-time
high of 95% during 2020, and
86% in 2019.
EDC’s most recent report gathered
data from 4,100 people in
early October. The figures appear
to have been published in December,
according to its hyperlink
address, but have not previously
been reported.
The chairperson of the City
Council’s Transportation Committee
lamented that the ferry
system has continued to leave out
needier New Yorkers, despite footing
the bill for the service through
their tax dollars.
“The communities that are in
need, that are a part of transit deserts,
and that have lower household
incomes, those are not the
communities, unfortunately, that
have the pleasure of having a ferry
system,” Queens Councilmember
Selvena Brooks-Powers said.
“We need to make sure that it’s
not leaving out a community that
could greatly benefit from the access
and from it being subsidized,
quite honestly.”
The most popular route remains
LOCAL NEWS
the East River service, transporting
locals living in some of the
wealthiest parts of Brooklyn like
Williamsburg and Dumbo, and
which also had the largest share of
six-figure earners.
The ferry stats buck trends
found in the subways and buses,
which are run by the state’s
Metropolitan Transportation
Authority.
More straphangers stayed on
the rails and the roads in poorer
sections of the city like the
Bronx, compared to wealthier
Manhattan during the first year
of the pandemic, a report by former
Comptroller Scott Stringer
detailed last year.
Stringer at the time chalked the
discrepancy up to people at whitecollar
jobs staying remote while
frontline workers kept commuting
throughout the health crisis.
Buses — whose ridership tends
to be more lower income and from
communities of color than the
subways — have consistently carried
a higher percentage of their
pre-pandemic passenger levels
than trains.
Critics have for years slammed
the steep public cost to keep the
ferry service afloat, with EDC
subsidizing each $2.75 trip with
about $9.
The system, which is overseen
by EDC but operated by private
company Hornblower, was
a pet project of former Mayor
Bill de Blasio.
Hizzoner pitched it as a boon
for poorer New Yorkers without
good transit access, even though
officials knew it was primarily being
used by the rich from the getgo,
the New York Post revealed in
early 2020.
De Blasio supplied a $23 million
infusion of cash shortly before
he left office, and EDC voted
to start churning through city tax
dollars for the first time to fund
the service, The City reported.
Previously, the quasi-public city
nonprofit diverted proceeds from
its real estate portfolio to pay for
the ferries.
The City Council is pushing to
fund more expansions of the ferry
system in the upcoming budget.
The Council wrote in its official
response to Mayor Eric Adams’s
preliminary spending proposal
Friday that more stops should
come to the boroughs outside of
Manhattan, arguing that it will
give more New Yorkers access to
transit while “stabilizing” the current
system as ridership recovers
from the pandemic.
Ferry passenger numbers have
always been a mere fraction of the
city’s subways and buses.
The latest counts from the final
three months of 2021 registered
11,688 average weekday
riders, 82.5% of same time in
2019 and 12,984 on weekends,
which was actually 18% above
pre-COVID figures.
The subways carried an average
2.66 million a day during the last
quarter of 2021 and 1.2 million
on buses, about 57% and 63%
of pre-pandemic figures, an am-
NewYork Metro analysis of MTA
data found.
An EDC spokesperson said
that the ferry remains an affordable
transit option for
all New Yorkers.
“As ridership recovers from the
pandemic, NYC Ferry continues
to offer affordable and accessible
transit for all New Yorkers – for
the same fare as a subway ride,”
said Mary Mueller in a statement.
“We proudly serve 25 landings
across all five boroughs and will
stay focused on running a system
that is helping to power the
city’s recovery.”
PHOTO BY KEVIN DUGGAN
An NYC Ferry goes down the
East River.
EDC
A graphic of riders’ incomes by NYC Ferry route.