Changing hearts and minds at the water’s edge

How the Waterfront Alliance, a New York NGO, created and leads a movement to re-acquaint and re-engage the New York New Jersey region with the water that surrounds it for recreation, transportation, education, restoration and jobs. The keynote presentation will cover a brief history of NY’s Harbor and its relationship with the canal system, the opportunities and challenges that led to the creation of the Waterfront Alliance, major accomplishments of the Alliance and, looking forward, key issues facing our harbor and waterfront.

Transcript

1. World Canals Conference 2016 Inverness, Scotland | September 20, 2016 Changing Hearts and Minds at the Water’s Edge: A Blue Movement for the New York-New Jersey Waterfront Roland Lewis President and CEO | Waterfront Alliance
2. An independent, non-profit organization since 2007, the Waterfront Alliance works to protect, transform, and revitalize our harbor and waterfront. Who We Are
3. 1. Background: New York Harbor and Erie Canal 2. Why the Waterfront Alliance? 3. A Blue Movement: Our Accomplishments 4. What’s Next? The Challenges Ahead Agenda
4. Today’s New York-New Jersey Harbor 837 km—New York City shoreline 1,127+ km—New York City and northern New Jersey • Jobs: Largest port on East Coast, 3rd largest in US, 26th in the world; 250,000+ harbor-based jobs • Transportation: 3rd largest ferry system in the world (32 million/year) • Recreation: 24+ neighborhood boating clubs • Restoration: 100+ fish species; 434 combined-sewer outfalls
5. New York Harbor & Erie Canal A brief history of the New York-New Jersey waterfront
6. New Amsterdam, 1651
7. Commissioner Map of New York,1807
8. • New York was a port before it was a city, but it took a canal to make it The City - America’s preeminent gateway for commerce and its center of industry and finance • Opened in 1825, the canal has 36 locks and an elevation differential of about 565 feet (172 m) Erie Canal
9. Remains economically vital: • New York’s Canal system supports $6.2 billion in other- than-tourism-related economic activity, in addition to its $380 million tourism-based economic impact. • Further, the study also determined that the Canals support 26,472 jobs, $1.6 billion in personal income, and $702 million in tax revenue, both directly and indirectly. (Source: http://www.canals.ny.gov/economic-benefit-report.pdf) Erie Canal Today
10. World Canals Conference in September 2017 in Syracuse, NY Bicentennial
11. Manhattan, 1856
12. The Hudson River, 1901
13. 
 Containerization 
 

14. Why the Waterfront Alliance? Returning to the water’s edge
15. Post-Industrial Waterfront
16. A waterfront with no access
17. A banal waterfront: “esplanadia”
18. To this From this We say why should we go …When it can be so much more
19. A Working Waterfront We want...
20. Recreation and Education We want...
21. A Living, Resilient Edge We want...
22. Waterborne Transit We want...
23. Education about Our Heritage We want...
24. A Blue Movement: Our Accomplishments Re-engaging people with their waterways
25. Constituency Building 950+ Alliance Partners in business and non-profit sector
26. + + Blue Movement Action Agenda Legislation Vision 2020: New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan
27. City of Water Day • Annual free family festival to celebrate New York Harbor • 25,000 participants in 50+ locations • Recreational and educational opportunities • Kayak Cardboard Race
28. Waterfront Conference 600+ participants: • Waterfront experts • Scientists • Civic leaders • Government officials • Business leaders • Activists • Environmental advocates
29. Ferry Transit Program A revitalized ferry system that is… • Extensive, serving residents in all five boroughs • Affordable, making ferry transit accessible to all New Yorkers • Frequent, running on a schedule that conveniently serves community needs • Reliable for mobilization during emergency events
30. Harbor Camp • Transformative experiences for urban youths through water-based field trips • More than 20,000 children served as of 2016
31. Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines (WEDG) • Menu of best practices for all types of waterfront; modeled after LEED program for green buildings • Created with input from more than 100+ different stakeholders
32. A five-block-long Artifact Walk integrates large- scale historical objects with the waterfront park. Access and connections to the waterfront will be improved, with streets and view corridors reconnecting upland areas to the water. The waterfront park includes recreational fields, native plant gardens, gathering spaces a large lawn, and a play space to the north. The relieving platform supporting the waterfront public access area will be renovated and be elevated above the floodplain. Building footprints are set back, outside of the floodplain, as a resilient strategy to reduce the risk of flooding. The waterfront park is 43% vegetated with large areas of native and resilient vegetation, and there are 169 new proposed street trees. Residential Case Study: Domino Sugar
33. What’s Next? The Challenges Ahead Policy and programmatic prescriptions
34. A Strong Harbor: Resiliency Superstorm Sandy’s devastation was not a surprise to us, but still a shock to all... Are we doing enough to protect our coastlines from sea level rise and future storms?
35. A Clean Harbor: Restoration and water quality Underfunded need for improved water quality infrastructure upgrades, monitoring processes Unfunded Comprehensive Restoration Plan for ecological uplift
36. A Welcoming Harbor: Public access and education Limited points of access for local and visiting vessel use and educational uses Inequitable Manhattan-centric infrastructure Challenging bureaucratic processes governing use of existing access facilities
37. A Connected Harbor: Moving People and Goods on the Blue Highway Expanding and integrating region-wide ferry service Trucks off the road by moving more materials via water Protecting the working waterfront and maritime support industry
38. A Managed Harbor: Governance challenges Unequal distribution of investment in maintenance of waterfront infrastructure Single governance entity needed to coordinate City, State, federal multiple, overlapping functions
39. 39 Thank you! Roland Lewis rlewis@waterfrontalliance.org waterfrontalliance.org Join our email list: info@waterfrontalliance.org Follow: @OurWaterfront facebook.com/WaterfrontAlliance