Q&A
Discussion on privately owned ferry pier in Greenpoint and potential public ownership
1:53:12
·
3 min
Council Member Restler raises concerns about the privately owned ferry pier in Greenpoint, discussing its frequent closures and the need for public ownership. James Wong from EDC responds to these concerns and explains the measures taken to address issues with the Greenpoint Landing.
- Restler identifies the privately owned pier as the most frequently closed in the system
- EDC acknowledges past issues but states improvements have been made
- Restler emphasizes the importance of public ownership for mass transit infrastructure
- EDC is not currently considering a change in ownership for the Greenpoint pier
Lincoln Restler
1:53:12
There are some concerns though that I did wanna highlight today.
1:53:15
And I I will just say, I thought the ferrying forward plan or whatever you called it from a couple years ago was generally quite good and responsible.
1:53:23
And a thoughtful way to improve management of the system.
1:53:26
So I just wanna broadly commend your policies there.
1:53:31
There are a few things though that I am concerned about.
1:53:34
I'll start with the private peer.
1:53:37
So how many of the peers in the in our ferry system are privately owned.
James Wong
1:53:43
I believe the industry is the only one.
Lincoln Restler
1:53:45
The only one.
1:53:46
And do you evaluate the operational do you evaluate how many days per year, each ferry is open?
James Wong
1:53:57
Yes.
1:53:57
We do track that.
Lincoln Restler
1:53:58
And which ferry site has been closed the most?
James Wong
1:54:01
I don't have the last year's numbers right in front of me.
Lincoln Restler
1:54:04
Over time.
James Wong
1:54:05
Provide that.
Lincoln Restler
1:54:05
Over time, have you looked at that and analyzed which very peer is closed most frequently?
James Wong
1:54:11
We have not done a, like, single analysis for that, but we do track when there are outages.
1:54:16
And so we do have that information.
Lincoln Restler
1:54:17
I mean, dollars to donuts, I would tell you that the one privately owned pier in our whole system is the one that's been shut down the most, where we've had multiple significant sustained outages and serious problems.
1:54:29
And I just wanna read to come back and ask is EDC looking at a way to have a publicly owned peer in our community?
James Wong
1:54:39
So as it relates to Greenpoint, and first of all, thank you for your comments earlier and hopefully not getting me in trouble with your counterparts for having as many landings.
1:54:48
But as it relates to
Lincoln Restler
1:54:49
It all represent the 33rd edition, you know.
James Wong
1:54:52
As it relates to Greenpoint Landing, so we there was a sustained outage.
1:54:57
There was a safety concern and a real issue that needed to be addressed and one of the things that we took very seriously was working closely with the owners who there had been a transition at the time and then became lend lease
Justin L. Brannan
1:55:09
Mhmm.
James Wong
1:55:10
To make sure that we were giving them close advice counseling guidance on everything that we know about building fairy landings and building them with the sort of right levels of safety and protection.
1:55:20
So what did take a long time because there are challenges that anyone would face on permitting and getting all these the materials What we saw through that work was an entity that was largely acting responsibly to create a safe and renewed fairy landing.
1:55:38
So since then, there are, I would say, kind of the regular amount of outages that do happen from time time at other landings.
1:55:46
We have not seen any sustained outages in the way that we had seen when the landing needed to be pulled out of service.
1:55:52
And based on the things we asked
Lincoln Restler
1:55:54
I hear you.
1:55:55
We had had a number of outages prior to that, but I do wanna just ask repeat my question.
1:55:59
Are you considering any potential publicly owned ferry site for the Greenpoint community?
James Wong
1:56:05
We're now currently considering a change in ownership.
Lincoln Restler
1:56:07
I just wanna underscore, I think it's critically important that this is this is a part of our mass transit infrastructure.
1:56:13
What our ferry system has become.
1:56:15
We need to ensure that the city has control of our mass transit infrastructure.
1:56:21
And this one ferry one pier being privately owned is a concern for me, concern that we'll always have the access that we need reliable service that we deserve.
1:56:30
And I do think that EDC should continue to look at alternative options for how we can have a publicly owned ferry pier in serving the Greenpoint community.
1:56:40
I broadly commended earlier in my remarks the some of the your fairy forward planner, is that what it was called?
1:56:47
Yes.
1:56:47
Yeah.
1:56:47
I got it right.
1:56:48
There you go.