Next Year: Reach Williamsburg By Water

Photo via chschulz's flickr

The L train is so over, and soon Williamsburg locals may have another means of transport: the high seas! Or, the East River. According to the NY Post, the city has issued a request for proposals for a Williamsburg ferry landing. This could bring city and privately operated ferry service to the area sometime next Spring, with possible ports of call including one on the north side as well as one in neighboring Greenpoint. As the Brooklyn Paper noted in 2007, there is also an existing ferry station at the Schaefer Landing development, just a few blocks south of the Williamsburg Bridge.

Of the $5.5MM funding from city and federal transportation money, $2.25MM is expected to go towards making the Williamsburg ferry a reality. Other possible ferry services could be added to La Guardia Airport, Astoria, Roosevelt Island, Coney Island, as well as 125th, 20th, 75th and 90th streets along the East River in Manhattan.

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By Jen Carlson in News on August 17, 2010 12:10 PM

Comments [rss]

exnyer

Al Gore says.......soon you will all be swimming to work.

Stewart

Pshaw -- this will only last until the next spike in oil prices when this becomes uneconomic

chorosch

The reason there is a ferry station at Schaefer Landing is because they used to have ferry service from the development, and of course it was phased out because it was financially unsustainable. Even the rich people don't use the ferries enough to make it worthwhile.

Krooklyn

BOOOOO...NYC supposed to be broke. SO...either be broke or spend 5.9MM where this city may need it the most. NOT ON RICH PEOPLE!

manytimes

Just what we need, another reason for hipsters to pretend they are pirates.

ECh

The ferry service is for the yupsters moving into the new condos. Each morning ride will include a cup of Stumptown coffee.

dirty hipster

This isn't for the hipsters - it's for the rich people living in the waterfront condos. Those water taxis are really expensive

ECh

jinx

dirty hipster

haha - we just blog-gasmed

CR

Won't work. Hipsters won't ride that thing because it's not a fixed-gear.

Eric

Oh man ferry service to northern Astoria would be so hot.

longacre

Ferrys are a cash burning waste of time and tax dollars. City should just give that money to the MTA to add bus/train service.

youngpro

for the mta to make it magically disappear?

longacre

It'll mostly disappear either way, but an extra train or two would help aa whole lot more people than an empty ferry floating up and down the river.

Kojak

Friggin Hipsters. & I thought the East river couldn't get any more polluted than it already is.

On another note, this coincides with the planned completion of several $$$ Co-ops & developments by the Williamsburg waterfront. So no wonder the city is planning on dropped such a pretty penny for these ferries.

But given the popularity of the area, it does make sense.

virjin

there are more Hispanics in Williamsburg than hipsters

BDS=(Boycott.Divest.Sanction)

I've never met anyone who admitted being a hipster so you might be right. for what its worth these are the facts.

Total Pop 160338

2 White 77040

3 Hispanic 60445

4 Other 14045

5 Black 8808

http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/datasets/demographics-of-nyc-community-distri/versions/1