New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and fellow officials Monday touted a $3.3 billion maritime initiative to revive the city’s 520 miles of shoreline to help boost economic development and address environmental needs.
Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn released a nearly 200-page report — Vision 2020: New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan — that provides a framework for waterfront development for the next decade.
The aim is to update and revamp the city’s waterfront parks, beaches, wetlands, and ports to improve access to waterways, promote economic development and clean-water initiatives, and increase ferry service between the city’s five boroughs.
“New York City has more miles of waterfront than Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, and Portland combined,” Bloomberg said during a press conference in Brooklyn after taking a ferry from lower Manhattan. “So our water and shoreline is very like a sixth borough. And the goal of Vision 2020 and our waterfront action agenda is to help New Yorkers maximize these valuable assets. Not at some far-off point in the future, but right here, right now.”
The action agenda — which the city will execute during the next three years — includes $2.6 billion of environmental and wastewater treatment upgrades, with those projects funded through the Department of Environmental Protection. Water payments from residents and corporations help finance DEP’s fund.
Another $700 million of infrastructure projects are already included in the city’s capital plan. The improvements include 50 acres of new waterfront parks, expanding existing parks, creating 14 new waterfront esplanades, and a new commuter ferry service.
Quinn said developing New York City’s waterfront will help it maintain and strengthen its maritime industry, which brings in 13,000 jobs and generates $1.6 billion for the city each year.
“We don’t want to lose one penny of that $1.6 billion,” the speaker said.
During the next three years, New York will issue requests for proposals for more than 20 waterfront development projects, totaling $150 million in private investment, according to the mayor.
In addition, officials are looking to expand and improve the city’s shipping industry by renovating rail yards that connect to the city’s marine terminals and container ports. Expanding freight rail and shipping capacity in the area could help decrease the amount of trucks on the region’s highways and reduce roadway congestion.
“The movement of goods, while not a topic that particularly captures the imagination of most New Yorkers, is an issue of incredible and immediate importance,” U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said during the press conference. “Our roads cannot handle the truck traffic that exists today, let alone the projected increases in the coming years.”
