What happened to the Coney Island NYC Ferry Project?
NEW YORK -- It took a decade to develop, and months to build, but until recently, the new, gleaming ferry landing in Coney Island Creek stood locked up and unused. Now, it's not even there.
Ann Valdez has lived in NYCHA's Gravesend Houses for most of her life. When she heard the plans to bring a ferry to the area to take commuters to Lower Manhattan in under 40 minutes, she was intrigued.
"Transportation is a major problem here," she said.
However, when the New York City Economic Development Corporation made the decision to build the landing at Coney Island Creek, Valdez and many other locals were immediately concerned.
Narrow, shallow, and historically used as a dumping site, they were worried about the environmental impacts of the necessary dreging.
"Are they thinking about my health? The health of the community?" Valdez asked.
"It has a lot of legacy toxins," explains Ida Sanoff, executive director of the Natural Resources Protective Association.
It's in Kaiser park, described by locals as the community's largest recreation space. A large sand spit juts out into the water. People fish, and often even swim here.
Instead, locals advocated for a ferry on the ocean side of the peninsula, in the amusement district. Over time, they assumed a watchdog role, documenting mismanagement at the project site. Because of their efforts, the state Department of Environmental Conservation fined NYCEDC and its contractors $70,000 for improper dredging practices and violating environmental regulations.
"All of these things were picked up not by experts, but people from the community who just saw something that didn't make sense," Sanoff said.
The dredging was completed, the landing was built, but ferry service never came. After months without news, NYCEDC announced at a meeting with Community Board 13 that the plan was suspended indefinitely. The landing was to be removed. Leaders at the agency said conditions here were too difficult.
When CBS2 asked James Wong, executive director of NYC Ferry at NYCEDC, why these concerns weren't evaluated before, he replied, "A new condition arose. We saw that the sand had shifted nearly 35 feet, which is a huge amount for us to notice. And because of that, we really had to take a step back and say, is there another option here?"
Activists, however, weren't convinced.
"They knew!" exclaimed Sanoff. "They knew there was a major problem with sand buildup."
The cost was another dilemma. Using the Freedom of Information Act, CBS2 found that the studies, dredging, and construction cost more than $12.5 million. The removal of the landing, another $930,000. Altogether, more than $13 million in tax dollars spent, money residents say could've been used more responsibly.
"What do you say to people who are upset that this money was wasted?" Kliger asked during an interview with NYCEDC's Wong.
"While we are removing the ferry landing element here, much of the work that we did to make improvements in the park, including some new paving, lighting on the pier, new railings...will be there for everyone to enjoy," he replied.
CBS2's cameras were rolling on the dark December night when a tugboat came and removed the landing, hitting that newly refurbished pier. NYCEDC says workers have since evaluated it for structural stability, and the damage will be paid by their contractor.
Despite all this, many residents are still hopeful for a ferry on their terms.
"If EDC decided that creekside is not any longer an option, they now have to work full speed to make sure that oceanside is an option and to build ferry terminal regardless of the cost," Councilmember Ari Kagan said.
Cost, however, is turning out to be a major problem for any other location. NYCEDC says the estimated price tag of up to $250 million makes it unfeasible.
"That $250 million estimate for a ferry landing on the ocean side costs more than all of the other ferry landings combined," Wong explains.
For those who opposed the creek location, the suspension of this project is a victory, a chance to go back to the drawing board in the hopes of securing a ferry where they want it. Some are even hoping to tap into federal funding to help finance an oceanside option.
"They owe us the ferry. They've spent 12 million taxpayer dollars on this lost lead here, and they haven't solved our transportation problems," said Craig Hammerman, creator of a local group called Coney Islanders for an Oceanside Ferry.
Activists say they plan to keep pushing, explaining that the money can come out of federal resiliency efforts as a way to address some of the climate challenges this community faces. For now, only one thing is certain: that no ferries will be running out of Coney Island Creek in the foreseeable future.
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