West Side Rag
  • TOP NEWS
  • OPEN/CLOSED
  • FOOD
  • SCHOOLS
  • OUTDOORS
  • REAL ESTATE
  • ART
  • POLITICS
  • COLUMNS
  • CRIME
  • HISTORY
  • ABSURDITY
  • CONTACT
West Side Rag
No Result
View All Result

Get WSR FREE in your inbox

Search the site

No Result
View All Result

Get WSR FREE in your inbox

AVAILABLE NOW!


HERE

Boats Empty Out of 79th Street Marina Ahead of Reconstruction; But Where Did They Go?

November 4, 2021 | 2:40 PM
in NEWS, OUTDOORS
12


Empty. Photo by Marianne Hettinger.

The 79th Street marina in the Hudson River is empty, as the city gets ready to start a major reconstruction project which should expand the docks and make the area more resilient as climate change continues to reshape the environment.

The boats that have docked there, some of which stay year-round, are all gone. We asked the Parks Department where they went, and a spokesperson wrote that the residents were offered assistance to move, and given information about three dozen local marinas. They will get priority to come back when the new marina is complete, but that could be a while. Work is set to start in 2023 after environmental reviews.

The project is slated to cost $90 million, with FEMA footing about one-third of the bill. Deteriorating wooden structures at the basin will be replaced “using modern resiliency standards,” with some timber being switched out for steel and concrete. The new design will be ADA compliant, the city says. And the area will be dredged. West Side Rag got a look at an early design in 2019.

Marianne Hettinger, a local resident who has visited the boats, wrote in that she already misses the community. “It was a community that was part of the Upper West Side whose presence was always comforting to me and imagining life on those boats always looked so adventurous yet cozy to me,” she wrote.

Share this article:
guest

guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

12 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Ed Bacon
Ed Bacon
1 year ago

The Boat Basin diaspora: No place in Manhattan would accommodate the boats. They have had to move to Jersey City, New Rochelle, Port Washington, the Rockaways, Kingston, etc. Some boats were sold. Some given away. Parks has refused to give the boaters a written guarantee of return.
The Basin will belong to the birds and the rats for at least the next two years before the rebuild starts. Anyone need fertilizer for their flowers or gardens?

0
Reply
frankie
frankie
1 year ago
Reply to  Ed Bacon

Don’t forget City Island in the Bronx! City Island, once the site of a thriving ship building industry, still has three yacht clubs, numerous marinas and moorings – and of course the seafood restaurants it has become known for.

0
Reply
Eric
Eric
1 year ago
Reply to  Ed Bacon

What will become of the woman who incessantly fed the ducks and geese? She was a nuisance in the extreme. The birds, not so much… Let’s hope she doesn’t have a fondness for pigeons.

0
Reply
Marianne
Marianne
1 year ago
Reply to  Eric

Eric: the woman feeding the rats/ seagulls/ pigeons is still coming. They did not close the pier down and she is going to be a fixture even if they close the pier. Old habits die hard…

0
Reply
Cato
Cato
1 year ago

It will be interesting to see how the developers build a 30-story luxury condo in the water.

0
Reply
Maggie McComas
Maggie McComas
1 year ago
Reply to  Cato

They’ll find a way, rest assured.

0
Reply
chuck d
chuck d
1 year ago
Reply to  Cato

“Excuse me sir, you’ll have to enter your yacht from the poor pier.”

0
Reply
Barbra Music
Barbra Music
1 year ago

I’ll so miss watching the boats bobbing up and down on the water which sparkles like diamonds. The feel and sound of walking on the wood can never be replaced by concrete and steel. Just like the new futuristic sky scrapers popping up everywhere , I can’t imagine why architects aren’t able to design something sustainable, but with a nod toward humanity. Maybe they’ll put wood over the cement if we’re lucky.

0
Reply
SAM SPOONER
SAM SPOONER
1 year ago

tragic. Been enjoying seeing that community for over 50 years.

0
Reply
young_man!
young_man!
1 year ago

As someone who used to keep their boat there, the place was a nightmare, docks falling apart and downright dangerous when hit by waves from passing commercial traffic and with electrical issues that bordered on dangerous.
The office/dock staff was amazing in keeping everything functional but they couldn’t perform miracles.
Most of the boats were used as condos and never moved from their slips. Additionally the waste pump-out rarely functioned so the boaters that didn’t move their boats would just discharge their waste tanks directly into the river.
I look forward to the construction of a clean and modern marina with in-slip pump-outs like most other marinas up and down the east coast.

0
Reply
Clau
Clau
1 year ago

If the construction project won’t start till 2023, why on earth were the boats and the people living in them asked to leave now. Another way of the city disrupting the lives of people based on bureaucracy.
The upper West Siders enjoyed having them there, they were part of the community. They will be missed.
I wonder what the city really has in mind for the area.

0
Reply
Elliot Podwill
Elliot Podwill
1 year ago

Want to bet we won’t see the boats again for a good decade if at all. Clear them out two years before planned work begins? Will it actually start that year? And will it be continuous or piecemeal? There goes another UWS gem.

0
Reply

YOU MIGHT LIKE...

Check Out this Year’s Participatory Budgeting Choices; Voting March 25-April 2
NEWS

Check Out this Year’s Participatory Budgeting Choices; Voting March 25-April 2

March 24, 2023 | 1:48 PM - Updated on March 25, 2023 | 12:02 AM
PANEL VOTES TO (FINALLY) MAKE CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE A LANDMARK
HISTORY

Cathedral of St. John the Divine to Host Service of Apology for Slavery on Saturday

March 24, 2023 | 8:06 AM
Previous Post

Attacker Hit Man in Arm With Ax On 61st, Police Say

Next Post

Ban Tourist Helicopters, Elected Officials Say; 2 Bills Could Force Limits

this week's events image

Explore Your Favorite Subject

20th precinct 24th precinct american museum of natural history animals art bicycling bulletin central park closings columns community board 7 coronavirus crash crime development dogs events fdny fire food gale brewer helen rosenthal history jcc lincoln center monday bulletin morning bulletin nypd openings pedestrian safety photography photos politics public schools pupper west side real estate restaurants retail riverside park silver stars fitness snow sponsored subway upper west side uws

CITY NEWS

Brick Underground
City Limits
Eater
Gothamist
NY Daily News
NY Post
NY Times

LOCAL RESOURCES

Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group
Central Park Conservancy
CB7
Community Education Council 3
Assembly District 67
The New York Historical Society
Riverside Park
West End Preservation

UWS Blogs

Bloomingdale History Central Park Blogger
North River Notes

Next Post
Ban Tourist Helicopters, Elected Officials Say; 2 Bills Could Force Limits

Ban Tourist Helicopters, Elected Officials Say; 2 Bills Could Force Limits

Manhattan Real Estate Update: The Market Is Fair…‘For Now’

Manhattan Real Estate Update: The Market Is Fair…‘For Now’

Weekend Column: Missing the Marathon

Marathon Sunday is Coming; Get Ready to Cheer and Check Out Street Closures

  • ABOUT US
  • CONTACT US
  • NEWSLETTER
  • WSR MERCH!
  • ADVERTISE
  • EVENTS
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • TERMS OF USE
  • SITE MAP
Site design by RLDGROUP

© 2023 West Side Rag | All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • TOP NEWS
  • THIS WEEK’S EVENTS
  • OPEN/CLOSED
  • FOOD
  • SCHOOLS
  • OUTDOORS
  • REAL ESTATE
  • ART
  • POLITICS
  • COLUMNS
  • CRIME
  • HISTORY
  • ABSURDITY
  • CONTACT US
  • WSR SHOP

© 2023 West Side Rag | All rights reserved.