Ferry Tale Comes True:North 7th Street Pier Underway

The foot of North 7th Street today...


...the foot of North 7th Street next summer?

Long-time readers of this blog know that one of our favorite memes is our obsession with getting East River ferry service to the Northside. We've posted incessantly about it since rumors were first floated by Toll Brothers that Northside Piers would have a NY Water Taxi stop.

When that bubble was burst with the new suggestion that in fact The Edge complex would get the ferry landing, we wrote an open letter to Mike Bloomberg, MTA CEO Rick Sander, and the principals of NY Water Taxi, urging them to consider a temporary ferry stop at North 7th - with access via East River State Park. We never received a reply.

But LO! On a long-overdue walk down Kent Avenue this morning, we discovered a barge-mounted crane setting piles in the river at the foot of North 7th...and a State Parks ranger matter-of-factly confirmed that the barge was, in fact, beginning work on the ferry pier!

When asked, he said he didn't believe the pier would have public access via the park (but basically acknowledged that he wouldn't know either way). And its probably a stretch - the park would have to be open much longer hours to accomodate commuters (though it IS on the park side of the MTA fan plant). So the implication is that the ferry won't begin service to North 7th until The Edge construction is complete and the North 7th dead end is safe for pedestrians. But the great news is that - by all appearances - when the street approach is ready, the pier will be ready. And that the project is happening at all, given the current economic mess.

We'll have frequent updates on this one, we promise!