Residents from One End of the City to Another Reclaim Their Waterfronts

New Yorkers are taking back their waterfronts with great enthusiasm. Recently, design charrettes in both Inwood and the Rockaways tackled the future of neighborhood shorelines -- and each community came out in full force to participate.

In the neighborhood of Inwood, along the Harlem River, a crowd of committed stakeholders attended a charrette sponsored by the NYC Economic Development Corporation to talk about the future of Sherman Creek. "This community has been talking of revitalizing the Sherman Creek waterfront for many years," commented Alejandro Baquero-Cifuentes, EDC assistant vice president for development, who moderated the session. At left is an image from the public workshop presentation showing a 1902 boat parade in the Sherman Creek area of the Harlem River.

Below is part of Sherman Creek today.

One of those attending was Elizabeth Ritter from Community Board 12. She's lived in the neighborhood for 26 years. "In the last century there were dozens and dozens of boathouses. It was a regular thing for people to go rowing," she said. "But now there's very little access to the water. People think of the waterfront as an abstraction. People don't realize that we have the right to be able to expect to get to the water and enjoy the water." Part of the goal, she said, is "letting people know the water is there, and that it's theirs."

In 2004, several City agencies conducted an extensive planning process for the Sherman Creek area, encompassing transportation, land use, economic development and waterfront revitalization. Pocket parks at five street ends (202nd through 206th Streets) were one result; a clean-up of the shoreline just south of the Sherman Creek Inlet, conducted in tandem with the New York Restoration Project, was another.

With the planning discussion restarted, Mr. Baquero-Cifuentes is pleased at the diversity of stakeholders still enthusiastic about reclaiming the waterfront. "We had property owners show up, residents of the Dyckman Houses, representatives of CDCs [Community Development Corporations], the local Council and Assembly members; a real cross section."

Everyone spoke up. "People want to see passive and active recreation, and boating activities where feasible," Mr. Baquero-Cifuentes said. Acknowledging that busy streets and other physical impediments prevent many people from getting to the Harlem River shoreline, he talked about the importance of creating "gateways," such as a plaza and green area at the intersection of 201st Street and 10th Avenue. "If possible, people would like to have concessions along the esplanade," he reported, "like food or things for bike riders."

"We need a way to walk along the water," Ms. Ritter said. "There needs to be more of a way to draw people to the river but there also needs to be more to do at the river. The opportunities for getting in the water up here are pretty limited. We need put-ins. We need a boathouse."

A design/planning team from WXY Studio is developing options for the area based on the March 20 charrette. The EDC will present preliminary design options this summer, elicit further feedback from the public, and release the Sherman Creek Waterfront Esplanade Master Plan by the end of the year. Funding for the planning process came from the State's Environmental Protection Fund and the NYC Industrial Development Agency. At this point funds for development have not yet been obtained.

Meanwhile, across the city, Queens residents are working on the first community-based public space plan for the Rockaway and Broad Channel waterfronts. The Rockaway Waterfront Alliance is organizing a coalition. "We want to make sure this is a very inclusive process," said Jeanne Dupont, executive director of the Alliance.

Images courtesy of the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance

The City owns most of the waterfront property in question, but not all. "Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, the American Littoral Society and Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers have all worked to transfer property to the Parks Department," Ms. Dupont said, "but it's just that there's no plan for it."

A planning meeting held in late January (photo at right) will be followed by a second meeting in June, at which point participants will begin to put together a design charrette. Ms. Dupont is simultaneously looking for funding for the planning process and asking landscape architects and other professionals if they would consider donating their services to the project.

The January meeting was a great success. "Overwhelmingly the community was enthusiastic," Ms. Dupont said. "After breaking into groups they all came back to the table with the same input: there are a lot of reasons to focus on Rockaway now, including stormwater management and climate change."

"I know how vulnerable Rockaway is," she continued. "We're one of the only parts of New York City that has all this public land just sitting and waiting, which puts us in great danger if a developer looks this way. We're next in line for gentrification. This community is willing to sell its soul with all the homes foreclosed. But right now, because there's a pause from developers, it's a really good time to get people together to plan for the future.

"My hope is that we can influence the City's new Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. With 11 miles of waterfront on both sides of the Rockaways, we don't have a single public dock. There used to be thousands of boats and a lot of marine commerce -- but now we don't have any infrastructure. This planning is absolutely necessary and it's the right time."