In The 'Wood

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via: Andrea Kornbluth

The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (MWA) is working with city agencies and officials to bring an Eco Dock to to the Dyckman Marina!
An Eco Dock would permit public water access for all sorts of boats including kayaks, canoes, sculls, and larger vessels like Sloop Clearwater which would bring hands-on environmental education to our schools and community.
In order to secure funding for this project, we need to show that the community supports it.
Please show your support by emailing a letter to Becky Schneider of MWA (bschneider@waterfrontalliance.org), who will collect the letters through Monday, January 23, and present them to Borough President Stringer and Park Borough Commission William Castro next week.
A sample letter is attached. They are ideally looking for two letters from each individual or group, addressed to:

Dear Commissioner Castro,

Mr. William Castro
Manhattan Borough Park Commissioner
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Arsenal West
24 West 61st Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10023

Dear Borough President Stringer,

Mr. Scott Stringer
Manhattan Borough President
Municipal Building
1 Centre St. 19th Fl.
New York, NY 10007

You can also just paste the body of the letter into your email and send it like that if that is too complicated (or write your own letter, of course).

In any case, we only have a couple of days to pull together and make this happen, so I’d appreciate your help in getting the word out.

Thank you.

And..I can’t figure out how to attach a document here, so the sample letter follows (sorry for the extra-long post):

Date

Address
Address
Address
Address
Address

Dear <insert Borough Commissioner Castro /Borough President Scott Stringer,>

I am writing to support the application of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (MWA) seeking capital funding to create a Community Eco Dock at the new Dyckman Marina in the Inwood section of Manhattan.

We are excited by the multitude of benefits that the dock will offer to our community. Given the wide range of uses, from recreational boating to science education programs to on-water educational programming offered by historic and educational vessels, we believe that the Eco Dock will be a tremendous resource to the community.

Though opportunities for recreational boating and waterfront access are improving in Manhattan, there are few places that accommodate larger and smaller boats simultaneously. A Community Eco Dock offers access to both tall ships and human powered boats. An Eco Dock in Inwood will provide limitless waterfront access for local communities and opens up the waterfront to families, school programs, community groups, local nonprofits and summer camp programs. The popularity of the dock is assured because of long standing community support for the marina and the hope of many that waterfront access will be more available along the Hudson River Greenway.

Most excitingly for Manhattan, a Community Eco Dock at the new Dyckman Marina will for the first time allow permanent access to the Hudson River above 79th Street for historic and educational vessels such as the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Tugboat Pegasus, Fireboat John J. Harvey, and other not-for-profit ships. These vessels provide unique educational and recreational trips for schools, community groups, afterschool programs, individuals and during festivals. Currently these boats are unable to reach the vast number of northern Manhattan residents.

Both the local human-powered boating community and the tall ship community have identified Dyckman Marina as an ideal dock location in Manhattan. An Eco Dock at this site will greatly expand the water-related opportunities planned for the new Dyckman Marina. The new concession will feature a restaurant and café that will open this year, and a public marina in 2013. The developer, Manhattan River Group, is enthusiastic about incorporating a Community Eco Dock in the marina as part of their efforts to keep the waterfront open to the public. We are assured that the MWA, in partnership with the New York City Parks Department and numerous neighborhood-based MWA Alliance Partners, will lead a participatory dock design process, develop programming and ensure maintenance and responsible use at the dock.

MWA’s vision for a network of public docks that are available for little or no fee to the users will help restore this community’s lost connection to our waterways – connections that are desperately needed to grow the waterfront and foster waterway stewards that can advocate for a healthy estuary. Eco Docks will be critical resources for groups such as ours who are engaged in youth education, on-water recreation, cultural tourism, waterway stewardship and protection, local economic development, and maritime heritage.

I hope you will give the MWA’s application the utmost consideration.

Sincerely,

 

 

**Include your address so they know you are local!!!

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