Earlier this month, we reported that construction had begun at the Corlears Hook ferry landing. NYC Ferry plans to debut Lower East Side service this coming summer. Today Mayor de Blasio came to East River Park to tout the expansion of NYC Ferry, one of his pet projects.
The route includes stops at Wall Street, Stuyvesant Town, East 34th Street and Long Island City. The city believes the route will serve nearly one million people annually. At a press event today, de Blasio was joined by local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera and other LES leaders. Officials have not announced an exact start date for the new service.
“Here’s a community in the Lower East Side,” said the mayor “that for a long time has not had enough ways to get around. You can see over here affordable housing for thousands and thousands of people. Vladeck Houses – we have a big public housing development over here… and we have a lot of other affordable housing, but this neighborhood has been isolated in many ways. And one of the central ideas of NYC Ferry was to open up opportunity, to connect people to jobs, to connect people to education, to give them a chance to get around their own city in ways they just don’t have right now.”
Since NYC Ferry launched last year, more than 3 million people have taken advantage of the service. For more details about the Lower East Side route, click here.
