ATTENTION EVERYONE IN THE ROCKAWAYS, BROAD CHANNEL & BREEZY POINT!! -- UPDATE ON THE FERRY & WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! --Since we had requested that residents and Business owners (via email and fb) call and email both the Mayors office and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, this is a response that was sent to a Rockaway resident and Business owner he forwarded to us. In our opinion the tone of this email does not sound very promising. We are sending this information to share with the Community. We must continue to fight and remain vigilant. At this time any and all action being taken by anyone to save our ferry is a good thing. Rockaway United To Save The Ferry.... Dear Mr. Tom, Thank you for taking the time to email me regarding the Rockaway Ferry service. I appreciate your enthusiasm for the service and understand your desire to see it continue. As you may know, NYCEDC, in partnership with the Federal Transit Administration, commenced the ferry service to mitigate the outage of the A-train in the days following Hurricane Sandy, as a temporary alternative form of transportation and to aid disaster recovery. Once the A-train service was restored, the previous Administration continued the ferry service as a supplement to the A-train service. The ferry was again extended in January to allow time to better evaluate costs and funding solutions for longer term service. Extension of this service has come at a considerable cost that is unsustainable for the City in the long term. Every day, the ferry transports approximately 400 people round-trip from the Rockaways and Brooklyn Army Terminal to Pier 11 in Manhattan at a cost of more than $30 per ride—$3.50 for the passenger, and nearly $30 for the city. Over the course of a year, this operating subsidy equates to several million dollars of added expense to the City’s budget—the same budget we use to pay teachers, firefighters, sanitation workers, and police, and provide other essential services. Given the gap between $3.50 and $30, simply raising fares is not the solution. To put these numbers in perspective, 400 people is less than one-half of one full subway train. Every subway trip costs taxpayers around 60 cents. This is not to say that we should not fund ferries because they cost more to run; however, other ferry services run at a much lower cost – the East River Ferry has a subsidy of approximately $2.22 per passenger, and the Staten Island Ferry costs the City approximately $4.86 per passenger. Most comparable to the Rockaway-BAT ferry, perhaps, is NYCT Express Bus service, which offers commuter service at a per rider subsidy of around $15. While we recognize that the ferry service provides a higher level of convenience and comfort that may not be available on these other forms of transportation, in our world of limited public resources, it is important to also consider issues of fiscal responsibility, sustainability and transportation equity; we should strive to serve as many New Yorkers as possible with our public dollars. The Mayor has included $2 million in his recent executive budget to operate the ferry service through the summer into October. While we continue to evaluate inventive ways for ferry service to continue, the key determinant will be financial responsibility and sustainability of service, given its high expense. I hope you take from this message that we are doing what we can do and being as creative as possible as we consider the long-term future of what was originally intended to be a temporary service. The City remains committed to helping communities hit hard by Hurricane Sandy such as the Rockaways recover and flourish. Again, thank you for your enthusiasm and appreciation of the Rockaway Ferry. Sincerely, Kyle Kimball ATTENTION EVERYONE IN THE ROCKAWAYS, BROAD CHANNEL & BREEZY POINT!! We need everyone to work with us to save our ferry, this only takes a few minutes. We have to start by making phone calls and writing emails to both the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the mayors office. We want the NYCEDC to recommend that the city include the operational costs of our ferry in the citys annual fiscal budget, to be signed off in June, and we are urging our mayor to make the final decision to approve of, and include, the ferry costs in the fiscal budget. Here is the script for phone calls and emails to our contact person with the NYCEDC. You dont need to read/write this verbatim but to use it as a guide as to what you might want to say. Note: Phone calls should be especially brief and to the point. You might get a real person on the other end or a menu voice mail. Either way, make your statement as clear and brief as possible. The emails can be longer. Kyle Kimball, President of NYCEDC 212-619-5000 kkimball@nycedc I am a resident of the Rockaway Peninsula, in Queens, NY. Is the NYCEDC in support of permanent ferry service in the Rockaways and Brooklyn? Is the NYCEDC making sure that the operating costs of the Rockaway/Brooklyn Army Terminal Ferry are being included in the citys annual fiscal budget, to be finalized in June 2014? We know that the deadline for companies to bid for the Rockaway/BAT contract was March 21, 2014. Who won the bid? The A train is our only other means of transportation to and from Manhattan from the Rockaways. However, there are too many problems with the subway and commuters find it cumbersome to ride on the trains. Service is often unreliable, time-consuming, and tiring. West End residents in the Rockaways do not have a direct ride to Manhattan; they have to take shuttle train to Broad Channel and switch to a Manhattan-bound train, and vice versa on the return trip. During the winter, the tracks freeze and there are often signal problems. Frozen tracks curtail service and signal problems cause many delays. In contrast, the ferry gets commuters to where they have to go in a timely and safe manner. The ferry is also handicapped accessible because there are no steps to climb to get on and off the ferry. The economic development of the Rockaways is dependent on the ferry becoming permanent. In the summer, tourists can enjoy a pleasant ferry ride and come to the Rockaways to enjoy the beach, visit our art galleries, shop in stores and eat in restaurants. The ferry is a relaxing way to come out to the Rockaways, as opposed to the subway ride, which is stressful at times. NYC Office of the Mayor Contact: Helen Ho Director of Queens Community Affairs Unit 212-788-4282 [email protected] I am a resident of the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, New York. We do not want to lose our ferry service in October! We demand that our ferry service be made permanent. Anything less is unacceptable! We respectfully request that the operating expenses of the Rockaway/Brooklyn Army Terminal Ferry be incorporated into the citys annual fiscal budget, to be finalized in June. It is high time that Staten Island residents begin to pay to ride the SI Ferry. We suggest charging them $2.50 for a round-trip on the ferry. The city could use the revenue to support the Rockaway/BAT Ferry. All five boroughs are part of NYC; we must support one another and be treated equally. Rockaway United To Save The Ferry
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 17:54:14 +0000