A couple of meetings, and PlaNYC

evening note #2: I was browsing the PlaNYC2030 site & found that they have a weekly OPINION POLL. This week's should be answered by as many people who like boats as possible!

The Question Is: What would you like New York City to do with its waterfront?

Head over here to cast your vote, and please - spread the word! Only takes a second!



evening note...oops. Sometimes linkage suffers when I do these quick lunchtime posts. As Sitemeter stats tell me that a few people have already discovered, I had the wrong link for Peter Ponders Picking Paddles, I linked to the Braca site instead I've fixed the link in the original post, too. Sorry! BTW, the link will land you in the comments, just scroll up to the top for the post itself, which is a fun read.

Just a quick lunchtime post with some information that will probably be of interest to locals.

For non-locals - oh, I had an exchange with Peter in Denmark the other day that made me laugh, and I'm going try to work in an excerpt or two from his post on his new Braca IV in that "How to Pick a Paddle" presentation Stevie (who's the one who got me into this in the first place) & I have been working on. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about that presentation, and browsing links that one or the other of us have found, and generally Taking It All Very Seriously, and then I went over to read Peter's blog one day and it just made me laugh. I loved it. It's so funny how the more you learn about paddling (heck, boating in general), the more you realize you don't know. I wouldn't have the temerity to advise more advanced paddlers on picking paddles, but I'm aiming it at beginners, and if I do my job they won't walk out of that room knowing what paddle to buy, but with a good list of questions to ask that will help them go to work on narrowing down the choices. Anyways - here you go, Peter ponders picking paddles in his own very entertaining way.

Meanwhile, back in the Bronx (and NYC in general) and Manhattan -

This was posted to NYCKayaker today - it's a little on the last-minute notice side, but it sounds interesting & I do see "Bronx" in my sitemeter every now & then so in case any Bronx people are reading - check it out (thanks SC!)!

PLANYC2030 Town Hall Conversation: Bronx
Date: Monday, March 5
Time: 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: County Court House, 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx
Transit: Subway B/D/4 to Yankee Stadium
For more information: PlaNYC2030

Let the Mayor's Office know how important the water is to you! The
Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability will be holding Town
Hall Conversations throughout February and March for you to put in
your two cents. Whether your passion is kayaking, ferry transit, or
blue herons, your input can help make NYC waters cleaner and healthier
places for decades to come.
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Now, that PlaNYC2030 is a really interesting initiative, and includes a waterways component! Yes, very exciting, finally ALL the shorelines & waters of NYC are being looked at as a valuable part of the city not just for commercial uses, or as a pretty backdrop (which was the park role to which many of us feared the Hudson would be relegated even before the Hudson River Park Trust existed) but as an underutilized, underappreciated recreational & ecological resource, not something to be carefully fenced off & made difficult to access. The stated goal is "to open 90% of our waterways to recreation by reducing pollution and preserving our natural areas". They're looking for ideas of how to do that now! If you've got any, here's the form to leave them on! Comment period closes in March, so hurry!
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And the last Tribeca Boathouse Design Task Force Meeting is on Monday, March 12th. Probably at 6, probably at 49-50 Chambers St. I'll update before the meetings. These are the ones I've been all sort of excited about, and the organizer, Julie Nadel, sounds pretty excited about it too. And determined. Yay! At this one, they'll be reviewing the recommendations they've come up with from all the input, and if everybody likes it, that will probably then get presented to the trust as a formal recommendation from Community Board One. I hope to post a copy of those recommendations here, and they'll probably do the rounds on the listserves as well.

Here's hoping the Trust listens!

And that's all I've got time for now.

Happy Friday all!