Upcoming Events

Here are a couple of upcoming meetings that may be of interest -

1. Monday, April 30th:
Final meeting of the Commmunity Board 1 Waterfront Committee's Tribeca Boathouse Resign Working Group. Connie Fishman (President of the Hudson River Park Trust will be there to address the suggestions made by the group. You can review the boathouse comments here and the estuarium comments here. This should be interesting - a couple of these questions were raised at the last Advisory Council to the Hudson River Park, and Connie's response was that no, the boathouse is bigger than the restaurant - only thing is, the working group had the plans (after insisting on getting them) when they made their conclusions.

2. Thursday, May 3rd:
Also Hudson River Park related - Public Meeting on 2 proposals for Pier 40 (the big, square, pale blue pier at the Hudson River end of Houston Street, currently home to some community playing fields, parking, various offices, and 4 boating services -
New York Kayak Company (for-profit paddling shop & provider of BCU training)
The Downtown Boathouse is running an interim program there doing their patented all-volunteer free kayaking in sitatops between the piers. It seems most probable that they will be the eventual tenant of the new Tribeca Boathouse - their programs don't work for everyone, but they have been a tremendously popular summertime attraction for Tribeca residents, as was shown by the survey taken prior to the formation of the CB1 boathouse committee, and they have a history at that pier. I'm sure there will be the usual process beginning with a Request for Proposals, but I'd put my money on theirs being the only proposal.
Floating the Apple's Pier 40 Community Boathouse, a group that builds & rows Whitehall rowing dories - these always looked like fun to me, and I think this is a great way for kids who really want to start getting out on the river to learn.
In addition, there's a mooring field there for larger boats. I'm not sure who runs that but if I'm talking about current boating uses, that counts!

Both proposals mention boating, and if you dig you can find the word "kayak", but from a seemingly blank-slate point of view, none of the current organizations are named. I have heard that the Pier 40 FTA and Randy have both been at least investigating how they can continue there, but it's all very preliminary. Don't know if this specific angle will come up in more detail at the meeting, though - fact is, this is going to be of interest to a LOT more people than just paddlers - one of the proposals has been dubbed Vegas on the Hudson - you can read about it all afternoon in The Villager. There is at least one favorable letter to the editor, but mostly people are very uneasy about Cirque du Soleil as a neighbor. Should be interesting hearing what people have to say.