Editorial comment: The pros and cons of a Riverdale ferry

Ed Koch was the mayor when passengers boarded the first and last ferry boat to travel between Riverdale and Manhattan. The catamaran operated by New York Waterways tied up at the Riverdale Yacht Club for a one-time show-and-tell organized by Councilwoman June Eisland. The councilwoman was enthusiastic about ferries: her first-ever resolution after being sworn in, in 1979, called for the revival of ferry service between New York and New Jersey. She had clout: by the time she sponsored that experimental ride from Riverdale she was chair of the transportation committee and she had succeeded in breaking through bureaucratic encrustation to permit New York Waterways to inaugurate its cross-river service.

So as ferry service becomes an issue in the discussion of congestion pricing and in the upcoming campaign to elect a new representative to the City Council, it's worth pondering why the Hudson did not become a highway for Riverdale commuters and whether it ever will or should be.

To its supporters, a ferry stop is a nobrainer. "It's an idea whose time has come," says Ari Hoffnung, founder of the grandlynamed Riverdale Ferry Coalition, who deserves the credit for making ferry service an issue of widespread public discussion.

"I'm excited about it. The more people I speak to, the more excited I get," he said in a recent interview. "No one says, 'You're crazy; no one is going to take it.'"

What makes this a moment of opportunity, according to Mr. Hoffnung, Councilman Oliver Koppell and other proponents of a ferry stop, is the inauguration of ferry service from Yonkers. The bright yellow vessels operated by New Water Taxi have seats that the company wants to fill.

Christine Quinn, the council speaker who is planning to run for mayor, and Joel Rivera, the Bronx councilman who hopes to become the next Bronx borough president, have added their support.

But airy assertions that a ferry service from Riverdale is among "specific steps that can be taken to improve mass transit service rather quickly," as Mr. Koppell told the public hearing on congestion pricing at Hostos Community College last Halloween - a claim Ms. Quinn echoed eight days later - or that "high-speed ferry service in Riverdale would help shorten commutes for thousands of people," as Mr. Rivera declared, is so much political gas-baggery.

A Riverdale stop on the way to lower Manhattan would likely attract dozens, not thousands of drivers, and there are serious obstacles to creating one.

Tony Cassino, the chairman of Community Board 8, warned in an interview with The New York Times that "You'd have to build a significant pier and a significant structure to get to the pier."

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who helped torpedo a plan for a modest fishing pier extending from the state park at the Riverdale train station, echoed Mr. Cassino's concern about the impact of a dock on the Hudson.

They, too, have a political axe to grind. Mr. Hoffnung is using his ferry campaign to gain visibility for a renewed effort to win election to the City Council when term limits force Mr. Koppell out next year. Mr. Cassino plans to run, as well, and both are rivals of Mr. Dinowitz's political club.

Nevertheless, their concerns are valid. When asked about the impact on the river of the 30-foot pier he says would have to be built, Mr. Hoffnung said he didn't know the answer.

Others claim that only a modest structure like those that serve the vaporetto in Venice would be needed. But in an interview last week, Ms. Eisland recalled a full-day briefing in Venice from the head of that city's mass transit system. From it, she concluded that the currents in the Hudson, so much swifter and more changeable than those in the Venice canals, would require a much sturdier ferry landing.

Yet, a ferry stop could become a real asset for Riverdale, offering not only the advantages its proponents claim of getting commuters to leave their cars at home by offering them a faster, pleasanter ride, but also of making a Hudson River Greenway trail along the shore still more attractive.

A ferry stop would offer hikers and bikers a way to travel one way on land under their own steam while returning on the water. It could open a new, car-less, gateway to Wave Hill. And a pier would offer a convenient place for the Hudson River sloops Clearwater and Sojourner Truth to offer their environmental programs in Riverdale.

Clearly, though, many questions remain. How will travelers get to the dock? Parking is already hard to come by at the train stations. Can Metro-North, which sees ferries as competition, be induced to share its Rail Link service?

What of the currents, particularly at Spuyten Duyvil, where the Harlem and Hudson swirl together?

And what impact would a dock and the ferries themselves have on the river and the riverside?

These questions need answers: without thorough and thoughtful study, the ferry stop will be no more than a fairy tale.

This is part of the January 24, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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