|
|
Gritty Tribeca Piers Start Final Season
By Carl Glassman
As usual, Bob Townley was up at dawn one Sunday morning last month, picking
up trash, sweeping away puddles, and surveying the scene on the Tribeca
pier that has been his domain for the last 10 years. Walking past the Yankee
ferry, where a chicken clucked from the stern, he strolled to the end of
the pier. There he found two geese gazing out at the river. Seeing him,
the birds hissed and honked their displeasure.
|
|
 |
“Who are you talkin’ to?” Townley shot back.
So began a typical day on this sawed-off slab of Manhattan called
Pier 25, where burgers and lemonade are served at the “Sweet Love
Snack Bar,” mini-golf costs two bucks, and some of the city’s best
river views are available, free of charge, from the remnants of
an abandoned driving range.
After a decade of summers during which Townley’s organization, Manhattan
Youth, leased Pier 25 from the state, his days of running the homely
piece of waterfront—a funky backyard for many locals—are coming
to an end. Demolition of Tribeca’s two piers, 25 and 26, is expected
by next spring.
Last month, Gov. George Pataki announced the long-anticipated allocation
of $70 million for the rebuilding of the Tribeca portion of Hudson
River Park, a project expected to be completed in 2008.
|
After the two piers are rebuilt and reopened, they will be home to
bigger, slicker versions of what is there now. For Pier 25, an 18-hole
mini-golf course, beach volleyball and an artificial-turf lawn are
planned. The pier will also have a wondrous children’s playground
filled with challenging climbing equipment and lots of water play,
designed by Donna Walcavage, the creator of the playground in Rockefeller
Park. There will be a community dock and a landing for water taxis,
and in the water just off the pier will be moorings for 60 to 100
boats. The upland area will contain a skate park, a dance floor and
landscaping.
|
|
Despite the promise of a revitalized waterfront, however, there
is also talk of what will be lost.
“I think the aesthetics and the sense of freedom of an old Tribeca
pier will be gone,” said Townley, a Battery Park City resident,
who 10 years ago presented Community Board 1 with his plan for the
pier in the form of a drawing scribbled on a napkin. “And I think
that the users of Pier 25 will feel a loss of ownership.”
It is yet to be determined what Townley’s role will be on the new
Pier 25. He would like his organization to run the food concession,
volleyball courts and mini-golf. But for the first time, the operators
of the piers will be chosen, by the Hudson River Park Trust, through
a competitive process.
The waterfront future is unclear, too, for Cathy Drew and her River
Project on Pier 26.
|
|
|
When Drew, a long-time Tribeca resident,
got the idea for studying the local river habitat from the pier in
1986, it was still a parking lot where car auctions were held. Today,
the River Project has a staff of 10, a wide variety of river creatures
swimming in its tanks, and more young interns helping out than ever
before.
|
|
|
A far larger marine biology center, or estuarium, has long been envisioned
for a rebuilt Pier 26. But Drew hopes to come back. “We feel capable of
being the new operator,” she said.
Chris Martin, spokesman for the Hudson River Park Trust, said that the agency
has reached out to several organizations, including the Army Corps of Engineers,
Cornell University, and the State University of New York, as well as Drew’s
River Project, as possible operators of the estuarium. “There is no set
decision about how it will operate,” Martin said.
In the interim, Drew’s program may be homeless. She said she
would like to operate at Pier 40, but Martin sounded doubtful.
“There are no discussions at this time,” he said. |
Next door to the River
Project on Pier 26 is the Downtown Boathouse, a former produce
warehouse that is a kayakers haven.
Jim Wetteroth, also a long-time Tribecan, started the boathouse
with Drew in 1987. He built it up from a spot used by a few
kayakers to the boating home for 200 oarsman.
When Pier 26 is rebuilt, a new boathouse will be one of four
centers for human-powered crafts in Hudson River Park. In an
interview, Wetteroth seemed resigned to giving up the reigns
of the facility once the pier is rebuilt, though the Downtown
Boathouse organization may still be the operator.
“I don’t know whether I’ll be involved,” said Wetteroth, a plumber
who turns 65 this month. “It will be a park, a lot cleaner and
more professional and everything like that. But I’m not sure
I’d feel comfortable in it.”
As Wetteroth hammered away, repairing a floating dock just south
of the pier, Joanne Chin, a neighbor from across the street,
sat with her dog on Pier 25, as she often does, enjoying the
air and the quiet of the river.
“I like it like this,” said Chin, who often comes to the pier
in the company of her two parrots. “If the pier is upgraded
I hope it keeps the comfortable feel. Everything is becoming
glitzy in Tribeca.”
|
|
|
