Canarsie Pier from dusk to dawn - Vandalism hampers clean-up efforts
 | ||
 | | |
| | |
| Photos by Helen Klein | |
Should Canarsie Pier be closed to vehicles from dusk to dawn?
That’s the question that has been posed by the National Park Service (NPS), which oversees the pier and is trying to cope with problems that appear to occur after night has fallen.
According to Park Ranger John Daskalakis, who conducted a pair of hearings on the matter at the Ryan Visitor Center at Floyd Bennett Field, when park personnel go to clean up the pier in the morning, they find quantities of detritus at the pier, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.
“The basic thing I get, again and again, is how it looks the next day,” Daskalakis explained. “What I get from my guys is, ‘Who’s breaking bottles in the playground?’ ‘Who’s dumping?’”
Cleaning up afterwards, Daskalakis added, “is a daunting job.”
Because of this, Daskalakis said, NPS is considering “closing the pier to most vehicles at 9 p.m. in the summer, and 6 p.m. in the winter, like Plumb Beach. In a nutshell, it would help us in doing all the things we try to do.”
This includes adding public programming at the pier and making it an appealing environment for those who use it.
 |
Parking Problems
Another issue, McCarthy said, is that commuters use the pier’s parking lot during the day, despite signs forbidding commuter parking. “If you go there at 6 a.m.,” he noted, “there are usually more cars than people, because they drop their cars off and move on. We don’t feel we have enough parking because people are doing these things.”
Residents generally appear to oppose the closure. One, who attended the Tuesday night meeting, said that closing the pier to vehicular traffic would discourage Canarsie residents from going there at night, taking away from the community a recreational opportunity that many enjoy.
Rather, he suggested, NPS should step up enforcement for littering. “Once they see that tickets are being issued, I’m pretty sure they won’t do it,” he noted.
“I think closing the pier certain hours would distract from what the pier brings to Canarsie,” the resident went on. “It’s one of the nicest parts of Brooklyn.”
In addition, a group of residents opposed to the vehicular nighttime closure attended the Friday night hearing.
“Affront to Canarsie”
Steven Kaye, vice president of the South Canarsie Civic Association (SCCA), said that closing the pier at night would be “an affront to the people of Canarsie. It is another step,” he added, “in the long series of steps that have been taken by the National Park Service to destroy recreational opportunities and history within our community.”
Historically, Kaye added, the pier offered area residents a variety of amenities, including “a mooring area and marina, with a fueling station on a barge alongside the pier. There were boat rentals, the sale of fishing tackle and bait, the sale of snack foods and boat service. Once the National Park Service took over,” Kaye went on, “these facilities disappeared.”
Not only, said Kaye, was he requesting that NPS keep the pier open 24/7, “I am demanding that the National Park Service open a suitable food concession and tackle shop, clean up and rehabilitate the parking lot, plant suitable vegetation like the trees that formerly grew at the pier and start working with the community to restore the marine recreational opportunities that were taken away over the past few years.”
Mary Ann Sallustro, the president of SCCA, recalled that Senator Charles Schumer, when he was in the House of Representatives, had promised that the pier would always remain open. “All have a right to access the water,” she contended.
Keep It Open, Secure
Rather than closing the pier to vehicles at night, she said, there should be 24-hour security, which would “enable” residents of Bayview Houses “to safely enjoy their front yard,” and would allow anglers to fish both day and night. There should also, Sallustro said, be 24-hour food service at the pier, to provide a rest stop for motorists on the Belt Parkway.
Sallustro also suggested that the pier be utilized to provide ferry service to Canarsie, something she said was in keeping with efforts to take cars off the street that is at the heart of the congestion pricing initiative being pursued by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Gerry Weiner agreed. “All over the city, in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, the waterfront is being reclaimed,” she noted. Canarsie Pier, Weiner added, is used for recreation, both by those who fish and by those who come to sit in the sun and “play cards, checkers and chess.” It is also family-friendly, Weiner said. There, she noted, “Children learn about the environment and become the fishermen of the future.”
A Different Perspective
But State Senator Carl Kruger was of the opinion that the pier should be closed to both vehicles and pedestrians at night.
Kruger, who represents the adjacent communities of Bergen Beach and Mill Basin — but not Canarsie — said during the Tuesday meeting that Canarsie Pier had become what Plumb Beach used to be.
“Drugs, prostitution, illicit activities exist in some form or fashion at Canarsie Pier,” he said.
What NPS proposes to do by closing the pier’s parking lot at night, he contended, “is not going to return the pier to family living after dark.” Rather, he said, closing the pier altogether at night is “the right way to go. It is a way of returning that residential area back to the community. If at some point we see we were able to reclaim it, that may be time to revisit the issue. Right now, the only way to stop something is to stop it dead in its tracks.”
Assemblymember Alan Maisel said that he did not see the necessity of closing the pier’s parking lot as early as 9 p.m., suggesting that problematic behavior most likely occurs much later on, in the early morning hours.
“I’m concerned about the residents of Canarsie,” he stressed. “During the summer, it’s very hot.” It would be a shame to take the resource away from those who live nearby “just because you have a few bad guys.”
With only one resident in attendance at the Tuesday meeting, Maisel also suggested holding another meeting on the proposal, in Canarsie and not at Floyd Bennett Field.
One local resident, who asked that his name not be used, said he could “understand the sanitation issue,” as presented by Daskalakis. Still, he said, “I live in Canarsie and I have never heard of criminal activities going on at the pier. I know things do happen, but the pier is a recreational center for our neighborhood.
“I go late at night to hang out and to get away from the neighborhood,” the resident went on, “and I don’t see anything wrong. I’m talking about 12 o’clock at night.”
Daskalakis also said he had not heard about the sort of criminality that Kruger spoke of. “I shouldn’t say it doesn’t happen. He may know more than I do, but I haven’t heard of things quite like that.”
Currently, NPS is doing scoping on the issue. Eventually, Daskalakis said, it is the superintendent in charge of the Jamaica Bay unit who will make the decision whether to close the parking lot at certain times. “She certainly doesn’t want to see a hasty decision or one that’s not well-thought-out,” he stressed.
Another public hearing on the issue will be held in Canarsie. It is tentatively scheduled to take place on August 6th, at 7 p.m., at the Hebrew Educational Society, 9502 Seaview Avenue.
