#PortSideNeedsaHome
Action needed!
The NYC EDC is replanning our waterfront (the Brooklyn Marine Terminal) and showing no home for PortSide!
Even though award-winning, beloved PortSide has been an part of the Red Hook community since 2005.
Even though PortSide was a winner of the EDC’s 2007 RFP for Atlantic Basin, so the EDC promised PortSide, Red Hook, and the maritime community that we would have space to create a maritime center. The EDC did not fulfill those promises. We were locked up inside the containerport for most of 10 years; we got out in May 2015 and have been trying to get the building and outdoor space ashore ever since. Lets fix this, especially as our plans became City policy (see right).
What Action?
Submit testimony to the CEQR (study of environmental impacts) of the NYC EDC’s proposed Brooklyn Marine Terminal “Vision Plan.” Template is here.
Deadline 5pm, March 31, 2026.
Email espokowski@moec.nyc.gov; HSemel@cityhall.nyc.gov; and us at chiclet@portsidenewyork.org.
PortSide’s vision became City policy:
See the EDC’s 2008 Maritime Support Services Study recommendation for Maritime Support Service Hubs. See the 2016 Department of City Planning Waterfront Revitalization Plan (WFP) page 27. Let us do this already!
We need building space immediately to restore engine parts for our ship Mary A. Whalen. We can work out the rest of the space issues over time (but soon; this real estate saga is 20 years old).
How much space is a right-sized PortSide?
20,000 sq ft. in the Pier 11 shed. More than promised in the past, but we’re asking for less pier space in 2.
on Pier 11, berth space for our 172’ long flagship, the Mary Whalen plus 150’ of pier space for visiting vessels. 70’ of that would be used for tugboat dock-n-shop and other B-to-B services for them and other workboats. That’s about half of the 600’ of pier the EDC originally promised us here. In the new BMT, we could be on the east side of Pier 12 all that more pier space, in a new building.
Space for a small wet lab structure that the Red Hook firm MADE offered to design. Phase 1, at the south end of the Pier 11. In the new BMT, on Pier 12 as above.
Permission to create a Nature Center by adding amenities for wildlife on land and water, plus interpretation of them and the history of Atlantic Basin, to make the weed patch south of our ship into an education center next to the wet lab.
Return of our pandemic PortSide Park adjacent to the wet lab. Use of the rest of the “cellphone parking lot” when cruise ships are not using it (most of the year). In the new BMT, there could be lots of space near the cruise terminal.
Permission for a subtenant boat alongside the Mary Whalen with a running engine to be used for maritime training.
The outdoor space in 1, 2, 3, and 5 was promised to us by the EDC in the past.
Slide show below shows what a right-sized PortSide would offer
PortSide is already known for:
our beloved flagship, the tanker Mary Whalen
free, daily TankerTime access to the ship and monthly summer potlucks aboard, plus cultural events TankerTunes, TankerFlicks, TankerTalks on the ship (and sometimes off the ship)
education programs with schools and individual college and graduate students
hosting visiting vessels (but we need more pier space to do this better)
our virtual museum www.RedHookWaterStories.org
our African American Maritime Heritage program
our Sandy recovery work & resiliency planning
pandemic PortSide Park (see slide show below) and sunset livestreams
PortSide is a model for community and economic development
PortSide was founded to create a new model for NYC waterfront development, centering maritime, and using our beloved Red Hook as a test case. The resulting physical PortSide being a physical embodiment of our advocacy work.
Our vision is so much about economic development that NYC’s Department of Small Business Services funded our first business plan with $50,000!