PortSide 2020 summary - 2nd installment
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9/5/20 intense use of portside’s pandemic popup minipark in 4 parking spaces next to our flagship mary a. whalen
PortSide NewYork is a living lab for better urban waterways. We bring WaterStories to life. Our programs serve New York City (though we get national and international responses to our virtual museum Red Hook WaterStories and social media); and we have a hyperlocal focus on our neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn. Please support by donating now.
A personal end-of-year message from our founder & ED Carolina Salguero
If you missed the 1st of 4 December 2020 newsletters click here and here is its related blogpost.
As mentioned last post, ravaging 2020 presented PortSide with questions about how to program once our pier was locked to the public, once I had Covid, when interns and volunteers become unavailable, when we lack building space, and with our funding slashed and ship insurance cost rising. Below, in installment 2, are ways we did that after our early focus on virtual programs (livestreaming the sunset, curating virtual content from around the world, and extensive community networking and planning on Zoom including recruiting medical assistance for Red Hook).
Two things inspire us to pivot
By early May, New Yorkers were inching out of their apartments and looking for outdoor space where they could be socially distant. I spotted a crying man hanging on the fence next to our ship, mothers with tots picnicking on asphalt, people lying on asphalt, people perched on Jersey barriers eating their lunch, a lot of nervousness.
We got a call from opera director Beth Greenberg, who directed our knockout 2007 TankerOpera. She asked if the Santa Fe Opera could perform on our ship a new opera about Fannie Lou Hamer, a trailblazing, Black civil rights activist, for national virtual distribution. All socially-distanced with singers in special masks. We have an African American maritime heritage program, but Fannie had no WaterStories in her history as far as Peter and I could see.
After a week of thinking it over, we decided PortSide could, during the pandemic, drop the rule that our programs need to have WaterStories. We have outdoor space on our ship deck while all opera houses and performing arts places are closed (from concert halls to bars) — it was time to share — and there is a huge empty parking lot next to our ship.
We said yes to Greenberg and Santa Fe. Their October performance was performed after lots of Covid-safety checking and permit arrangements and intense logistical work to arrange noise abatement from the Manhattan heliport, the ferries, the truck driving school and more. The resulting film is being used around the USA for free educational programs until end of September 2021. Below is a 60-second teaser.
THOUSANDS served! PortSide’s Pandemic PopUp Minipark
33,000 riders of the Governors Island Ferry came through here.
At least half got a seat or used the sprinkler.
LOTS of people came specifically for the popup park and the music events that occured here.
I called Ports America, the operators of the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on the pier parallel to ours to ask if we could use the four parking spaces parallel to the fence and our ship in their parking lot. They said yes, greenlighting PortSide’s Pandemic PopUp Minipark. With our pier locked due to Covid, our popular TankerTime was not an option, so we moved ashore.
A major motive for making the park was the local open space crisis mentioned last blogpost, over 90% of the trees and all the lawns, playgrounds and sprinklers had been removed from Red Hook NYCHA public housing for a huge resiliency project. Many nonprofits had interior spaces too small to use during covid and faced big budget cuts, so local nonprofits faced challenges serving the community, and the budget was cut for Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) leaving many youth with nowhere to go. How to create Red Hook outdoor space was the urgent subject of many Zoom calls with local leaders.
Conditions in red hook nycha development due to massive sandy resiliency project. 90% of trees cut. All playgrounds, sprinklers and lawns removed
PortSide has relevant placemaking skills after years of making pop-up exhibits and events and because we have long made plans for positioning Atlantic Basin as the maritime gateway to Red Hook. With those skills, our maritime artifacts and event supplies, donated planters from a neighbor forced out by the pandemic, IKEA’s donation of a row of outdoor umbrellas, and just $1,000, we created a minipark next to our ship that has served THOUSANDS of people and has been a magnet for musicians of diverse sorts. PortSide consistently does a lot with a little.
PortSide’s flagship mary a. whalen & pandemic popup minipark alongside. Photo (c) Jonathan atkin www.shipshooter.com
Musicians were eager, desperate, to play together and to play for a live audience. The public was desperate to hear them. Multiple people told me, their voices often choking up, “this is the first time I have heard live music since March.”
If you ever doubted the power of the arts, this pandemic shows how much they matter.
Donate now to help us keep this up.
Here are some cultural events in our popup park:
(7) Weekly/Sunday performances by band Kings Country. Here is one.
(5) multimedia music events curated by Chris Pitsiokos. Here is one.
(2) Sacred Harp shape note singing events. Here is one
(1) Brackish Brooklyn concert
(1) RC Andrés concert
(4) rehearsals of Cora Dance 10/22 thru 10/25
Halloween pumpkin carving event
PortSide kept adding amenities to the popup park… a sprinkler, chalk, kids toys and books - a steady stream are donated - a mock wheelhouse created by our clever Peter Rothenberg, a bike track and hopscotch spray-painted onto the asphalt, and string lights along the fence at night. Our ship cat Chiclet is the official park host and popular presence. 🐾 We contacted Red Hook businesses to create this list of ones that would deliver here (which supports them and the visitors). Please donate to support the effort.
Little kids love the place. Stressed parents gush with gratitude for an outdoor space where they can unwind and that makes their kids happy. It’s been a cozy and serene spot for dinners, birthday parties, late-night talks, quiet time and where little kids ride bikes. It’s worked for homeschooling too.
Gratitude has been expressed many ways, including two little kids donating their piggy bank as part of Yom Kippur observances.
Red Hook’s Vanessa McKnight said “I've been there on several occasions… just to sit back n enjoy the view at sunset n beautiful evenings.... huge shout out for giving us a safe open space outlet to ease the trials of COVID19 times.”
Our Councilman Carlos Menchaca is an enthusiastic fan of the park and frequent visitor with his dog Lola.
The park also served virtually!
Sue Sardzinski on Long Island wrote “Watching traveling on the ferry as given me so much joy as I have been home due to type 2 diabetes and other chronic illnesses to avoid COVID 19. The Joy of watching the daily comings and goings of children laughter playing and others, concerts, folk music,operas, was a blessing for me to get through another day of staying at home.”
Former New Yorker Mauritius Nagelmüller in Germany: “While Sonia and I were not able to come to New York this year, looking at the pictures and videos of the park posted made us miss New York even more. It looks like such a gem in the middle of difficult circumstances and is a beautiful example of the resilience of a community in our favorite city.”
Read fan mail about PortSide’s Pandemic PopUp MiniPark here
It is work to maintain it, restock books and toys, take down umbrellas before storms, fix them, water and deadhead and replace plants, tidy up and add holiday decorations. We recently transitioned the space into the Penguin Popup Park for the December holidays. Please donate to support the effort.
Red Hook family in wheelhouse photobooth/play center created by our peter rothenberg.
PortSide’s Pandemic PopUp Minipark served thousands of people, those who came just for the park plus the 33,000 visitors who rode the Governors Island ferries leaving from Red Hook.
Governors Island also pivoted this year, seeking to create more park equity by prioritizing communities on the frontline of the pandemic, low-income Black and brown communities which have a high level of essential workers and Covid illness and death as well as a low levels of green spaces in their neighborhoods. For this reason, they chose to have their Brooklyn ferries leave from Red Hook this year and made ferries free for NYCHA public housing residents.
We worked closely with the Governors Island team to promote the new Red Hook ferry location to our community. We helped them with local wayfinding and sourcing local vendors. PortSide provided the internet for the ferry ticketing kiosk in Red Hook with donated hardware from NY Waterway. Our minipark became the official waiting area for their ferry passengers, offering a park experience before getting to the island, one that was so popular that people returned to it after the ferry ride back or on subsequent visits.
It’s a place for happy
We often find hearts drawn in chalk on the asphalt.
A ship is like a hungry baby
We’ve got a lot of physical plant what with the mini park, a floating dock we built, kayaks, and a ship the size and age of our MARY A. WHALEN is like a hungry 613 ton baby with a lot of needs. So even with personnel pandemically-reduced, work has to get done. We also wanted the MARY looking her best for national showtime via the Santa Fe Opera, so we tackled a big project: dropping the cargo boom for repainting and repainting the boom mast. We are grateful for the people who showed up once re-opening began, but the pandemic told us what we already knew: we need a larger budget to have paid maintenance staff. Donating now will help make this happen.
Thanks, in the order they appear to Peter Rothenberg, Jonathan Van Dusen, Jenny Kane, Frank Bike shop…., Sam Ebersole, Avery Steib, Ralph Hassard, Diego Garcia, Nobby Peers, Osiris Mosley, Frank Hanavan, Arsenio Martinez, Capt/Engineer Matt Perricone, Brian Broker, Sam Ebersole, and all the others who helped during the Santa Fe Opera and at other times.
In sum, during difficult 2020, PortSide did a lot despite deep funding cuts and drop in personnel caused by the pandemic. We have great plans for 2021 and beyond and ask for your support to enable us to maintain and grow our impactful work. Thanks in advance for your support! Info on how to donate here.
we added to our duck amenities. Last year it was the ducknyc ramp. this year it was the duck chalet
illustration of santa fe opera aboard the mary a. whalen (c) michael arthuer of IG @inklines
